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November 3 Information
Slurs for Swiss people
Do there exist any offensive terms specifically referring to Swiss citizens, especially in German or French? I couldn't find anything by googling, but I don't speak German or French, so perhaps those languages have terms I wouldn't be aware of.
LANTZYTALK23:22, 3 November 2020 (UTC)reply
Actually, Harry Lime never said that. Well, he did in the movie, obviously, but it was never in the script. Orson Welles just dreamt it up on the spot as a bit of a joke, assuming it wouldn't make it to the final cut. How wrong he was. --
Jack of Oz[pleasantries]08:55, 4 November 2020 (UTC)reply
The historical slur
de:Kuhschweizer (= 'cow Swiss') had some more explicit variants describing actions for which it is hard to elicit mutual consent from bovines (Kuhgeheier = 'cow
mater'). But in current German usage, slurs for Swiss people are virtually non-existent, except for dialect terms like the aforementioned 'Schwiizerlööli'. –
Austronesier (
talk)
14:19, 4 November 2020 (UTC)reply
@
DuncanHill: The spelling "Löli" gives a number of results, including on
Wiktionary. The word roughly means "fool, stupid person". I agree with Austronesier though that there aren't really any slurs specific to Swiss people. When Germans in the border area are upset at Swiss people, they're likely to use compounds prefixed with "Sau-" ('sow, pig'), "Drecks-" ('dirt, garbage'), "Scheiß-" ('shit') and similar. That is what someone once shouted at my sister, who lives in Zurich and has a Swiss license plate, when she was at a supermarket in Germany, and a German shopper was angry at the Swiss cars taking up parking spaces. The ironic thing of course being, that my sister is herself German and was shopping at a supermarket in her own hometown...--
Terfili (
talk)
09:21, 5 November 2020 (UTC)reply
Welcome to the Wikipedia Language Reference Desk Archives
The page you are currently viewing is a
transcluded archive page. While you can leave answers for any questions shown below, please ask new questions on one of the
current reference desk pages.
November 3 Information
Slurs for Swiss people
Do there exist any offensive terms specifically referring to Swiss citizens, especially in German or French? I couldn't find anything by googling, but I don't speak German or French, so perhaps those languages have terms I wouldn't be aware of.
LANTZYTALK23:22, 3 November 2020 (UTC)reply
Actually, Harry Lime never said that. Well, he did in the movie, obviously, but it was never in the script. Orson Welles just dreamt it up on the spot as a bit of a joke, assuming it wouldn't make it to the final cut. How wrong he was. --
Jack of Oz[pleasantries]08:55, 4 November 2020 (UTC)reply
The historical slur
de:Kuhschweizer (= 'cow Swiss') had some more explicit variants describing actions for which it is hard to elicit mutual consent from bovines (Kuhgeheier = 'cow
mater'). But in current German usage, slurs for Swiss people are virtually non-existent, except for dialect terms like the aforementioned 'Schwiizerlööli'. –
Austronesier (
talk)
14:19, 4 November 2020 (UTC)reply
@
DuncanHill: The spelling "Löli" gives a number of results, including on
Wiktionary. The word roughly means "fool, stupid person". I agree with Austronesier though that there aren't really any slurs specific to Swiss people. When Germans in the border area are upset at Swiss people, they're likely to use compounds prefixed with "Sau-" ('sow, pig'), "Drecks-" ('dirt, garbage'), "Scheiß-" ('shit') and similar. That is what someone once shouted at my sister, who lives in Zurich and has a Swiss license plate, when she was at a supermarket in Germany, and a German shopper was angry at the Swiss cars taking up parking spaces. The ironic thing of course being, that my sister is herself German and was shopping at a supermarket in her own hometown...--
Terfili (
talk)
09:21, 5 November 2020 (UTC)reply