Western Oriental Gentlemen

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4T5

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Western Oriental Gentlemen is where *** came from :eek:

Just heard this on Radio 2,
That's mad as **** as that quite clearly means that it was a compliment to be called a ***.
You are not a working class black person but a well to do Western Oriental Gentlemen a *** :cool:

Just goes to show you that things have got completly ****** in this World.

Any other interesting facts or acronyms out there you can enlighten me to :)
 
Don't believe that for a second.

It's from 'golliwog'.

Whenever someone tells you a word has acronymic origin, it's generally cobblers.
 
I just found this,

From the Telegraph
In the great golliwog furore, it has only just occurred to me that some people might suppose that the element -*** in golliwog represents the word ***, a vulgar name for a foreigner.


The 'golliwog' is no linguistic relation of the word '***'

It certainly does not. *** is a word first recorded much later than golliwog, and its primary reference was to Arabs, not to black Americans or black Africans.

It was first spotted by a lexicographer, F.C. Bowen, who recorded it in 1929 in his Sea slang: a dictionary of the old-timers' expressions and epithets, where he defines **** as "lower class Babu shipping clerks on the Indian coast".

Freya Stark, writing from Baghdad in the 1930s wrote: "When I return, Nasir fixed me with real malignity in his little placid eyes. 'I knew she wanted me to go,' he said. 'I could see what she was thinking. They call us ****.' "

I think that, among the racially prejudiced, *** has more recently been more widely used of people from India or of African origin. In a weaker sense it has developed into a word for any foreigner - as in: "**** begin at Calais."

In any case, the origin of the word *** is unknown. It does not come from golliwog. Many claim it is an acronym - from Western Oriental Gentleman or some such phrase. There is no evidence that this is true. Most words do not come from a series of initials, and even fewer did before the curent generation.
written by
Christopher Howse




Seems we may both be wrong :(
 
Hasn't the numpty who said it been fired now?? Forgotten her name... but she was obviously too dumb to do a "Woss" and apologise.
 
"...and the funny thing was that throughout the cricket match she kept referring to the Indians as *******. 'No no no!', I said. The West Indians are *******. These people are ****."
 
Lysander said:
"...and the funny thing was that throughout the cricket match she kept referring to the Indians as *******. 'No no no!', I said. The West Indians are *******. These people are ****."
Click to expand...

Good old Fawlty Towers. Couldn't get away with that in this day and age. Sad really.
 
Malc is correct about where the term *** hails from. It is however still very insulting in its implication of feeling the need to "Westernise" someone. A classic trait of our empire days when we felt the need to make people less primative in far reaching parts of the world. Our ultra pc society is the price we pay for that guilt trip. Granted we did some pretty awesome things for many of the countries we occupied but unfortunately we also did some pretty horrific things too.

*EDIT* Read Malc's second post and I am not knowledgable enough to counter but I had always been lead to believe it was the above.
 
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'***' is the word used by members of the Church of Scientology for non-scientologists (1), usually in a demeaning sense (2). Other groups have words that serve the same purpose, for example Ancient Greeks called non-Greeks 'barbarians' because of their uncouth speech (ba-ba-ba); Jews refer to non-Jews as 'goyim' which became the New Testament 'Gentiles'. Usually however these words have no reason to stray beyond the group: I doubt any dictionary will reveal that Science Fiction fen refer to non SF fans as 'mundanes'.

Where does '***' come from?
Click to expand...

From the *** FAQ:

http://www.newsfrombree.co.uk/wog_faq.htm
 
Lysander said:
"...and the funny thing was that throughout the cricket match she kept referring to the Indians as *******. 'No no no!', I said. The West Indians are *******. These people are ****."
Click to expand...


I like that bit a Lot :p

simulatorman said:
From the *** FAQ:

[/url]
Click to expand...

There is a *** FAQ :eek: + :p
I bet nobody has read it though, Everybody knows nobody reads the FAQS :p
 
matt_fsr said:
Hasn't the numpty who said it been fired now?? Forgotten her name... but she was obviously too dumb to do a "Woss" and apologise.
Click to expand...
she didn't directly apologise but she did try and explain her way out of it, it was only said backstage though, not on air. in reality i think it's being used as an excuse to give her the boot, good excuse though it may be
 
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