Who decided that we now call Orientals, Asians?

it's not incorrect useage of the word one bit. You heard that somewhere?

o

of the Orient or their peoples or cultures; eastern."

I grew up using the word Oriental and in a respectful sense, too. I have a friend ofRussian decent and he detests what he calls the "arrogance" of any one group insisting on being called Asian. He's got grounds to argue the fact as I see it.

The Random House College Dictionary Rev. 1975

5.(usually cap.) a native or inhabitant of the Orient, esp. one belonging to a native race.

The word Oriental didn't always refer to an object.

and it must seem arrogant to some Mexicans and some Canadians for the US citizens to be called Americans, too. Perhaps to keep up with the PC crowd and to not offend others I should ask that I be refered to a US North American (or just plain Yank!)

"Yank" (Yankee) has been used in a derogatory fashion. The words exact origin is argued but is generally meant to refer to certain undesirables by the British...including pirates. So, in one life, being called a Yank would be reason to fight. Today...and to some...it's something to be proud of. Go figure.

the way words are spoken and the users intent. Call me a smart *** and I might laugh, or I call you another one.

Elephants for the Republican party; donkeys for the Democratic party; Blue-nosed Yankee Trader; the list goes on and on.

Diana

in a bad way or the way that you refer to Steve. In my experience yank is simply slang,like we might refer to a Londoner as a cockney or someone from Newcastle as a scouse. I agree that its not the best way to address someone from America but i don't think its meant as a slur.
Bev

Someone from Newcastle is referred to as a geordy (not sure of the spelling,its not a word i use) Its a liverpudlian who is referred to as a scouse..
Bev

I am thinking that might be a reference to King George...maybe George III?? and would possibly mean something of a loyalist at a specific historical turning point. As for Yank, my guess is the word has lost it's meaning. There will probably be a friendly "tug of war" between the Americans and English for a long time....just as there is in the US between north and south. Yankee stuck after the civil war here as the name for northerners. Southerners are "Rebels", or just "Rebs", or maybe "Johnny Rebs". Mostly the terms are not used in a malevolent way but for fun, sport or general needling....least I hope so.

Iv never really thought about it,but im going to now because its quite interesting! Friendly tug of war? I wasn't aware of that either,apart from some English not agreeing with Bush & the Iraq war. Apart from that i always thought we were great allies? Apart from when our ancestors first settled in America & didn't want to be governed by England. Boy some people know how to hold a grudge! lol

can claim to have mostly British blood. My own is Czech tainted.

Over here there was a documentary??? (sorry i have terrible problems with my memory) Anyway through DNA etc it basically managed to profile percentages of Asian,German,African decent. One woman on this documentary was the leader of something like 'The Society Of Pure British Decent' She willingly participated in the tests,positive that she was pure English going back to at least the battle of 1066. Others in the program were quite famous like Norman Tebbit who was as close to a thoroughbred as you could get! Anyway when the results came back she was something like 9% British,15% Chinese,18% Middle Eastern & 58% Romany Gypsy! In the end she tried to get the program banned from showing her in it but she didn't manage it! Now thats what you call egg on your face!
Ps sorry about being so vague with the figures etc..

to the Normans or some such..if my HS history recollection is still in place. That seems an English landmark year similar to 1776 to the US.

Anyway, her exercise would have been futile as folks from the British Isles came from somewhere else at some time... mostly endo-European or across the more northern routes. It would think that, if we could snapshot the DNA of the general population at different intervals of time, we could watch the blending that's taken place. My own lineage is supposed to include persons from many parts of Britain...many of whom were celts. My Czech side is Bohemian which is named for the "Boi" which is a celtic tribe. I have no use to know this other than to find some distant relationship to the Irish celts that makes it legitimate for me to celebrate St. Patty's Day. Besides that, wanting to be called a "thoroughbred" is for horses.

Saxons, even more primitive and ugly than the Tudors. And, after more centuries of evolution, the English developed the Fordor.

Fits in with the language discussion, though, in an odd way. When the Norman [French] took over they intended some sort of cultural genocide, much of which worked. I'm told that's why "excrement" is polite, while [whilst?] "s***" is rude. The first is French to the core, while the everyday Anglo-Saxon word for poop (the intellectual's word ) was the other. So also with the other four-letters.

looked it up first...or given you a call. For some reason I remember the year 1066 and the Norman Conquest but forget who was on the wrong end of the sword. Of course Henry VIII was a Tudor. He made his own mark on England as well as on a neck or two. I'm not sure what you have against the Germanics (is that a slur). They gave us plenty of interesting words such as farfegnugen and gezuntheit. Stuff you say every day.

Daughters of the American Revolution.

To us Yanks, 250 years is a long time.

S, they're like Scots.

my Crayola crayon box had a color called "flesh". If they decided to use that color name today, they'd have to make a fair sized box to cover the full palette. That's not just to be PC but to get in harmony with reality.

must be older than I realize.

that's a good one!

I remember that color, too.