Timeline for Is the acronym PIGS (or PIIGS) offensive?
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13 events
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| Jun 15, 2020 at 7:40 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
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| May 30, 2012 at 6:44 | comment | added | Albertus | @FumbleFingers Well, I don´t know. It's difficult to grasp the nuances of a word when you are not a native speaker. It would be unthinkable, despite our proverbial lack of political correctness, that a group of countries were called by the acronim CERDO in Spanish. Thanks for all your input. | |
| May 30, 2012 at 3:28 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Mitch: I suppose by that you mean your reaction to the word "pig" is straightforward (and presumably based directly on the stereotypical dirty, greedy, fat associations). For me, words like pig, cow, donkey simply aren't inherently offensive in the same way as nigger or cunt. It all depends on context, and I think it would be weird to perceive (racial?) prejudice/offensiveness when a journalist uses colourful disparaging language in respect of your nation's poorly-managed macroeconomic state. | |
| May 30, 2012 at 1:42 | comment | added | Mitch | Whatever the strength of the word, using 'pig' is not dry or understated. It is about straightforward as you can get. | |
| May 29, 2012 at 21:10 | comment | added | Michael Lorton | "SPIG", a variant on "spic" is probably not a good choice either. | |
| May 29, 2012 at 18:33 | history | edited | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
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| May 29, 2012 at 18:21 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Frustrated: Perhaps because the usage is so familiar to me, I find it hard to imagine anyone having difficulty understanding it, even if they're hearing it for the first time. I certainly think for anyone from Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, Spain to think they personally, or nationally/collectively were being insulted would be overly sensitive. The negative connotations attach to the current state of their economies / banking systems, not the people themselves. | |
| May 29, 2012 at 18:03 | comment | added | FrustratedWithFormsDesigner | @FumbleFingers: I've never heard the expression in North America. Friends from Australia and New Zealand never seem to say it either, though maybe they just avoid it when I'm around so as not to confuse me. ;) | |
| May 29, 2012 at 18:01 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Frustrated: oxforddictionaries says a pig of a xxxx is British informal used to describe something unpleasant or difficult. As a Brit, I see nothing odd about saying "I'm having a problem changing a flat tyre - I've undone three wheel nuts, but the last one is a pig". Perhaps Americans/Australians/etc. would find this odd, I don't know. | |
| May 29, 2012 at 17:47 | comment | added | FrustratedWithFormsDesigner | @FumbleFingers: How common is "That's a pig" <=> "That's difficult" ? Is it a regional phrase? | |
| May 29, 2012 at 16:07 | comment | added | FumbleFingers | @Albertus: I don't know why you're unconvinced that "pig" has a wide range of figurative uses in English. I don't know Spanish, but I think I can safely say that the word doesn't have such a broad range in French, for example. Perhaps you're unwilling to be convinced because Spanish is like French, in that all figurative usages of cochon are very closely tied to the idea of the animal as dirty, greedy, fat, messy. Whereas in English, "that's a pig" can just mean "that's very inconvenient/difficult to resolve", for example. | |
| May 29, 2012 at 15:47 | comment | added | Albertus | Your main argument, that "pig" has a wide range of figurative uses, is not convincing. We know "pig" here is used in the pejorative sense. But you do give your opinion and answer my question in saying that "it is just dry humour". | |
| May 29, 2012 at 15:09 | history | answered | FumbleFingers | CC BY-SA 3.0 |