US-1 Intro to American English Supplementary File
Selected National/Ethnic Stereotype Expressions


Chinese ace -- inept pilot
Chinese flying (to fly Chinese) -- unstable; one wing high, one low ...
Chinese Firedrill -- utter confusion
Chinese home run (baseball) -- lucky, just long enough, in small park
Chinese landing -- clumsy or disastrous, cf mythical pilot Won Wing Low
Chinese rot -- venereal disease, sometimes diarrhea
Chinese show -- diversionary attack or demonstration
Chinese tobacco -- opium

Dutch -- may be used in U.S. regional dialects to indicate German language,
         (cf 'Pennsylvania Dutch', etc.) sometimes Scandinavian
Dutch (to go) -- each pays his/her own way (cf Dutch treat)
Dutch act (to do a ...) -- desert, suicide
Dutch a book -- cheat oneself by botching bookmaking certainty
Dutch anchor -- something important that was left behind
Dutch auction -- auctioneer starts with high figure, lowers until purchase
Dutch bargain -- concluded while drinking, a bargain all on one side
Dutch blessing -- a scolding
Dutch book -- see "to dutch a book"
Dutch cap -- contraceptive diaphragm, pessary
Dutch cheese -- cottage cheese
Dutch clock:  a bedpan; a wife
Dutch comfort -- cold comfort; thank god it was not worse!
Dutch concert -- deafening noise; or each plays a different tune
Dutch courage -- gained from drink
Dutch curse -- a weed
Dutch defense -- surrender
Dutch (Double-Dutch) -- incomprehensible language
Dutch feast -- the host gets drunk before his guests
Dutch fuck -- lighting someone else's cigarette with your own
Dutch gold -- allow of copper and zinc, cheap imitation of gold leaf
Dutch-head -- a German, esp. reference to German soldiers in WWI & II
Dutch leave -- same as French Leave, to be AWOL
Dutch luck -- undeserved good fortune
Dutchman -- a German, contemptuous usage, Midwestern U.S.
Dutch medicine -- patent medicines
Dutch milk -- beer
Dutch nightingale -- a frog
Dutch oven -- cast-iron container used for 'baking' in campfires
Dutch praise -- seeming praise that condemns
Dutch reckoning -- a lump account, usually higher than if itemized
Dutch ride -- dragged on (or by) a rope
Dutch route -- to commit suicide
Dutch rub -- mild teenage 'torture', knuckle-rub to back of one's head
Dutch treat -- each pays his/her own way (cf 'to go Dutch')
Dutch uncle (to talk like a...) -- to scold someone, but sincerely...
Dutch up (to get one's Dutch up) -- to make angry, become angry
Dutch widow:  a prostitute
Dutch wife -- a pillow (for man who didn't take native woman in tropics)
Dutchman's breeches -- patch of blue sky visible through clouds
Dutchman's hurricane -- calm at sea

French -- blunt or offensive language ('pardon my French')
French bath -- erotic licking of sexual partner's body
French blue -- mixture of barbiturate & amphetamine, usually in capsules
French cap -- condom
French deck -- deck of cards, each card having an erotic picture
French film -- sexual film, esp. pornographic
French fuck -- penis between female breasts, manual clitoral stimulation
French furlough -- to be AWOL (cf French liberty)
French handshake -- tickling palm with middle finger while handshaking
French harp -- harmonica
French inhale -- taking puff, exhaling and then inhaling same smoke again
French kiss -- open-mouthed kiss with tongue in other's mouth
French landing -- landing on two main wheels with tail held in air
French leave -- to be AWOL, see French furlough
French letter -- condom
French liberty -- to be AWOL (cf Dutch leave)
French novel -- pornographic, sexually indecent
French pass -- see French furlough
French polish -- elbow grease
French postcard -- erotic photo on reverse
French safe -- condom (French tickler ...)
French sickness -- venereal disease
French-speak (to speak French) -- oral copulation, fellatio, cunnilingus
French tickler -- condom, esp. one modified for extra stimulation
French 75 -- 75-mm WWI cannon; drink of champagne, cognac & lemon juice

German cockroach
German goiter -- fat belly from excessive beer-drinking
German measles

Gypsy (to gyp)
Indian giver

Irish apricot (apple, lemon):  a potato
Irishman's dinner:  a fast
Irish evidence:  false witness
Irish kiss:  a slap in the face
Irish promotion:  a pay-cut
Irish tan:  sunburn
Irish turkey: corned beef
Irish twins: two siblings who are not twins but are born less than a
      year apart
Irish wedding:  the emptying of a cesspool

Italian hand (a fine ...)
Italian malady -- venereal disease

Jew down (to ..)
Jewish lightning (insurance fire)
Jewish turkey: salami

Mexican standoff
Mongolian idiot
Montezuma's revenge (Mexico)
Nigger sweat
Polish shower
Spanish fly
Yankee ingenuity
Yankee know-how


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Last Updated 10 May 2010