And that man will wear that name with pride for the rest of his life.
Too right.
It’s crazy how many people in this thread either didn’t understand how endearing these pet names are or think a nickname for a family member = uneducated or some such nonsense.
My nephew called me ពូSam (pou, uncle) and I loved it. My BiL is Cambodian, I’m not. ពូ means nothing to me but when my little buddy said it it meant everything. He got a little older and one day I went to their house and he just called me “Sam” and a little bit of me broke, NGL.
Bumpa… and damn proud of it.
My grandpa’s life partner came into his life after my dad was an adult but before I was born, so she’s been in the family longer than I have. She never wanted to be called anything other than her first name, but by all measures, she is my grandma, and I love her. So I’ve had the typical grandma/grandpa names for mine, but I also have an Izzy, and that’s really special to me.
In my part of Appalachia, all grandpas in the family are “pap” which was very funny when my grandma married a man from England. He refused to let us call him that. For reasons.
Can you explain to a non-native speaker ?
I should apologize, actually. As a young, young kid, my parents didn’t explain it to me for a long time. As a teenager, they explained it was in reference to a “pap smear” which is a gynecological thing. But it’s weird, you asking made me search it up. I’m not finding anything specific to England.
I think you just accidentally changed a story I’ve been telling myself for my entire life.
Do you feel shaken in your foundations ?
Perhaps there’s still someone alive you can ask ?
I never understood this, as my grandparents were always grandma/grandpa, or granny (in my paternal granmothers case she preferred it).
Then I moved to the south, and met my husband’s family and friends. Every single one of them had weird names for at least one of their grandparents. A lot of them called grandmother “meemaw” and my father in law is papaw to my neices and nephews.
I took it as a cultural thing, but it still feels a bit strange to me.
I fucking hate meemaw/mamaw and papaw with a passion. Partly because me ex’s white-trash family uses them, but also they just sound stupid and I hate saying/hearing them
I get that your anger probably comes from the frustration of a bad relationship. I also want to encourage you not to use bigoted terms. Just refering to them as your ex’s family, or ex’s fucked up family would have gotten a similar message across.
It really undermines your point, draws focus away from what youre trying communicate, & makes you look like a biased and unreliable narrator.
I hope that ex is out of your life & you’re in a happier place now.
White trash?
Do people really not know this term anymore?
I’ve heard the term, but the only meaning for it I can think of is that they’re trash because they’re white.
It’s actually kind of a fucked up term but a lot of people don’t consider it, it’s both super racist and classist. I don’t really think less of anyone for saying it because it’s such a common term but I personally don’t like using it. The original implication is that poor white folks are “trash”, comparing them to enslaved African Americans.
I also find it to be a derogatory, distasteful, and bigoted term. I definetly think less of people I hear who use it, & hope eventually it will be dropped from the cultural conciousness like other bigoted terms.
It’s a way to police what “whiteness” should be, and is a term I’ve only ever heard from well off and judgemental people.
I’ve heard a lot of poor folk use it too, it’s basically just a derogatory term for a redneck in the Midwest where I live. I don’t think a lot of people really understand it’s implications.
The historical usage is that they’re trash despite their whiteness. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_trash
It means poor
Poor and low impulse control.
People can be poor without being trashy
I also think it’s not limited to poor people. I’ve absolutely heard well-off people referred to as “white trash” based on their behaviors.
“This is my pee pee and my poo poo! The guy’s 95 years old, he fought in WWII, stormed the beach at Normandy, now his name is Peepee?? What are you doing to the man?”
