| 词组 | Negress |
| 释义 | Negress Negress was first used near the end of the 18th century; it became controversial in this country at about the time that there was considerable clamor in the press over the acceptability and capitalization of Negro. Hyde 1926 may have been the first to warn about use of Negress, although he did so in a somewhat obscure way, by calling it a misuse. Mencken 1945 relates in some detail several controversies in the press over the use of Negress in the 1930s. Our files have clippings from a 1931 Kentucky newspaper and Time magazine in 1946 in which use of the word was protested as being offensive. Some of the early objections mention that Negress was felt to be associated with the lower animals because its formation was similar to that of lioness and tigress. One of the curiosities of the controversy about Negress is the tendency of the word to be associated with Jewess in much of the comment. At least two of the people quoted by Mencken yoke the two; so does the person who wrote to Time in 1946, and so does Simon 1980. One of Mencken's sources says that if Negro is acceptable, Negress should be, too; Simon takes the same line. Both also take about the same stance with Jewess. But examination of the problem from a supposedly logical point of view is irrelevant: the terms are offensive, at least to some people, and that is what the writer needs to remember. Complaints about Negress have greatly reduced its use in American newspapers and magazines, although it still turns up in literary writing. It seems not to have been considered offensive in British English until about the 1970s. When it is used—chiefly by white male writers—it seems to be used neutrally. It is, however, a word that you should not use without considering the fact that some people are offended by it. See also -ess; Jewess. |
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