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kraut
DCHP-2 (Oct 2016)
Spelling variants:Kraut
n. — Ethnicities, derogatory, extremely offensive, dated
a person of German descent.
Type: 6. Memorial — Kraut is a derogatory term for German people. The term is an abbreviation of "sauerkraut", a fermented cabbage dish popular in southern Germany and Austria. It was initially common practice to use kraut in compounds such as "kraut-eater" (see the 1915 quotation), which then likely gave way to the shortened form. OED-3 (s.v. "Kraut" (2)) notes that the term was originally used during WWI, and carried over to WWII and beyond. The term highlights the joint Canadian-British heritage and, more specifically, the joint military history, as reflected in Chart 1, where Canada leads, followed by the UK (see the 1915 quotation in the context of WW I). In the US, kraut in this meaning is not nearly as common (less frequent in the US by a factor of more than 10).
The term is included for reasons of historical accuracy and completeness. It is not intended, as clearly indicated in the usage labels "derogatory" and "extremely offensive", as a term for current use or a term, meaning or usage that is in any way condoned.
Quotations
1915
["Oh nothing much," replied one of the curious, "excepting that a couple of Irishmen were well trounced by a German." "Is that so, you kraut eater?" yelled the big bather as he jumped to his feet. "I'll see about that."]
1936
A permeating odor of sauerkraut in the making throughout Germany moved a Berlin scribe to disavow its German origin and to bemoan the sobriquets of "Krauts" and "Sauerkraut Fressers" which the world attached to Germans because of this manly winter fodder.
1943
"We probably ought to shoot him, just for luck," Pte. Forrester said. "He's probably a Kraut and he probably has a tommy-gun on him."
1950
That was just the beginning of the picture. Now it's afterward, after the war. And Ladd is going back to find out who tipped off the Krauts. He thinks the Krauts also killed his dame, Wanda Hendrix.
1966
They are simply the foam on a restless tide, the outer sign of inner uncertainty, the sour Krauts of West Germany's cabbage politics.
1978
The word ethnic is of purely Canadian coinage, if I am not mistaken. It did not appear until after the last war when the mosaic-fiction was invented. The word derives from the Greek, and means the heathen-world in New Testament usage. Before that covering term was adopted, the present-day ethnics were labelled according to their national origin as wops, krauts, bohunks or with similar endearing terms.
1986
Her next book will be an anti-war novel about a German girl going back to her country after the war and discovering that the heinous Krauts were just people, no different from the rest of us. It has become fashionable to lay at least some of the blame for Holocaust victims at the feet of the German people.
1992
Keys got to his feet when a mortar bomb landed and blew them both over. The naval officer was hit in the stomach and Keys was shot through the arm by a rifle bullet. "The next thing I knew the Krauts jumped over the wall and everyone was standing up with their hands in the air."
2002
Unfortunately, racism is part of the fabric of Canadian society and historically it has been used to make people out to be less than human. During the Second World War, the "Japs" and "Huns" or "Krauts" were demonized. Later, it was the "Commies" and the "Gooks" in Vietnam.
2014
Relying on clothing donations from Germany, their two sons sometimes wore lederhosen (leather pants) and two daughters wore dirndls (traditional dresses). The family drove a Volkswagen. "I soon found out my sons got laughed at. And we were called Krauts." Struggling to learn English and "not having a clue" about Canada, Ortrun somehow made her way to Vancouver's Bach Choir.
References
- OED-3
Images
