I’ve always heard that mickey is a contraction of the word “micturate”, although that strikes me as apocryphal, similar to those emails that went round about ten years ago “explaining” popular phrases - “raining cats and dogs” came from animals falling off a thatched roof when it rains, etc.
Or the fact that it’s been part of English slang for arguably hundreds of years, and has lost all of it’s racist meaning.
Personally I wouldn’t know where to draw the line on something like this - you’d need a linguist for that I guess - but at what point does a saying that may or may not have been originally racist in meaning become “innocent” when it is mainly used only as a term in a different context by the vast majority of people using it today?
My point being that no one in the UK would attribute any racist meaning to that term, and I don’t believe the originator of the term meant it like that in any way.
I use the same term quite frequently, and this is the first time I’ve ever heard of any racial connotations. Does that make me a polite racist for having used it when I knew no better? Does it make me racist now that I know that there’s a possibility it may have been a racist term in the past, but I continue to use it?
Well, now you’re just being racist against Irish people from Cork.
Or something.
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Maybe it is! And maybe one day, some place on the internets beyond Urban Dictionary will support this with citations.
So far, all fall on the side of the Cockney Rhyming Slang Origin.
But don’t us stop you from believing in a Land called Hope!
Is that a crack about people with restless-leg syndrome?
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Wait? Did you use “crack” in the pejorative sense??
Addiction is a disease, you heartless bastard!
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That’s the big problem with the self-appointed Language Police. They want us to use bland, sterilized, pureed English (or other languages), from which all the color is removed because it could somewhere sometime insult somebody’s tender feelings - with that somebody most likely not being even aware of That Possibly Remotely Offensive Meaning, if said do-gooders wouldn’t make out-of-proportions noise about it.
But then, bossing other people around has a feel-good element; either they obey, and you feel powerful, or they don’t, and then because you’re the one on the good side you can enjoy the righteous wrath. No wonder the langcop job is so popular.
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There is a theory that The Troubles happened because the Irish are always up for the crack
And I think we are back where we started.
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Anyway.
I thought the piece (no pun, mostly, intended) was brilliant. Other than the photograph, who is to say the the rock was the tallest part of the mountain? And even with the photograph, we can see it is not a significant “point”, it’s our mind that brings up an ur-mountain, a slightly-ragged traingle with the tip chipped off! - a falsity. And the point of the work - the colonization we do of the earthscape, the precession of mental simulacra.
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The stigma of illegitimacy is an outdated relic of feudalism that continues to cause needless shame and suffering. Educate yourself.
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Full disclosure here, I’m a Welshman who lives in England. I’m used to a little casual racism in the workplace. And down the pub. And at home. From friends. From strangers. From acquaintances, even from family (in fact even moreso from family…).
Do you know how many sheep jokes I’ve heard or had thrown in my direction? My manager bought me a joke sheep calendar one year…
I don’t even know what my point is in all honesty (and I don’t disagree with anything you said, shaddack).
What I think I’m trying to say is that there’s racism and then there’s perceived racism, and the defence/attack of phrases which have long lost their original meaning and cutting edge seems a bit prudish and silly.
Live and let live and all that, but have some fun in the meantime, innit.
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Who doesn’t like a bit o’ craic? Hmmm? 
That’s certainly an indictment of the intellectual bankruptcy of the US legal system, rather than an endorsement of Urban Dictionary. FWIW I browse it at times, but the signal-to-noise ratio renders it useless for real lexicography.
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“Outdated relic”? Your attitude is indicative of the mentality of a modern world that places no value on anything but the modern and new. Check your privilege.
Yeah, I guess that’s true. I was just outside Cockermouth. You?
I’ve no idea whether that’s true, but since it’s a stand in for ‘piss’ I guess it makes sense. I suspect it’s a sort of reverse-engineered explanation, though.
To be honest ‘take the piss’ is also a phrase which doesn’t make a great deal of sense, although English speakers all know what it means.
To whom was I responding? Seem legit-er now, in hindsight? Does to me.
People regularly tell me my questions are statements, and my statements questions, and that I am to be more responsible with their rights.
I think they’re taking the piss out of the wind, as one does.
But taking the Mc is definitely a bit racist. And saying something is not racist… well… I suppose douchebag is a gender neutral term to those same people? (for the record, I prefer cholostomy bag as an equal opportunity insult, because I believe that douchebag, while not my intent to be used in a gender insulting way, is heard another way, a way in which my arguing against it would likely cause me to say sexist sounding things (in the opinions of others)). I can cede enough of my ownership of all that I survey to believe that my understanding is not complete, and not argue against new information when the only thing to be gained by such an arguement is someone elses umbrage. I don’t need umbrage, particularly. Who does? I can say “it may be”, and I’m not usually compelled to say “no way” when someone says they’re offended. I figure they know better than I do, what they think.
Well, English English-speakers may understand “taking the piss,” but I fear few USians know the phrase. Created a presentation for class entitled “Was Poe Taking the Piss.” Had to spend the first few minutes explaining the title. Good times.
Isn’t ‘colostomy bag’ ableist? I mean if I had Crohn’s and read that, I might be pretty upset.
