shvartze
/ˈʃvɑɹtsə/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 0.00 in modern English
23
Scrabble Score
8
Letters
1
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
adj
Of sub-Saharan African descent; of or pertaining to people of sub-Saharan African descent; black.
American usage; Offensive
Example Sentences
- "[…] she irons better even than the schvartze,"
- "1975, Robert Greenfield, The Spiritual Supermarket, New York: Saturday Review Press / E. P. Dutton & Co., p. 6, From the rabbi to the “shvartze,” the black man who turned on the synagogue’s lights on Saturdays, he was liked."
- "1988, Leon Uris, Mitla Pass, New York: Doubleday, Part 3, “Baltimore 1902-1913,” p. 270, […] they were able to afford a full-time shvartze to keep the house."
- "Jesse Jackson cracks a joke about Hymietown and everybody has a fit, but I’ve heard you call them shvartzes, and I’ll bet had your daughter married one you wouldn’t have cracked open a bottle of champagne."
- "‘We don’t have enough problems among the Jews, he has to go take on the problems of the shvartze?’"
- "There was a shvartze wedding next door and something else too . . . some anniversary party."
Etymology
Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצע (shvartse), feminine and plural form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”). The generalization of the form was likely reinforced by the frequent use referring to black female domestic workers, although forms in -e/-a and -er would have merged in any case in a non-rhotic accent such as New York English. The context of domestic workers may also be that in which the word received a derogatory connotation, which of course it did not originally have (cf. German Schwarzer, the politically correct term for “black person”). Doublet of swart.
Usage
Inflected Forms
shvartzes (plural)
shvartza (alternative)
shvartsa (alternative)
shvartse (alternative)
schvartza (alternative)
schvartze (alternative)
schwartza (alternative)
schwartze (alternative)
shvartzer (alternative)