from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun Used as a disparaging term for a person of Mexican birth or descent, especially one who has crossed the US-Mexico border illegally.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
noun A Mexican who enters the United States illegally, by wading across the Rio Grande; -- disparaging and offensive.
noun An offensive term for a person of Mexican descent, usually intended and considered as an ethnic slur.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun derogatory slang A Mexican or Central American who illegally enters the United States of America from its southern border.
noun derogatory slang A person of the Mestizo race, used interchangeably with the Spanish term mojado.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun (ethnic slur) offensive term for a person of Mexican descent
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[From the fact that the Rio Grande is a common entry point.]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
First used in 1920s from the presumed effects of swimming or wading across the Rio Grande. Used by the U.S. Government in 1954 with Operation Wetback.
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Examples
If it is legitimate and that is indeed Gibson's voice screaming at ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva, this recording includes Gibson's use of the derogatory term wetback to describe an employee who cares for the couple's daughter.
But when a classmate had the hijab ripped from her head by a screaming stranger, or yet another Latino friend shares a story of being called a wetback, I'm reminded that we've only come so far.
But when a classmate had the hijab ripped from her head by a screaming stranger, or yet another Latino friend shares a story of being called a wetback, I'm reminded that we've only come so far.
Even the terminology is dangerous: the old word wetback is now considered a racist insult by all good liberals; and the perfectly correct terms illegal alien and illegal immigrant can set off charges of xenophobia, elitism, fascism, and the ever-popular genocide against anyone careless enough to use them.
Even the terminology is dangerous: the old word wetback is now considered a racist insult by all good liberals; and the perfectly correct terms illegal alien and illegal immigrant can set off charges of xenophobia, elitism, fascism, and the ever-popular genocide against anyone careless enough to use them.
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