Insulting names for a native of Romania?

If this is a fantasy world, why use a real term? Why not invent one?

It strikes me as odd to give an actual racist term for a fantasy situation, especially if it's just the equivalent of that group.

The similarities could come through in culture and so on. I think you can have a snub that is obviously racist or anti his ethnicity without using a real racist comment. I think it's the feelings, intent, and so on that are relatable more than what's actually said.

I'm not sure if this is going to make any sense, but I almost feel like if you take a fantasy world and then use a real racist term for a real group of people, it could a) take the reader out of the story by confusing the world they're in, and b) have the potential to sound as if you're intentionally insulting those people.

Think of "mudblood" in Harry Potter. It's not a phrase we use in real life, but it's obvious what it means and the sort of insult it is.

Look for the more negative versions of Gypsy, which are often derogatory terms for the Roma and see if you can fit one of those to your needs.

Is there some tradition, practice or ritual that the other culture misinterprets or is widely uniformed about? For example, on Caprica Taurons were often called "Dirt Eaters" because they had practiced geophagy. (Eating dirt to acquire certain mineral nutrients like phosphorus, potassium, magnesium, copper, zinc, manganese, and iron.)

Blood Libel is another example cultural ignorance becoming the basis for racial or cultural slurs. Christians accused of "drinking blood!" by people who thought that the communion practice was literally blood and not wine, the old claims that Jews used the blood of gentile children for rituals, etc. So if there's an issue like that in the tapestry of prejudice, you can build a slur around whatever thing these folks are usually accused of. "Damn them panda-shiving kitten peelers!"

Some I know of (Romanian co-worker):

Magar - Donkey, Ass
Muist - Whore, Slut
Pula - Dick, Prick or the like
Inutil -Worthless
Taranoi - Peasant, Oaf

And curiously, Vagabond, which is a derogatory expression for Gypsy.

Keep in mind that most of these probably have foreign characters in the term which don't translate to the English set I'm using. Also, I think I spelled them somewhat correctly, but I'm not the Romanian...

Jeff

One my mother always hated was Polack. Romanians were very proud NOT to be Polish.

Bulgarian?

caw

When I was in a setting around a Romanian native and a pretty bigoted English person, the English person often called the Romanian "gypsy" or "pikey" and joked about him stealing things. (He wasn't Roma and disliked Romani as much as the English guy, so he took special offense...)

But it could depend a lot on your setting.

Cathy C said:

One my mother always hated was Polack. Romanians were very proud NOT to be Polish.

Click to expand...

That's really funny.