Talk:Merkin

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Contents 1 Coments 2 Some evidence 3 Picture please 4 stage appareances? 5 Chronology 6 European understatement 7 2007-03-18 Automated pywikipediabot message

[edit] Coments

There was recently a reference to "merkin" on ESPN College Football Gameday (9/16/06) from the USC campus. A sign in the crowd referenced "finding Corby's merkin". Is this a reference to Lee Corso?

I thought 'merkin' simply means pubic wig it's a very commoun first name in the north atlatic sea area.

In what country(-ies) is 'merkin' slang for American?

Non-American ones. It's fairly offensive if you're American. I don't know if peopple don't realize it's offensive or just assume that Americans won't know what is meant. --[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 23:19, 15 Sep 2004 (UTC)

On the other hand, Americans usually prounounce the word "European" as "asshole", so who cares?

I have added the reference to the relevant Wikipedia article. However, I don't assume that this is the same term. Most of the occasions I hear it, it involves a parody of the American (cowboy?) accent. It is often pronounced more like murrk'n, and that is quite different from how merkin would be pronounced locally. In the same way that President Bush accent is parodied as if he is demanding a 'War on tourism'. It is merely an exaggeration of how the American accent deals with vowels, particularly dropping those that follow the letter 'r'. There are, of course, some people that do connect it with the word for pubic wig. But I would not assume that all do. Bobblewik  (talk) 15:47, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

You'll have a hard time convincing me that it is meant "all in good fun" with no derogatory connotations, whether the connection is made or not. The great majority of Americans do not pronounce the word in any way remotely resembling "Merkin" (and, in fact, would be offended if you suggested that they did, as it sounds at least vaguely uneducated to many American ears). --[[User:Aranel|Aranel ("Sarah")]] 15:57, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I was not attempting to convince you that it is all in good fun. As I said in the second last sentence, it is derogatory when connected with a pubic wig. That is the intent of some people. However, I was merely suggesting that it may be a secondary connection. It is now being documented as a primary connection, particularly because this is a written medium where the spelling of the slang term for American has been made equal to the spelling of the word for pubic wig. Slang terms exist more in spoken form, so it is not always easy to analyse.

Rightly or wrongly, people stereotype accents incorrectly. The stereotypes do not always sound reasonable to those being stereotyped. For example, some Scottish people are offended or amused by the stereotype Scottish accent attempted by 'Scotty' in Star Trek. When British people stereotype the American accent saying the word 'American', they will drop the letters 'a', 'i' and 'a'. This produces 'mercn'. The British accent version of 'American has the 'e' sounding something like 'pet', but this will be transformed into something that sounds like the 'u' in purple. So you have 'murcn'. It may be unreasonable of the British to do this, but that is what they do.

It is then a simple matter for this to be transformed by some people into the deliberately derogatory 'merkin' (which sounds slightly different in a British accent). I am, however, merely speculating. It could be that it has arisen by some other mechanism of which I am unaware. Bobblewik  (talk) 16:49, 16 Sep 2004 (UTC)

I think it should be pointed out that Brits pronounce "merkin" refering to Americans, and "merkin" meaning pubic wig in ENTIRELY different ways... I think the popular spelling of the former is an unfortunate coincidence... Indeed, I've seen it as "muhrkehn", "murrkin" and others. The joke isn't in relating Yanks to genital syrups (rhyming slang, chaps), but instead probably has roots in the laidback drawl popularised by Westerns.

As stated below, the OED says "alteration of American, (prob. after U.S. pronunciation), perh. punningly after MERKIN n.". So they suggest there is perhaps a punning connection to the other meaning, rather than just a coincidence. Bluewave 19:57, 21 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Some evidence

Using Google, I've found a few references to "Merkin" as a slang term for an American:

"Then "merkin" was coined afresh to mean "an American", because it sounds a bit like the half-swallowed pronunciation of "American" by some Americans, particularly President Lyndon Johnson; and the fact that it had a "naughty" meaning didn't hurt. Punning use of the word dates back to at least the early 1960s."[1]

References in popular culture include the name of the American President in Dr. Strangelove.

Some more links:

• Random House Word of the Day
• World Wide Words (a British perspective)
• Google Groups (if you actually read some of the discussions it becomes clear that many know and use the term in both meanings)
• The Straight Dope - an article the clearly references the "joke".

The term seems to have experienced the most popularity on Usenet, which would explain why some modern Internet users have never heard of it. Can I put it back in the article now? -Aranel ("Sarah") 22:01, 11 August 2005 (UTC)

The OED entry on "Merkin" states that it is U.S. Slang for an American or American English. As etymology, it gives "alteration of American, (prob. after U.S. pronunciation), perh. punningly after MERKIN n.". It then lists several uses of the word from 1990 to 1999, including usenet articles and a number of U.S. newspaper articles. I can send the whole article to anyone who provides me with their email address. AxelBoldt 19:51, 29 January 2006 (UTC)

Yeah. That's why I added a copy of the key points from the OED on 28 Jan! Bluewave 08:46, 31 January 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Picture please

I've never seen one. Can anyone supply a photo? 202.142.214.49 20:22, 30 November 2005 (UTC)

How do they fasten merkins? Do they use some kind of glue that is kind to the skin or what?

2007-01-02 Lena Synnerholm, Märsta, Sweden.

[edit] stage appareances?

I've removed this line "others have claimed that merkins were worn for nude stage appearances." If someone wants to readd this, please cite it. --mako ^{(talk•contribs)} 16:59, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

"Claimed"? It's still practiced to this day. Just saw the Le Femme show at the MGM Grand in Vegas tonight and all of the dancers were wearing merkins. Very strange considering some of the costumes didn't cover the merkins. Sort of odd in an era of extreme waxing.

[edit] Chronology

Two quotes from the article:

"The first use of the word by an established author was in Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita (1955)." "In William Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale, Merkins are often mentioned."

I'm reasonably sure that Shakespeare pre-deates the 1950's. Can anyone confirm the Winters Tale reference, and then modify as appropriate?

I've removed both of these dodgy facts. Nabokov certainly wasn't the first and I could not find a merkin in the winter's tale. The only reference to merkin in shakespeare is "my Mistress wears his own hair" Hen V act 3 Sc 7 which according to Eric Partridge is supposed to mean merkin. meltBanana 22:21, 24 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] European understatement

Perhaps this would more appropriately be British (at least stereotypically) understatement, to exclude, say, the Italians, who are not noted for such.

[edit] 2007-03-18 Automated pywikipediabot message

This page has been transwikied to Wiktionary.

The article has content that is useful at Wiktionary. Therefore the article can be found at either here or here (logs 1 logs 2.) Removing this tag will usually trigger CopyToWiktionaryBot to re-transwiki the entry.

--CopyToWiktionaryBot 06:06, 18 March 2007 (UTC)