Spik

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. A highly offensive ethnic slur used to demean people of Spanish or Latin American descent ; a large, dialectal term for a long iron nail or spike
2. A derogatory racial insult aimed at Hispanic people ; an old regional name for a heavy, thick nail or pointed metal spike
3. An demeaning ethnic epithet directed at Spanish-speaking people ; a dialect word for a stout, sharp nail used in building or fastening

Etymology: In 1908, a Saturday Evening Post reporter sent to Panama to cover the North American workers digging the canal kept hearing a term the workers used for Panamanians: "spiggoty." It grew from a caricature of how Panamanians speaking English sounded to American ears. Locals often opened a conversation with "Spik d' English" or, if they could not speak it, "No spik d' English," and the Americans came to group people by that phrase, first as "spikities" and then as "spiggoty." The shorter forms followed. By 1913, "spiggoty" had shrunk to "spig" in the travel writing of a former Canal Zone policeman, and the spelling "spic" is first recorded in the 1910s. A 1960s suggestion that the term came from "spaghetti" and referred to Italians has little support, and the Panama record makes it unlikely.