This would be MUCH more entertaining.Ashtovo said:didn't yahtzee say something about a knee-jerk reaction to perceive racism? you should only start to worry when they break out the afros and fried chicken.
To expand further - The term negro, literally the Spanish word for the color black, was first used to describe Africans around the 1440s when the Portuguese landed in Africa trying to find a sea route to India. Old Norse fell out of use in the 1300's, but that still means the term predates the racial usage of the word by at least 100 years.CuddlyCombine said:No, no, no, and no. Unless Blizzard has been planning this for eons, the term contains no racism other than that perceived by the reader.
For those interested, I'll give you the nerd analysis, backed up with facts from World of Warcraft.
*The Norse term for wolf was vargr, which was anglicized by the Anglo-Saxons into "warg".
*Lord of the Rings author J.R.R. Tolkein, a philologist, used the term to name the wolves of Middle-Earth.
*Blizzard scooped this up and turned it into "worg" for their Warcraft universe (everybody rips off Tolkein).
*Just as werewolves are a derivative of wolf, worgen is a derivative of worg.
I'm pretty sure I have that right. Either that, or Blizzard has been scheming to create racism in the name ever since the Vikings were around.
EDIT: damn, I sound like a nerd. Let it be known that I know all of this because I play Warcraft and also happen to be taking a course that is devoted to studying monsters in ancient times. Please don't hurt me.
EDIT #2: Also, after running this through some translation filters of the ancient Scandinavian language descendants (Swedish, Danish etc.), worgen means "to choke" in Dutch (which is interesting, since 'wargaz' meant 'strangler' in Proto-Germanic.
Not to mention that the Spaniards would have been completely isolated from the Norse for at least another 200 years (until the first explorers starting reaching America).Slycne said:To expand further - The term negro, literally the Spanish word for black, was first used to describe Africans around the 1440s when the Portuguese landed in Africa trying to find a sea route to India. Old Norse fell out of use in the 1300's, but that still means the term predates the racial usage of the word by at least 100 years.
Well, to be fair, the word has gained a negative connotation outside of, like you said, Spanish people talking about colours. Walking through a busy street shouting "Negro!" would be interpreted as racism, not a love for the colour black.Clashero said:Oh my God! I speak Spanish, and I use the word "negro" to refer to anything of the colour black! I'M SUCH A RACIST!
*gasps*CuddlyCombine said:I'm pretty sure I have that right. Either that, or Blizzard has been scheming to create racism in the name ever since the Vikings were around.
This. I've seen the word "worg" used to refer to wolf in several stories and video games. and adding the "en" suffix just makes them seem like the population, not the creature. So no, its not racist.electric discordian said:Worgen has been used in the past to refer to werewolves, before Black people existed infact.
Im sure it the term appeared in several stories from the middle ages.
Pssh, ManBearPig is only real in the northern hemisphere. But thank you oh great Al Gore for bringing us The Internet, for this we give thanks.Diablini said:And Al Gore! ManBearPig is real! I'm super cereal.gbemery said:Oh my god then that means spanish speaking people must be racist too, I mean their word for 'black' is 'negro'. Contact the NAACP, the ACLU and Al Sharpton!/sarcasm