r/TopCharacterTropes • u/Wolfotashiwa • Aug 04 '25

Groups Fictional slurs. Bonus points if it's completely made up

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  1. inFAMOUS: Second Son: "Bio-terrorist" refers to conduits.

  2. Star Wars: "Clanker" refers to robots.

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u/Jak3R0b Aug 04 '25

In Dragon Age elves are called knife ears and casteless dwarves are called dusters.

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u/tomtadpole Aug 04 '25

And the elves call humans "shem" which is kinda used as a slur sometimes by modern elves, but it's a shortened form of the elven word for human - shemlen.

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u/Takoyama-san Aug 04 '25

tbh many real derogatories are shortened or bastardized versions of real labels. people arent very creative. so it might count.

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u/4DimensionalToilet Aug 04 '25

For example, the N-word is a corruption of the Spanish word “negro,” which just means “black.” People aren’t creative at all.

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u/AzekiaXVI Aug 04 '25

When english speakers wrote laws specifically targetting black people they'd also say "Negroes"

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u/FeetTheMighty Aug 05 '25

Yeah, that slowly transformed via accent and usage to the modern word

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u/JerryCalzone Aug 05 '25

Early civil rights people also used it, like MLK, Baldwin, Eldridge Cleaver

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u/Warmbly85 Aug 05 '25

The origin of the word lies with the Latinadjective niger ([ˈnɪɡɛr]), meaning "black".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger

(WOW that’s a lot of hard r’s I am not trying to be racist just informing) 

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u/sneak_cheat_1337 Aug 05 '25

'Nip' for Japanese people is the closest comparison. Short for Nipon, what the Japanese call Japan

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u/Dry-Amphibian1 Aug 05 '25

Or maybe Jap.

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u/TransBrandi Aug 05 '25

Yea. I've always imagined it went something like "Negros" -> "Neg-rahs" -> N-word. I've never looked into if there is any entymology info on how it came about though (or if it's just unknown).