Reappropriation

Sex and sexuality

There are many recent English-language examples of some linguistic reappropriation in the areas of human sexuality, gender roles, sexual orientation, etc. Among these are:

• "Dyke"^[8]
• "Poof", "queer"^[9][10][11]

Politics

However, the phenomenon is much older, especially in politics and religion.

In England, for example, Cavalier was a derogatory nickname reappropriated as self-identification,^[12] while Roundhead, a Royalists derisory term for the supporters of the Parliamentary cause, is not (it was a punishable offence in the New Model Army to call a fellow soldier a roundhead).^[13] Tory (orig. from Middle Irish word for "pursued man" Tóraidhe ), Whig (from "whiggamore" (See the Whiggamore Raid)) and "Suffragette" are other British examples.

In the American colonies, British officers used Yankee, from a term used by the British to refer to Dutch pirates, as a derogatory term against colonists. British soldiers created the early versions of the song "Yankee Doodle", as a criticism of the uncultured colonists, but during the Revolution, as the colonists began to reappropriate the label "yankee" as a point of pride, they likewise reappropriated the song, altering verses, and turning it into a patriotic anthem.^[14]

In the 1850s in the United States, a secretive political party was derisively dubbed the Know Nothing party, based on their penchant for saying "I know nothing" when asked for details by outsiders; this became the common name for the party. It eventually became a popular name, sufficiently so that consumer products like tea, candy, and even a freighter were branded with the name.^[15]

Religion

One of the older examples of successful reclaiming is the term "Jesuit" to refer to members of the Society of Jesus. This was originally a derogatory term referring to people who too readily invoked the name of Jesus in their politics, but which members of the Society adopted over time for themselves, so that the word came to refer exclusively to them, and generally in a positive or neutral sense,^[16] even though the term "Jesuitical" is derived from the Society of Jesus and is used to mean things like: manipulative, conspiring, treacherous, capable of intellectually justifying anything by convoluted reasoning.^{[17][18][19][20]}

Another example can be found in the origins of Methodism; early members were originally mocked for their "methodical" and rule-driven religious devotion, founder John Wesley embraced the term for his movement.^[21]

Members of the Religious Society of Friends were termed "Quakers" as an epithet, but took up the term themselves.

Race, ethnicity, and nationality

To a lesser extent, and more controversially among the groups referred to, many racial, ethnic, and class terms have been reappropriated:

• "Nigga" or "nigger" by African Americans^[1][22]
• “Wog” by Mediterranean Australians.^[23]
• "Paddy" by Irish Americans^[24]
• "Peckerwood", originally black slang in the South for poor white trash, reclaimed by white prison gangs^[25][26][27]
• "white trash", a racial slur referring to poor white people, reappropriated by some as a cultural symbol and badge of pride^[28][29]

Disability

• "cripple", "crip", "gimp" by people with disabilities.^[30]

Art movements

• "Impressionists" In 1874 during their first independent art show, critic Louis Leroy penned a hostile review of the show in Le Charivari newspaper under the title "The Exhibition of the Impression-ists". In particular he used the painting Impression, soleil levant by Claude Monet to ridicule the painters for their lack of seriousness preferring to paint "fleeting impressions of the moment" rather than allegorical or ultra-realist themes.^[31]
• Stuckism is an international art movement founded in 1999; its members produce figurative art. Tracey Emin, one of the Young British Artists known for their conceptual art, accused her then-boyfriend of lack of imagination or reach, of being "stuck". He took on the term.

Other examples

More generally, any kind of community can reappropriate words referring to them:

• "Smoggie", originally a derogatory term for people from the North East England town of Middlesbrough, in reference to the town's notorious industrial pollution, now commonly used in self-identification.^[32][33]
• "Culchie", derogatory term in Ireland for people from rural areas of the island, increasingly used for self-identification since the late 20th century.