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Redskins

Redskins

100 9.9
An offensive former sports team name that insults Native American people
  • proper noun
  • /ˈrɛdˌskɪnz/
  • Slur
: [insulto racial para los nativos americanos]
  • Many people are offended by the use of the name Redskins for sports teams in the U.S.
  • Washington Redskins
  • Redskins football team
  • Redskins football

The Washington Redskins is a sports team.

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Examples

  • I think the Redskins fans understand the great tradition and what the name means.

  • In other news, football is coming back, but the Washington Redskins are not.

  • The Washington Redskins is a sports team.

  • Jim, the Redskins are a football team.

  • I would say that the Redskins losing on Thanksgiving, it's crazy.

  • But time is running out, and the Eagles, like the Redskins, need to make their move now.

    Blog text (5)
  • If there was one major concern I had about the Redskins' offense this season, it was the line.

    Blog text (1)
  • The Redskins just traded their number one pick to Cleveland.

  • Alex Piasecky, a Duke star out of college, played three years with the Washington Redskins after the war.

    Academic text (2014)
  • Off to the side, RFK Stadium is emptying; a Redskins game is over.

    Fiction book (1998)

Surface Forms

Redskins main

Morphology

Redskins = redskin (opaque) = red + skin + s

The plural name is built from the noun 'redskin' + plural -s, but the term is an ethnic slur and its meaning is not transparently compositional.

Etymology

Redskins comes from the simple words red and skins, which were once used to label Native American people by their skin colour and later became an offensive word, so the name is now seen as a racial slur and teams have changed it.