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Glite Dictionary
🕶️ A rebellious youth 🚫 An ethnic slur
greaser

greaser

2 9.9
An insulting name for people of Mexican background that you should not use
  • noun
  • Slur
translation icon : [Insulto despectivo para una persona de origen mexicano]
  • I do not look down on niggers, kikes, wops or greasers.
  • calling him 'greaser'

Examples

  • "I was usually very lonely because nobody wanted very much to do with a 'dirty greaser,' which I was on account of my accent.

    Academic text (1990)

  • Little greaser son of a bitch is running a goddamn bus service.

    Lone Star (1996)

  • -I never believed a Greaser could do that.

    The Outsiders (1983)

  • This greaser was just trying to tell me how to run my business.

    Chisum (1970)

  • Never do business with a greaser.

    State of Grace (1990)

  • So you the greaser that brought that ape to my club, huh?

    The Big Bang (2011)

  • I don't want you dancin' with no greaser.

    Lone Wolf McQuade (1983)

  • I don't want that greaser pimp even talkin' to you.

    Bound by Honor (1993)

  • They are calling her "brownie," "greaser," and "wetback."

    Academic text (1998)

  • He was bullied at school just for being a greaser, which made him feel isolated.

Surface Forms

greaser singular
greasers plural

Morphology

greaser = grease (opaque) = grease + er

The word is historically built from 'grease' + '-er', but the ethnic slur meaning is not predictable from the literal components.

Etymology

Greaser was used as an offensive slur in 19th-century America for people of Mexican background; one common story says it comes from the English word grease because some workers handled grease or were unfairly linked to 'dirty' jobs, and some people also link it to a Spanish verb meaning 'to grease'. That's why the term is hurtful and should not be used.