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Glite Dictionary
🔩 A square bolt 🚫 An offensive slur 🧓 An old-fashioned person
squarehead

squarehead

9.9
An offensive slur for people from Scandinavia or Germany that should not be used
  • noun
  • Slur
translation icon : [insulto étnico despectivo contra personas de origen escandinavo o alemán]
  • During the debate, someone in the crowd shouted a derogatory term, calling the politician a squarehead.

Examples

  • The term squarehead has often been used as an ethnic slur against people of German descent.

  • Many people find the word squarehead offensive and do not use it in polite conversation.

  • Them squareheads, they got 'em a real fat bank up there.

    The Long Riders (1980)

  • There ain't nothin' over there but squareheads.

    The Long Riders (1980)

  • Goddamn squareheads.

    The Long Riders (1980)

Surface Forms

squarehead singular
squareheads plural

Morphology

squarehead = square + head (semi-transparent) = square + head

The word is formed from recognizable parts, but the ethnic slur sense is derogatory and culturally specific, not directly inferable from the literal components.

Etymology

Squarehead used as an ethnic insult probably comes from the words square and head, where square was used to mean 'stiff' or 'different', and people used that image to mock certain groups; one common story says it targeted people seen as rigid or foreign. This use is offensive and should not be used.