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News & ArtsWednesday, September 16, 2009
Theater Ofay
Posted by Brendan Kiley on Wed, Sep 16, 2009 at 1:56 PM
The word "ofay" got cut from one of my theater reviews this week. My intelligent, careful, and sensitive editor said nobody knows that word. Which is too bad.
I heard it as a kid while living in Louisiana and Virginia—it was a pejorative for white people, and far more dire than "honky." "Honky" was like "darkie" but "ofay" was like "nigger." That word had power, like a curse. If you really wanted to fuck with a white person, you called 'em "ofay."
"Ofay," as far as I could tell, was largely used by black folks among other black folks and never made the leap among white folks as a term of endearment, the way "nigger" did in the other direction. The only time I heard white folks use it is when they were quoting/imitating black folks.
(I'm not proud of how some adults around me behaved when I was a kid—but I was just a kid and my parents always had the decency to tell me that the racists who surrounded us where wrongheaded. Sometimes it felt like being a spy: I was too young to contradict the wrongheaded grownups—until a certain age where I started to argue with them, which was often profoundly uncomfortable because I was breaking the respect-your-elders code, which was still strong in the parts of the South I was a kid in—and I spent a lot of time watching people do and say things I knew were wrong. Anyway.)
Nobody knows where "ofay" comes from, but a few guesses. From the Online Etymological Dictionary:
Amer.Eng. black slang, "white person," 1925, of unknown origin. If, as is sometimes claimed, it derives from an African word, none corresponding to it has been found. Perhaps the most plausible speculation is Yoruba ófé "to disappear" (as from a powerful enemy), with the sense transf. from the word of self-protection to the source of the threat. OED regards the main alternative theory, that it is pig Latin for foe, to be an "implausible guess."
Another theory is that the Yoruba ófé was spoken to make the white person disappear. It also might come from the Ibibio word "afia," which means "light-colored."
From the OED (you need a password, but can get an account free through the library):
1932 Africa 5 506 The root of the word appears to come from the Ibibio Afia, white or light-coloured. Hence in Harlem Offay means any light-coloured person and therefore a European. 1956 B. HOLIDAY Lady sings Blues (1973) v. 52 Most of the ofays, the white people, who came to Harlem those nights were looking for atmosphere. 1977 Amer. Speech 1975 50 89 That this word [sc. Yoruba ofe] could have been brought to the United States by slaves is altogether possible... Thus ofay may be taken as a word said for self-protection in times of threat, which was then transferred to the source of threat, and so came to mean ‘whiteman’. 1992 Folk Roots Sept. 47/3 Let's not get into any ethno-political-socio-hoo-ha here 'cos it's so boring, mainly{em}this is entertainment: right, ofays?
Google hits for "ofay": 62,900. Google hits for "nigger": 4,450,000.
The fact that "ofay" has been lost leaves the vocabulary of disparagement even more lopsided than it already was.
(The play, by the way, is about Billie Holiday—Felicia Loud is a phenomenal performer, but the production has a weird racial-infrastructure problem you can read about here.)
1
Interesting linguistic deconstruction. But your editor was right. Until reading this Slog post, I had never heard the word before, and would have been clueless reading it in your article.
It sounds like a regional term, and other than transplants from the south, probably a lot of Seattleites haven't heard of it either.
It sounds like a regional term, and other than transplants from the south, probably a lot of Seattleites haven't heard of it either.
2
The only time I remember hearing it was in the Richard Pryer/Chevy Chase word association sketch on SNL way back when.
4
Can the world "ofay" really carry the same weight as the word "nigger" when most white people aren't aware of the word's existence? The word nigger carries a huge amount of cultural and historical weight, people screamed it (and probably still scream it) before committing horrific acts of brutality and murder against African-Americans. I don't remember reading about mobs of black folk screaming out "ofay" before attacking whites. There is no parralel slur to the word nigger when you look at it in it's proper historical, social and current context.
That being said this is an interesting etymological riff on an obscure bit of regional slang but I concur with @ 1 your editor made the right call.
That being said this is an interesting etymological riff on an obscure bit of regional slang but I concur with @ 1 your editor made the right call.
7
I think I first read it in a Robert B. Parker book -- Hawk used it to Spenser. I had to look it up and found the same etymological back and forth you did.
8
Just because the Stranger isn't a hardcover book doesn't mean people need to sheltered from possibly unfamiliar words. It's not like the days of yore when you'd have to make a special trip to the library to consult the foot-thick unabridged dictionary. And I assume that most Stranger readers are smarter (and more curious) than your average bear.
10
I'm fairly sure I first came to know this word through the work of Chester Himes. Looked it up. Same.
11
rob! is a homophobe (@8)!!!
Who is he to imply that Bears (a very legitimate sub-species of teh gays) are not too bright!
P.S. Sorry for being facetious.
Who is he to imply that Bears (a very legitimate sub-species of teh gays) are not too bright!
P.S. Sorry for being facetious.
14
@11, I'll respond to your nefarious calumny as soon as I complete the deglutition of the ursine ejaculate currently obstructing my epiglottis.
15
God, I'm old. I thought everyone knew this word. It was common currency in a certain kind of black literature from at least the 30s. Anybody who's read anything about jazz would know it, or any Lenny Bruce, or Richard Pryor.
I don't think in usual parlance it's quite as offensive as you make it out to be. Or rather, it may be when used between blacks, but it's not unusual for it to be used jokingly by black and white jazz musicians, for instance.
I don't think in usual parlance it's quite as offensive as you make it out to be. Or rather, it may be when used between blacks, but it's not unusual for it to be used jokingly by black and white jazz musicians, for instance.
17
Your editor shouldn't be making things too easy for your readers--editors often do that, and they shouldn't underestimate us--but you should also write aware that basically no one knows the term "ofay" in these parts; obscurity doesn't readily enhance clarity.
18
Fer chrissake, it takes three seconds to google it, what's the problem? Last week we were all excited about "saving" a bunch of obscure and mostly bogus Latinate words with no resonance whatsoever on some webpage, just because they're neat, but today a guy wants to use a not-very-obscure and culturally powerful and significant word, and he's failing to "enhance clarity"?
How very ofay of you.
How very ofay of you.
19
Most of us with Southern roots who happen to know at least a few African-Americans know the word ofay. Frankly, I'd rather be called ofay than cracker (if I must be called one or the other).
20
i think cracker is more insulting, because i resent being lumped with rural southern whites. honky is just funny.
21
"you mean you got you a ofay with no monay?"
-samuel l. jackson to wesley snipes in jungle fever.
but yes, also, the richard pryor-chevy chase word association sketch from season one of Saturday Night Live. Also Lenny Bruce at Berkeley. Also some Louis Armstrong song. Also some Cab Calloway song. Also The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Also tons of other things. A bit archaic but a great word.
-samuel l. jackson to wesley snipes in jungle fever.
but yes, also, the richard pryor-chevy chase word association sketch from season one of Saturday Night Live. Also Lenny Bruce at Berkeley. Also some Louis Armstrong song. Also some Cab Calloway song. Also The Autobiography of Malcolm X. Also tons of other things. A bit archaic but a great word.
22
Great article, now that you've discussed ofay, what about
"Iko.
Iko.
Iko iko anay.
Jackamo fin da-aa-aa-aa nay --
jackamo fin danay."
??
"Iko.
Iko.
Iko iko anay.
Jackamo fin da-aa-aa-aa nay --
jackamo fin danay."
??
24
I immediately thought of the Pryor/Chase sketch but I had always thought he was saying 'opaque' or 'old faith' or something I was too young to get at the time. But it always bothered me so I finally googled it and got ofay. Yay for SNL making me learn! Also, yeah, seriously, it takes about 2 seconds to find. Boo to the editors.
26
I (a white girl) was sometimes called ofay in my Berkeley childhood in the early 60s, always by the black friends of my best friend (who was also black, and whose people came from Alabama). But did you all know that honky comes from the Wolof xonxe (pronounced honky), meaning Arab slave trader? True.
27
A friend and I wanted to do a hiphop show on our college radio station in 1992. As we were both white, we thought it'd be funny to call the show "Two Ofays." But the music director either couldn't decifer our handwriting to read the strange word, or edited us, so when the program guide came out our show bore the wretched title "Two of Us."
28
Oddly enough, I am aware of that word, despite growing up in Seattle.
9, FTW
26, There is exactly one Google Hit for Wolof xonxe, without quotes (your comment!). That is totally awesome/obscure, do you have any more info on this?
9, FTW
26, There is exactly one Google Hit for Wolof xonxe, without quotes (your comment!). That is totally awesome/obscure, do you have any more info on this?
29
I didn't know "ofay" was a disparaging term for whites. As a white person who loves the black music of jazz and blues, my only familiarity with the term was from Louis Jordan's song "Ofay and Oxford Gray," (1945) which was an early plea for desegregation. Jordan seems to indicate that it was simply jive-talk for "white person," similar to Cab Calloway's substitution of "frail" for "girl" in "Minnie The Moocher": "She was the roughest, toughest frail, but Minnie had a heart as big as a whale." The lyric in Jordan's song goes: "If you hep to the jive, then you know ofay means white, and Oxford gray means colored, they say, and believe me, together they're all right. Piano keys are black and white. They make the harmony and that is right. So don't be square and don't delay the blending of ofay and Oxford gray." Surely Louis Jordan here is promoting racial harmony and not using "ofay" as an insult to whites as the "n-word" is an insult to blacks. However, all current definitions agree with Brendan Kiley in his above article. What happened? Has the meaning of the word drifted over the last 70 years?
30
I learned the word "offay" from a record dealer on Haight St., in 1958. Negative connotation seemed to be minimal.
I assumed it was derived from a dialectic pronunciation of "fair", as in "fair-skinned.""
Page Brownton
I assumed it was derived from a dialectic pronunciation of "fair", as in "fair-skinned.""
Page Brownton
31
More likely derives from Arabic for shadow or ghost. Nobody knows it because we live in a society built on twenty minute cultural consciousness. Ofay has much less power than goy. I know of no pejorative designation that carries the power of "nigger" -- in part because the word itself became so institutionalized in black culture. Such designations do not generally become a powerful descriptor inside the culture against which it has been used. Mexican Hispanics seldom refer to themselves a greasers or beaners. Nigger also has significant historical and geographical under-pinnings -- the river Nigger was a significant slave trade conduit and numerous slave trade "factories" going back to the 16 -17 hundreds were established in and around that area -- Nigger. In this, there appears to be a pronunciation corruption from the written word (from, example, bills of lading and investment and insurance contracts -- the slave trade was a legitimate trade in those days, financed by investors and insured by speculators) to the spoken word. As well, its continued and common use over several centuries in the "King's/Queen's English, in as much as all persons of color (any color except northern European white) were often referred to as niggers. We Americans might call individuals from the middle east and sub-continent "pakis," "rag heads" etc., but the British, then, used "nigger" for all. Cracker or red-neck (viz, If you keep a car up on blocks in your front yard, you might be a red-neck.) have more general cultural impact than ofay. Gringo, perhaps, originally, a reference to a song popular with U.S. troops during the Mexican War -- "Green Grows the Grass" -- has achieved a certain level of "fun" in the movies and literature. Ofay, over the years, has found some work in generalized Black humor and comedy -- especially film -- but it has not established itself, in the general culture as a hard-hitting or bitting racial epithet. In any event, directing a racial epithet against white skinned people is a waste of time -- it slides like water off a duck's back.
More...
32
IMHO, black people's co-opting of the word "nigger" as a term of fraternity, essentially neutering the word as much as is possible, is a far more powerful thing than trying in vain to come up with an equivalent term of hatred for white people such as "peckerwood" and "ofay".
Also, in what way is it "too bad" that most people aren't familiar with a term of racial hatred, in this case "ofay"?
Also, in what way is it "too bad" that most people aren't familiar with a term of racial hatred, in this case "ofay"?
33
IMHO, black people's co-opting of the word "nigger" as a term of fraternity, essentially neutering the word as much as is possible, is a far more powerful thing than trying in vain to come up with an equivalent term of hatred for white people such as "peckerwood" and "ofay".
Also, in what way is it "too bad" that most people aren't familiar with a term of racial hatred, in this case "ofay"?
Also, in what way is it "too bad" that most people aren't familiar with a term of racial hatred, in this case "ofay"?
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