Kim Pearson

© 2003-4. All Rights Reserved

sheeny (shiInI) Also sheny, sheney, sheeney, -ie. [Of obscure origin]

1. n. A derogatory word for a Jew.

2. n. A pawnbroker [derived from racial stereotype of definition 1]

3. adj. Deceitful, dubious, fraudulent (describing people).

The etymology of this epithet is uncertain, and several theories have been advanced (an attribute it shares with the popular slur, kike). It is agreed that sheeny originated in England early in the 19^th century, making it one of the few surviving pejorative terms for Jews that crossed the Atlantic from England to the United States, as opposed to the other way around (Ikey Mo is another). The following are the competing theories:

a) In the early 19^th century, German Jews emigrated to England, and became assimilated in their new surroundings. However, they referred to other, less-assimilated, more traditional Jews as shayner Yids, a derogatory term meaning literally "beautiful-faced Jew." However, the bearded, Talmudic scholars they were teasing were beautiful figuratively, not literally, in that they were spiritually strong. The word shayner descends from the German schon, but the assimilated Jews pronounced it SHE-na. This pronunciation was in time picked up by anti-Semites and transformed into sheeny. If this is the correct derivation of sheeny then it shares a similarity with such slurs as yid and kike, in that it was in its origins far less offensive than it later became.

b) Some argue that sheeny is much less complicated in its origins, being merely a description of the dark, glossy hair of Ashkenazi Jews. While many have scoffed at this explanation, claiming that such lovely hair is an exception rather than the rule, it should be remembered that racial slurs rarely have much to do with logic.

c) Still others claim that sheeny is an evolutionary descendent from the once-popular Yiddish expression a miesse meshina, which means literally "an ugly fate" (i.e. death). Whether or not this phrase was as popular among Jews in England in the 19^th century as has been asserted is in debate.

Regardless of which etymology is correct, sheeny is not as popular a slur as it once was, and seems to be destined for the great wastepaper basket of old racial language that has lost its value after the great wave of Eastern European immigration in the last century.

1816 J.H. LEWIS Lectures on the Art of Writing (ed.7) vi. 84 A motley-fool the thing I mean is, One of the common puffing sheenies.

1824 in Spirit Publ. Jrnls. (1825) 85 Orange Battery among the Sheenes. Sketches at Bow-Street. --No. V.

1828 EGAN Boxiana Ser. II. I. 632 A good day's play among the Sheenies.

1888 KIPLING Soldiers Three, In a Matter of a Private You lie, you man-sticker. You sneakin' Sheeny butcher, you lie.

1893 FOREMAN Trip to Spain 34 A Portuguese Jew ( a 'sheeny', as he is termed by the sailors).

1918 G. FRANKAU One of Them x. 75 What cared Jill for Grand Dukes, Principini, . . . For Russ, Yank, Dago, Teuton, Gaul, or Sheeney?

1946 B. MARSHALL George Brown's Schooldays xlvi. 178 Keep that lid of yours off your bloody ears if you don't want to look like a rotten sheeny.

1976 Honolulu Star-Bull. 21 Dec. E-3/3 Hey mom, there's a couple of sheenies at our door with a turkey.

1977 H. FAST Immigrants II. 88 Maybe we didn't do so bad for a Dago fisherman and a sheeny storekeeper.

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Lighter, J.E. ed. Random House Historical Dictionary of American Slang. New York:

Random House, 1997.

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1966.

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Rosten, Leo. The Joys of Yiddish. New York: Pocket Books, 1968.

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