ABSTRACT
Proverbial slurs and stereotypes appear in the earliest proverb collections and literary works, and they are still used today despite attempts to be more open-minded towards ethnic, religious, sexual, national, and regional differences. Three major collections are Otto von Reinsberg-Düringsfeld, Internationale Titulaturen (Leipzig: Hermann Fries, 1863; rpt. ed. by Wolfgang Mieder. Hildesheim: Georg Olms, 1992); Abraham A. Roback, A Dictionary of International Slurs (Cambridge/Massachusetts: Sci-Art, 1944; rpt. Waukesha/Wisconsin: Maledicta Press, 1979); and Richard Spears, Slang and Euphemism (Middle Village/New York: J. David, 1981). See among many other studies William Jansen, “A Culture’s Stereotypes and Their Expression in Folk Clichés,” Southern Journal of Anthropology, 13 (1957), 184–200; Américo Parades, “Proverbs and Ethnic Stereotypes,” Proverbium, no. 15 (1970), 505–507; and Wolfgang Mieder, “Proverbs in Nazi Germany: The Promulgation of Anti-Semitism and Stereotypes through Folklore,” Journal of American Folklore, 95 (1982), 435–464.
