you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] 7 points 3 weeks ago (6 children)

I always thought "shylock" was a Jewish slang term for a private detective.

No idea why or where it came from, but I'm glad I've never felt the need to use it.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 6 child comments
  • [–] 5 points 3 weeks ago (2 children)

    Shylock is a fictional character in William Shakespeare's play The Merchant of Venice. A Venetian Jewish moneylender, Shylock is the play's principal villain. Wikipedia

    Apparently (from reading the Wikipedia entry) Elizabethan england was quite antisemitic and it was common to portray Jews with particularly offensive stereotypes.

    So it's always been a slur.

  • source
  • parent
  • hideshow 2 child comments