shvartzer

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצער (shvartser), nominative masculine singular form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”).

Noun

shvartzer (plural shvartzers)

1. (chiefly US, offensive, ethnic slur) Alternative form of shvartze (masculine)
   • 1991, Steve Stern, chapter 7, in Harry Kaplan’s Adventures Underground‎^[1], New York: Ticknor & Fields, pages 123–124:

     I liked the secret disgrace of running with shvartzers, of having forbidden friends, if that’s what you want to call them.

   • 2011, Howard Jacobson, The Mighty Walzer‎^[2], New York: Bloomsbury, Book 3, Chapter 2, p. 249:

     You go to Israel and you come back looking like a shvartzer and talking like Hitler.

Adjective

shvartzer (not comparable)

1. (chiefly US, offensive, ethnic slur) Alternative form of shvartze (masculine)
   • 1971, Victor Wartofsky, Meeting the Pieman‎^[3], New York: John Day, Chapter , p. 21:

     The store’s right in the heart of the shvartzer area.