[damnyou]

Not sure exactly what its origins are, but it's standard Indian English. It's a legitimate dialect of English, just like standard American English has its own unique idioms like "grandfathered in" (a term that has extremely racist origins).

[EdwardDiego]

Wait, grandfathered in is racist? How?

Edit, for other's curious, as the person I'm replying to said, it's not racist per se, but has its origins in racist practice:

> The term originated in late nineteenth-century legislation and constitutional amendments passed by a number of U.S. Southern states, which created new requirements for literacy tests, payment of poll taxes, and/or residency and property restrictions to register to vote. States in some cases exempted those whose ancestors (grandfathers) had the right to vote before the American Civil War, or as of a particular date, from such requirements. The intent and effect of such rules was to prevent African-American former slaves and their descendants from voting, but without denying poor and illiterate whites the right to vote.

[thr0w__4w4y]

I'm always learning. I truly thought that the term was probably centuries old and had something to do with family legacy, old rules being followed to keep tradition, etc. You live, you learn.

I often hear people use the phrase "call a spade a spade", thinking it's saying "if a card shows a spade, call it as a spade (when showing the hand)", but I've heard for a long time that phrase is also racist. Not growing up around anyone who ever used that phrase, I would have had no idea.

Makes me wonder how many other phrases out there in every day use don't have a happy meaning, even though at first glance they might seem innocuous.

[tokai]

The spade phrase is from ancient greece with 500 years of use in the english language. Don't know how it could be racist.

The spade is question is a digging tool.

[bigbubba]

It could be mistaken for a racist expression by somebody who knows 'spade' as a racial slur for black people.

[tzs]

Similar to "chink in one's armor. A "chink" means "a narrow opening or crack", and a chink in one's armor means a weak point that makes you vulnerable to attack.

But "chink" is also an offensive term for a Chinese person, so "chink in one's armor" can be misunderstood, especially if what you are talking about actually involves a Chinese person. ESPN got in trouble a couple of times with it, even though they had used it thousands of times before without incident, because of a couple articles where the weakness they were describing on some team was a player who was Chinese.

[Veen]

Niggardly is another such word. It has no relation to the racial slur, originating in the Old Norse "nigla", but it would be unwise to use it today.