27 December 2021
Spic is a derogatory and offensive name for a Latin American or Hispanic person. The term arose out of the US acquisition and occupation of Puerto Rico following the 1898 Spanish-American War. It is probably a clipping of an older, now largely obsolete term, spiggoty, which was applied to immigrants from Central and South America because they did not spikka da English.
Spiggoty, in the form spickety, appears in a syndicated newspaper article in the Daily Iowa State Press of 24 August 1899 about an American army officer in Puerto Rico who heroically organized a fire-fighting brigade to extinguish a fire in his artillery battery’s magazine, a fire that threatened not only his camp, but also the nearby town. The next day, the townspeople delivered gifts of flowers to the lieutenant:
“Do you think,” said Sentry Laird to the alcade after the floral offering had been made and accepted—“do you think for a minnit that Leftenant Bobbie done the Hobson act for the likes of you? ’Twas for the Battery M of Seventh that worruk was did last night, I can tell you those, and you’re not the first Spickety that has been here to day to lave a bookkay for him doin’ it.”
The form spiggoty and an explanation for the term’s origin appears in the New York Times of 20 May 1900:
The American designation of the native is Spiggoty, accented on the first syllable. Its origin is indefinite, but it may have come from the native ambition to speak English and to inform all comers of that desire. The native tongue, accustomed to soft letters, struggles hard with the k in “speak,” and makes it sound like g cut off short. English is Ingles. When “speak English” encounters a Porto Ricon, the result may be not unlike “spiggely,” which some Anglo-Saxon mind roughened into “spiggoty.” Whatever the origin, one hears everywhere of spiggoty people, spiggoty money, and all else spiggoty. Everybody uses the term, the natives having almost accepted it as a proper designation. If into some official document sent to Washington it should slip, the public may know that it has come to stay, and that a fresh coin has enriched the language.
Despite what the Times said, it’s hard to believe that Puerto Ricans accepted the term graciously. When you’re under military occupation, you pretend to like what the occupiers call you. That Puerto Ricans disliked the name is made clear in the following piece, which also is the earliest attestation of the abbreviated form spig. From an article in The World’s Work of January 1906:
Porto Ricans writhe under the contemptuous name of “Spigs,” but there is little wonder that this piece of American slang has become a fixture.
The spik form is in place by 1933, when it appears in Ernest Hemingway’s short story The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio:
Outside in the corridor the detective sergeant stood with the interpreter beside Mr. Frazer's wheeled chair.
"I suppose you think somebody shot him in the back too?"
"Yes," Frazer said. "Somebody shot him in the back. What's it to you?"
"Don't get sore," the sergeant said. "I wish I could talk spik."
"Why don't you learn?"
"You don't have to get sore. I don't get any fun out of asking that spik questions. If I could talk spik it would be different."
"You don't need to talk Spanish," the interpreter said. "I am a very reliable interpreter."
"Oh, for Chrisake," the sergeant said. "Well, so long. I'll come up and see you."
Sources:
Green’s Dictionary of Slang, 2021, s.v. spic, n., sippoty, n.
Hemingway, Ernest. “The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio.” Winner Take Nothing. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1933. Project Gutenberg Canada.
“Light-Hearted Porto Rico.” New York Times, 20 May 1900, 12. ProQuest Historical Newspapers.
Lyle, Eugene P. “Our Experience in Porto Rico.” The World’s Work, 11.3, January 1906, 7082. HathiTrust Digital Archive.
Oxford English Dictionary, third edition, September 2021, s.v. spic, n. and adj., spiggoty, n. and adj.
Saul, Milt. “Lieutenant Bobbie. A True Story of a Thrilling Incident of the Campaign in Porto Rico” (syndicated). Daily Iowa State Press (Iowa City), 24 August 1899, 7. Readex: America’s Historical Newspapers.