Trump had used the term during a speech last year, leading to backlash. He said at the time that he wasn’t aware of the word’s antisemitic connotations.
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.
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.
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.
It may have been an association with “Sherlock” made by my childhood brain that I never had the need to use or question for decades.
Better late than never, I suppose.
Hah! Yeah. That an entirely plausible innocent childhood association.
Growing up my only exposure to the term was this 90s comic strip in the newspaper
Shylock, not Sherlock. 😉
I thought it was Matlock’s twin except with a mustache