• deadbeef79000@lemmy.nz
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    2 days ago

    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.

    • SPRUNTnsfw@fedinsfw.app
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      2 days ago

      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.