firewater
Americannoun
noun
Sensitive Note
It can be very offensive when members of the dominant culture appropriate piecemeal bits of language to imitate or perform impressions of an ethnic or racial minority. Borrowed words like firewater, squaw, and wigwam, or imitative words like how were once used for comedic effect, but they are now considered insensitive to Native Americans and their cultures. Firewater is particularly offensive because it is associated with racist stereotypes about disordered alcohol use among American Indians, which contributed historically to blaming Native victims of racial injustice through disparagement of their moral character.
Etymology
Origin of firewater
First recorded in 1820–30; fire + water; probably a translation of an expression in an Algonquian language, as Ojibwe iškote·wa·po· “whiskey” (earlier, other distilled liquors), equivalent to iškote·w-, combining form of iškote· “fire” + -a·po· “liquid”
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Four polite Englishmen in their middle 20s, feigning like firewater drunks in a Eugene O'Neill play: it's exactly the stuff that makes their detractors groan.
From The Guardian • Nov. 15, 2012
The headiest intoxicant of that decade was youth, the perennial firewater of the U.S. imagination and temperament.
From Time Magazine Archive
They thirsted for the raw firewater of campaign oratory.
From Time Magazine Archive
This was lined with dirty shops, selling everything, from mouldy Turkish delight to poisonous-looking firewater called native wine.
From The Kangaroo Marines by Campbell, R. W.
They would come at night, look in at the windows, and call for firewater, tobacco, and provisions.
From Collection of Nebraska Pioneer Reminiscences by Daughters of the American Revolution. Nebraska
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
