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Cake day: June 6th, 2023

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  • tetris11@lemmy.mltoMicroblog Memes@lemmy.worldHuman man
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    1 day ago

    https://www.etymonline.com/word/paddy

    Paddy-wagon is attested by 1930, perhaps so called because many police officers were Irish. Paddywhack (1811) originally meant “an Irishman;” with the second element apparently added vaguely for emphasis.

    It’s not clear if it’s a slur or not, or just slang for referring to an Irishman.

    I think it might be closer to referring to a Scotsman as “a Scot” than anything pejorative.

    Then again, you never know with the English… and it ultimately comes down to how the Irish feel about it