Quote:
Originally Posted by HarryT
I have two different versions of Josephine Tey's 1929 novel "The Man in the Queue". The original 1929 text uses the word "dago" to refer to one of the main characters in the book. I have a 1960s edition of the same book in which "dago" has been changed to "Levantine". Does this really horrify you?...
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It does bother me on two levels.
One, the two words, at least in American English, refer to people of differing ethnic groups. The change isn't just a modern PC term that replaces the old now non-PC term.
Secondly, I question, due to a lack of knowledge, whether the term "dago" has really changed meaning or is it just that using it has changed in acceptability. Was "dago" a derogatory term in 1920s England as it is today and its use was simply acceptable? Or, on the other hand, was it considered simply a descriptive term with no denigration implied? If the former, it should not be changed as doing so changes to tone of the text. If the latter, it could be replaced, but if so using a proper replacement that doesn't change the character's origin.