gori derivation

[Dancelover]

Is the Hindi word "gori" related to the Yiddish word "goy?"

Both mean "outsider, foreigner, other." Both can be derogatory.

Howard "Dancelover" Wilkins

[latishya]

Is the Hindi word "gori" related to the Yiddish word "goy?"

Both mean "outsider, foreigner, other." Both can be derogatory.

Howard "Dancelover" Wilkins

"gori" is the feminine form of the adjective "gora". Here's Platt's entry.
H گورا गोरा gorā [Prk. गोरओ; S. गौर+कः], adj. & s.m. (f. -ī), Of fair complexion, fair, white;—red (when applied to cattle);—an epithet of Śiva

It THEN adds "a European". The word means fair, so its extension to apply to fairskinned outsiders was a logical one. The construction of the word makes any connection with "goy" unlikely at best.

[Dil Bert]

Thanks for that.

So it's like being called 'whitey'. 

[latishya]

Thanks for that.

So it's like being called 'whitey'. 

I guess, except that "gori" is often used in a favorable and complimentary sense in BW songs at any rate, to describe the object of affection, not a usage I'm familiar with for whitey. 

[Dancelover]

When applied to Western women who are working back-up dancer jobs that might be performed by Indians,
it is sometimes rhymed with a synonym for "prostitute" and used in the same sense as "nigger."
Or so it sometimes seems to me.

Dancelover (from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

I guess, except that "gori" is often used in a favorable and complimentary sense in BW songs at any rate, to describe the object of affection, not a usage I'm familiar with for whitey. 

[latishya]

When applied to Western women who are working back-up dancer jobs that might be performed by Indians,
it is sometimes rhymed with a synonym for "prostitute" and used in the same sense as "nigger."
Or so it sometimes seems to me.

Dancelover (from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania)

The point I was making in reply to Dil Bert joke about "whitey" was that gori can be and is, sometimes used in a complimentary sense, and is used of fairer-skinned Indian women too. It's not solely pejorative, unlike whitey.

[moviemystk]

Is the Hindi word "gori" related to the Yiddish word "goy?"

Both mean "outsider, foreigner, other." Both can be derogatory.

Howard "Dancelover" Wilkins

I don't consider "gori" to be derogatory.  Maybe due to the English sub-titles it comes across as that.  Latishya is right about it being"used of fairer-skinned Indian women" and is considered as a compliment. And does not apply solely to a foreigner.
I think the word "gori" in Greek language means girl.

Here's a nice song with "gori" in it:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vejr2_PXVQo

p.s.  Off-thread:  Sometimes the English transalations are horrible and don't do justice to the original words.

[Vinita]

Depends on the person using it, I think.  In and of itself, gori is not a derogatory word.

However, some people (my mother is one of them), find all white people beneath them.  A reverse discrimination if you will.  She loves the fact that my youngest sister has the whitest skin in the family. And yet she will used "gora" in such a way when she talks about my American white husband that you know she has no respect for the man. 

Go figure.

[Havai]

When applied to Western women who are working back-up dancer jobs that might be performed by Indians,
it is sometimes rhymed with a synonym for "prostitute" and used in the same sense as "nigger."
Or so it sometimes seems to me.

I've seen that usage on this board and maybe one Bollywood blog, but never heard it in a movie or in use in a Hindi conversation.  I think it might be a pretty specific, international-Bollywood-fan-generated phrase... used ironically in a lot of cases, I think (as a statement about how white women are depicted in Hindi movies)

[latishya]

used ironically in a lot of cases, I think (as a statement about how white women are depicted in Hindi movies)

exactly. It took me a while to realise that the OP was referring to the ENGLISH word whore, in the phrase whorey-gori, and as far as I know  that is a specifically BW-fan type reference to the practice of almost unlcothed and almost always blonde gori dancers so beloved of many BW producers these days.