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julien
Is "Spaniard" an old-fashioned term?
According to the 6th edition of the Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English for Advanced Learners, the term "Spaniard" is old-fashioned.
Do you agree or would you rather speak from "Spanish person/man/woman"?
Thanks!
Jan 7, 2019 9:15 PM
Answers · 7
1
yes Spaniard is an old form we now usually say The person is Spanish or a Spanish person. The term Spaniard to some has a negative connotation.
January 7, 2019
1
I agree that it is a least less common than the alternatives, and maybe it is a bit old-fashioned. At least in the US, it would be much more common to say “he is from Spain” or “she is Spanish.”
January 7, 2019
Yes, it is quite old-fashioned.
In fact, most of the demonyms which are exclusively nouns are rather old-fashioned - Englishman, Scotsman, Frenchman, Dutchman and so on. And to a lesser extent, Turk, Swede, Finn, and Dane.
These slightly outdated terms also have the disadvantage that they tend to refer only to men. When I hear the word 'Spaniard', this conjures up an rather old-fashioned image of a Spanish man - not a woman.
There are many nationalities ending in 'n' (Brazilian, Korean, Italian etc) which are both adjectives and nouns. With these nationalities, it's common to use boths forms : two Canadians or two Canadian tourists, for example. The same goes for nationalities ending in 'i' ( Iraqi, for example)
But for nationalities which don't end in 'n' or 'i', it's always preferable to use an adjective to refer to a person's nationality - a Spanish person, a French woman, a Dutch student and so on. And, of course, there are other nationalities which only have adjectival forms (Japanese, for example).
I hope that helps.
January 7, 2019
It's relatively common in New Zealand - but in a different context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aciphylla_colensoi
January 7, 2019
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julien
Language Skills
Dutch, English, French, German
Learning Language
Dutch, English, German
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