Asiatic

See also: asiatic and asiàtic

English

Etymology

Learned borrowing from Latin āsiāticus; equivalent to Asia +‎ -atic.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): (most commonly) /eɪʒiˈætɪk/, (more rarely) /eɪʃiˈætɪk/, /eɪsiˈætɪk/, /eɪziˈætɪk/

Adjective

Asiatic (comparative more Asiatic, superlative most Asiatic)

1. (dated) Asian.
3. (military, slang) Eccentric or crazy as a result of spending a long time in the Far East.
   • 1951, James Albert Michener, The Voice of Asia, page 6:

     A soldier might grab his rifle and batter his way to the heart of some Jap position. Back home they gave him all sorts of medals but his companions dismissed him as the poor bastard who finally went Asiatic.

   • 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, page 82:

     “ […] This ship has been in the forward area since March ’42. It’s been through a lot of action. The men are all Asiatic. They probably think a fantail watch in Pearl Harbor is foolishness. […] ”

   • 1951, Herman Wouk, The Caine Mutiny, page 305:

     The note was good-humored and Willie swiftly decided not to take offense. “No thanks. I don’t want any medals for extraordinary heroism.” [¶] “Old man is really Asiatic, sir, ain’t he?” said Meatball, stepping into his trousers.

   • 1982, Theodore C. Mason, Battleship Sailor, page 129:

     Now how the hell, we asked ourselves, does a guy this old get from a navy ammo dump to command of a battleship? Not just any battleship but the flagship of the Battle Force! Had the brass hats at the Bureau of Navigation gone Asiatic?

   • 2004, Sol Weisbrot, Looking Back On My Life, page 50:

     This was a place that if you stayed there for any length of time, you went “Asiatic”. That was the expression for someone who went cuckoo. We had a long brutally boring patrol duty there, until we left for the island of Tarawa […]

   • 2006, Robert Hood, Mama's Boy, page 155:

     Enlisted men sometimes went Asiatic, or “rock happy,” after long service in the islands. This was common knowledge on the scuttlebutt network.

Derived terms

• Afroasiatic
• Asiatically
• Asiatic golden cat
• Asiaticism
• Asiaticness
• Asiatic peafowl
• Asiatic pennywort
• Asiatic Vespers
• Asiatic wildcat
• Central Asiatic
• pro-Asiatic

 

Noun

Asiatic (plural Asiatics)

1. (dated, now sometimes offensive) An Asian.
   • 1885, Sir John A. Macdonald, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     […] the Aryan races will not wholesomely amalgamate with the Africans or the Asiatics […] the cross of those races, like the cross of the dog and the fox, is not successful; it cannot be, and never will be.

2. (Egyptology) One of the people of ancient Canaan, Syria, or Mesopotamia; a Semite.

Synonyms

• see Thesaurus:Asian

Anagrams

• ATASCII