"Ho" Comes From European Language: Stop Pawning It On Black People

The word ho did not originate in the African American community. In fact, no word said by an African American has originated in the African American community. English is not an invention of Africans. It is an invention of the English. “Ho” is not a word that was pulled out of nowhere by the Black community; rather it is a shortened version of the word “whore” or “hooker” which white people have been using for centuries to describe women.

It is senseless and narrow minded to attribute this type of language to Blacks considering this Germanic language comes from Europe. These words have existed for centuries because of the flagrant continuous use of degrading language by White people. There is an article written by one Dave Wilton on Wordorigins.org on the etymology of the word hooker. His examples come from the mid 16^th and 19^th centuries, times when Africans and Blacks were being held in slavery. The absurdity in the notion that African culture produced the term whore is boundless considering white women were the ones capable of acting as prostitutes. Black women were subject to the rape of their masters and any projection of a whore onto that African woman could only have been an extension of the classification of a whorish White woman. Africans were stripped of their mother language and relied upon the slave owner to learn the Queen’s English. This entire depraved English vernacular has its roots in Europe not from the African or African American culture.

The word whore has a similar, if not more extensive, background. “Hore” as used to describe a prostitute or harlot came from Old English through Proto-Germanic language. This is similar to the Old Norse “hora” for adulteress, Danish “hore, Swedish “hora”, the Dutch’s “hoer” and Old High German huora for “whore”. This word originated in the Germanic language and was passed on to African Americans via United States slavery which bleached the original language of the Africans and instilled this new language, one that is known for the lopsided appearance of negative words toward women rather than men and people of color rather than Whites.

White people are responsible for sexist words like whore, ho, slut, bimbo, and hoochie just as they are responsible for racist words such as gook, nigger, spick, and wet back. These are the inventions of a hateful White culture not Africans or African Americans. Imus, and everyone else for that matter, needs to bite their tongue before feeding everyone such tripe.

Addition: This article on CNN by the Associated Press does a decent job painting a picture of why what Imus said elicited a response from the Black community for those who have no idea.