Friday, February 16, 2007

Z'oreilles

"Les oreilles," or z'oreilles in Creole, means ears in French. The non-Creole (aka white metropolitan French) population are referred to as "z'oreilles." This is slightly dorogatory but mostly just kind of funny... until you learn the true meaning behind the word.

Most people refer to z'oreilles because the white folks from France all have red ears, i.e. a sunburn. This is the cute meaning for z'oreilles. What the original meaning signifies is when the English and French colonizers held the natives in slavery, the slaves (Marrons) often ran away and hid in the mountains. If they were found their ears were cut off as an indication that they had runaway... hence the "zoreilles."

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