Because someone, who is British, doesn’t believe someone who is not British or English or from those regions could possibly teach him anything about British English, I am making an easy guide to “Nip” and claims of racist usage.

This person supposedly read this essay: Nippy, Nipper and Nip and Weathering a Racist Pun

Below is a screenshot from the Somerset County Gazette. Somerset County is in South West England and borders Gloucestershire and Bristol.

The Rev. Deane Vicar was in Taunton. Taunton is a county town and has Taunton Castle. This incident happened in early October 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The phrase the vicar used is there is now “a little nip in the air, which is what they said when they hanged the Japanese Criminal.”

That means:

Nip = Japanese person

The usage of “Nip” as a derogatory word for Japanese is confirmed by the 2010 “The Oxford Dictionary of Modern Slang” which is published by the University of Oxford which is located in Oxford, England (UK).

The vicar wasn’t the only person using the term “Nip” (unless the British news failed to make this correlation and he was the person who wrote to BBC Radio 1). The Daily Mail is a British Newspaper and published this in 2006.

Radio 1 is BBC Radio 1. FM between 97.1 MHz and 99.7 MHz, Digital radio, digital TV and on BBC Sounds. Target group is 15-29. Average age of the UK audience is 30.

 

The equation here would be:

It’s a bit Pearl Harbour = It’s a bit nippy

One doesn’t say, “It’s a bit Nip.”

This account was also reported here in the Metro.co.uk:

The Evening Standard also carried this item.

Further, in other countries like Australia, “Nip” is also used as a pejorative. A Korean Australian was recently (2021) called a gook and a Nip and told to go back to China. This was reported by 7New.com.au. The video was published on TikTok.

So let me again conclude that there is a play on words that can be employed when speaking about the weather that can include racist connotations in the US, UK and Australia. I might not be British or English or Australian, but I can do a little research. As someone raised I the US, I know that the words “Nip” and “Nippy” have been used as a racist pejorative. For a longer explanation, see my previous essay and look at the sources I’ve used.