I was looking for a term to define the eyes shape of oriental people and I discovered that the term slant-eye is a derogatory one:
- (offensive)
a person with slanting eyes; especially , one of Asian ancestry
(MerriamWebster)
I checked its etymology and found that :
- Derogatory slang sense of "a slant-eyed Asian person" is recorded from 1943, from earlier slant-eyes (1929).
(Etymologyonline)
It seems that it was a neutral term at first but it became derogatory later. Is it so? What made the term sound offensive?
What alternative neutral expression can I use instead of "slanting eyes?
Best Answer
If, for some reason, you need to refer to the eye shape of a person with Asian heritage (or with similar eye shape), you can refer to the epicanthic fold. Less technical, but slightly riskier: almond eyes.
Current style is to avoid references to race, skin colour and such like in most situations. If you have to point out the one Chinese-American in room full of Swedish-Americans you might have to refer to the lady with the green shoes or something like that, and 'person' would be safer than 'lady'.
Terms such as "slant-eyed" and "mongoloid" are almost always very offensive.