This is an All Ears English podcast, episode 2491.
Why should you not call someone yellow in English?
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Are you a scaredy cat?
Today, learn four phrases for calling someone scared or cowardly and discover why you should not call someone yellow in English.
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Hello, Michelle.
How are you?
I'm doing well, Aubrey.
How are you?
I'm excited to record with you.
I know.
It's always fun when we get to join each other in the mic.
Lindsay's out of town this week.
I'm excited to hear about her trip when she gets back.
And in the meantime, we get to record.
Yes.
But Aubrey, I would like to start today with a question for you.
All right.
So have you ever watched an older show and seen or heard something that wouldn't be in a show today.
All the time.
I can't believe how often this happens, actually, right?
Terms that we wouldn't use any longer that are discriminatory.
References to, you know, something being inappropriate, or it's crazy how often this happens.
What about you?
Yeah, I mean even something as simple as I mean.
This isn't just like Even when you watch I Love Lucy.
Do you ever watch I Love Lucy?
No, but yes.
I mean, you know what you mean?
Like it's sometimes, you know, I think we've talked about this something holding up, right?
You watch I Love Lucy.
It's such a classic show, but there's a lot that doesn't hold up.
I mean, including like, you know, they're sleeping in separate beds.
They weren't allowed to say like, like they were the first show, I think, on TV to say the word pregnant.
So just things were different.
And also just like the relationship between Lucy and Ricky.
She was right.
So and also a lot of making fun of Ricky's.
There are just certain things that I mean this happens all the time where you think oh, that doesn't, it doesn't feel right today.
We're trying to be more respectful of other people's culture, language.
Sexual orientation.
And so a lot of things that used to be very accepted and funny in shows, we won't see much anymore.
A good example is Back to the Future.
Do you remember the movie, the Back to the Future series?
I loved it.
Yeah.
But I remember one of the characters calling someone yellow.
This is said a lot in the show to mean cowardly.
They're like, nobody calls me yellow.
And now we don't use this term.
So we actually got a question about this.
And I'm excited to dive in today to why we don't recommend calling someone yellow and better things, better ways that we can call, because you might need to call someone cowardly.
Right.
It happens.
Yeah.
So this comes from YouTube.
Aubrey, would you like me to read the question?
Yeah.
Yeah.
All right.
This is from Mustafa and he says, hello, I'm Mustafa from Syria.
Thanks for the beautiful episode.
I heard an idiom, do not turn yellow on me.
What is its meaning and when can I use it?
Well, thank you so much, Mustafa, for your question.
Thanks for listening.
And yeah, this is a really great question.
A lot to talk about here.
And you will hear this a lot in older movies.
Yellow used to mean cowardly.
Right.
Not brave.
You'll hear an often yellow bellied, yellow bellied.
Yes.
You'll see you yellow bellied, blah, blah, blah.
Right.
Exactly.
So you if you haven't heard it yet, you probably will now.
Old Westerns, lots of old movies.
This was a very common term.
And usually when it was said there was no intent of it being a discriminatory term, but the origins of this term are discriminatory.
And so that's why it's no longer used commonly.
We definitely wouldn't recommend it because of the history of this word.
Yeah, definitely.
Yeah, one way that we could describe this word is, well, we could say it's a discriminatory term.
It's also a pejorative.
That's a new vocabulary word.
Aubrey, what does pejorative mean?
Yeah, this is a great word.
I mean, it's a word expressing contempt or disapproval.
So it's also used as an adjective. meaning to express contempt or disapproval, right?
So this is any term that has some kind of racist or discriminatory prejudicial feeling behind it.
Right.
So, yeah, really important word to know.
So but today we're going to share better vocabulary.
So, I mean, when somebody did say yellow, what did they mean?
Yeah, it meant cowardly.
And we're going to share some great words we still use that aren't pejoratives.
The first one is spineless.
This means lacking courage.
It can also mean lacking like moral strength.
So for example, he was too spineless to speak up against the unfair rules.
So this is often the way we use this is someone should be brave.
There's a reason to be brave and they don't dare.
They're afraid.
We'll call them spineless.
Yeah.
Or another thing you could say is I don't want to be spineless, but it's hard to say anything since I'm not confrontational at all.
So yeah, I think we've all been there.
You don't want to have a confrontation.
But yeah, someone might say that could be.
In certain situations that could be spineless.
And this is a, yeah, if you, if you.
You don't want to just throw this word around and call anybody spineless.
That's a pretty big insult.
It is, right?
This is heavy.
We don't really use this playfully, right?
If you're calling someone spineless, they're likely to be offended or maybe have their feelings hurt.
So yeah, that's good to know.
It's a pretty serious word.
And we also will sort of change the word and say someone has no spine.
And we do use it in less serious situations.
Like if you're at a haunted house and someone doesn't go in, you might be like oh, you're so spineless.
You have no spine.
But I think that these next words that we have, these are more like I, like how you described spineless.
It's a heavy word.
These next ones are lighter.
So this first one is scaredy cat.
And this is more a person who is easily frightened.
I think of scaredy cat more for you know, scary movies.
Lindsay and I have recently talked about scary, scary movies.
If we like them or haunted houses, um, or, you know, going on or going on a ride, a scary ride.
If you say, no, I'm a scaredy cat, right?
So you, it's a, it's a person who is easily frightened.
So you could say, stop being such a scaredy cat.
It's just a little thunder.
Yes.
Or she's a real scaredy cat when it comes to horror movies.
That's about me.
I think that is depends.
I like a good thriller, but I don't really like jump scares.
Oh, I hate that. that I can't.
Like when I know someone's going to pop out and you know what's happening, the music, it's all leading there.
I can't take it.
Right.
Like I'm just going to go in the other room.
Yeah.
Yeah.
But yeah, it's interesting how this sort of highlights the difference between being afraid and being cowardly.
It is different, right?
Where if someone isn't brave, often it's more of an implication that they should be for some reason.
They're facing some kind of injustice or Or unfair treatment, and they need to be brave and stick up for themselves.
And then there's also fear of things like this, haunted houses, roller coasters, right?
So often what we would call someone, whether playfully or not, will be a little bit different depending on what we're saying.
They're scared of.
Right.
Yeah, exactly.
And similar to a scaredy cat is chicken.
So this is scared or cowardly can be used as an adjective or a noun.
So it's interesting.
I would say this one could also be kind of both kinds of things that you're scared of.
Right.
So, for example, you might just hear, are you a chicken or are you chicken?
Right.
Exactly.
Right.
So used as a noun there.
Are you a chicken?
Meaning like, are you scared?
Are you not brave?
You might say, I'm not jumping over that fence.
I'm way too chicken.
Or you could say, I'm too big of a chicken.
So either you're using it as a noun or an adjective.
Right.
But we also might say chicken out.
Right.
So what's that, Aubrey?
Yeah, this is like a phrasal verb.
It's an idiom, but it's to decide not to do something because you're afraid.
So for example, I was going to try bungee jumping, but I chickened out at the last second.
That would be me.
Or she promised she'd speak in front of the class, but then she chickened out.
Yeah, and we use this a lot, right?
It's not as heavy as saying like, then she was spineless.
It's a little more playful, lighter, right?
But yeah, I like how you said chicken can be used for either.
You'd be like, oh, I need to talk to my boss about this, but I'm too chicken.
Or you could say spineless.
It depends on sort of how heavy the situation is.
Right, right, right.
And all of these.
You don't want to be called these things, but like if I were to call you a scaredy cat.
Aubrey, would you rather I call you spineless or a scaredy cat?
Definitely a scaredy cat.
That one's the most playful of all of these, right?
I don't want to go in the haunted house.
Ah, you scaredy cat.
Yeah.
But it really depends on the situation, right?
If you and I are in a horror movie and I'm screaming the whole time we leave, that would be more appropriate to just be like.
You're such a scaredy cat.
Whereas these others imply bravery more, which that's, you know, being scared in a horror movie doesn't mean you're not brave.
Right.
Right.
You just don't like that kind of stuff.
Yeah, exactly.
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All right, we have a role play here.
To use some of these terms, you and I are planning on going to a haunted house in this role play.
Yeah, boy, I don't love that.
I don't love that.
But that's okay.
Halloween is coming up kind of soon.
So here we go.
Okay, the haunted house opens at eight.
Are you ready?
Honestly, I don't know.
I'm kind of scared.
You know I'm a chicken about this stuff.
Oh, Aubrey, don't be such a scaredy cat.
I heard this one isn't bad at all.
I will go with you, but I reserve the right to chicken out and not go inside.
Absolutely not.
You can't plan on being spineless.
You have to promise you'll come in with me.
There's no way I'm doing it alone.
Okay, who's the chicken now?
Oh, good role play.
Yeah, I like this because it shows how all of these can be playful, even spineless there, right?
I'm not offended.
You can't plan on being spineless, right?
You can't plan ahead on being not brave.
Right.
Yeah.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
It is really good how we showed it in that lighter way.
So that's good.
So let's go through it.
So you said, I'm kind of scared.
You know, I'm a chicken.
I'm a chicken about this stuff.
Yeah.
And you can use either way here.
I'm using as a noun.
I'm a chicken.
I'm a chicken about this stuff.
Or I could have just said, you know, I'm chicken, meaning like, you know, I'm scared.
Mm hmm.
And then you said, don't be such a scaredy cat.
And this is perfect, right?
It's not really mean.
It's teasing a little bit, poking fun, being like, don't be scared.
We got this.
Right.
And then you said, I'll go with you, but I reserve the right to chicken out and not go inside.
Right.
So to change my mind because I'm scared.
Exactly.
Right.
This is like used as a phrasal verb.
And then you said you can't plan on being spineless.
So this, you know, any of these would work.
You can't plan on being a chicken, a scaredy cat.
But spineless works here.
It means brave.
You can't plan on not being brave.
Right.
And then you said, because I said, I don't want to do it alone.
And you said, Oh, who's the chicken now?
So now you're throwing it back at me.
Yep.
Selling you a chicken just means you're scared.
You're not brave, right?
You don't want to go in alone.
Who would?
Imagine going into a haunted house alone.
I don't want to go even with 10 people.
I'm certainly not going alone.
Right.
We want to share an episode in case you missed it.
All There's English 2497 was grip or grasp tips for this tricky English vocabulary.
And I thought of this one because if someone's being a chicken, you might tell them to get a grip.
So make sure you don't miss that episode.
Yes, absolutely true.
And guys also check that one out.
But also make sure if you haven't already, make sure you hit follow wherever you're listening to the All Ears English podcast, so you never miss anything.
Yes.
Awesome.
As a takeaway here, we all have moments when we're scared.
This is actually a great connection moment.
Look at this role play.
What a great connection moment to like be planning on doing something but admitting you're a little scared, admitting that vulnerability and being kind of teasing and playful about it.
Yeah, true.
All right, Aubrey.
Well, this was so much fun.
I'm glad we recorded together.
And yeah, we'll see you soon.
Awesome.
See you next time.
Bye.
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