Hi Antonio, I too am finding it difficult to trace the exact colloquial translation of this word but my mother remembers the slur clearly and I have found a reference made to it, in a 1950 booklet produced by the Goa League. Peinture a canecos, means to play the fool, so I am assuming the word canecos by itself when used as a racial slur, meant stupid.
Take care, selma --- On Sat, 7/11/09, Antonio Menezes <[email protected]> wrote: > From: Antonio Menezes <[email protected]> > Subject: [Goanet] Canecos > To: "goanet" <[email protected]> > Date: Saturday, July 11, 2009, 12:32 AM > To tell you frankly, Selma, I have > never heard the word Canecos before. May > be it is a > short form of Canarins i.e. inhabitants of the coast of > Canara. Canarim was > a word > implying contempt, used by the Portuguese to > describe poor and illiterate > Catholic > Goans. The Portuguese got their geography wrong. From > Goa to Bombay is > Konkan > coast, from Karwar to Mangalore it is Canara Coast and > south of Mangalore is > > Malabar coast. We have to keep in view that the > Portuguese ships reached > Goa > from south perhaps from the Angediva island next to Karwar. > Hence Goa in > their eyes > was associated with Canara coast. > > Antonio >
