raatid
Jamaican Creole edit
Alternative forms edit
Etymology edit
Traditionally taken to be a Jamaican form of English wrathed or English wrothed, or possibly from or reinforced by English rotted,[1] but other origins have also been proposed.[2]
Pronunciation edit
Adjective edit
raatid
- bloody
- Dis raatid fassy a get pon mi nerves.
- This bloody asshole is getting on my nerves.
- 2006, Ras Dennis Jabari Reynolds, Jabari: Authentic Jamaican Dictionary of the Jamic Language (in English), →ISBN, page 104:
- “raatid (rä-tid): int./adj. - an exclamation of surprise, scorn or contempt; unscrupulous; feisty; worrisome […] ”
Interjection edit
raatid
- bloody hell, damn, damn it
- Raatid! But a wha dis?
- Bloody hell! What's this?
- A mus lie dem a tell to raatid!
- They're bloody well lying.
- (literally, “It must be that lie they are telling. Bloody hell!”)
- 2006, Ras Dennis Jabari Reynolds, Jabari: Authentic Jamaican Dictionary of the Jamic Language (in English), →ISBN, page 104:
- “raatid (rä-tid): int./adj. - an exclamation of surprise, scorn or contempt; unscrupulous; feisty; worrisome […] ”
See also edit
References edit
- ^ Elisa Janine Sobo, One Blood: The Jamaican Body (→ISBN), page 33 (1993): By picking fruit just as it "turns" from green Jamaicans avoid contamination with rot, which they fear greatly. The expletive rhatid expresses, as a homonym, the connection between rotted matter and problems worthy of wrath, which is pronounced "rhat" (Cassidy 1982, 175).
- ^ L. Emilie Adams, Understanding Jamaican Patois: An Introduction to Afro-Jamaican Grammar (1991): raatid! or raatid a common mild expletive of surprise or vexation, as in to raatid! Although popular etymology often derives this word from the Biblical "wrath", pronounced raat, it is more likely a polite permutation of ras, a la "gosh" or "heck".
Further reading edit
- Richard Allsopp, editor (1996), Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, Kingston, Jamaica: University of the West Indies Press, published 2003, →ISBN, page 463