On June 28, 1919, the day this was printed, the Treaty of Versailles was signed in France ending the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers of World War I. That’s the context for the “hun mine-layer” comment.

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10 points

So is Atilla the Hun just Atilla the German?

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26 points

Other way round. The nickname/insult was saying Germans are warlike barbarians like Atila the Hun and the rest of the the Huns.

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20 points

Kaiser Wilhelm gave a speech encouraging his soldiers to “be huns” on campaign, which led to it being an insult applied to Germans.

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17 points

“hun” was the “orc” of the pre-Tolkien era

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8 points

Ehhh yes, but the stereotype already existed before that speech: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hun_speech

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5 points

‘atilla’ meant something like ‘little Daddy’ in visigothic.

Do with that what you will

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4 points

That’s a little unfair because “daddy” is already a diminutive version of “dad” so you are double dipping on diminutives. It’d be more accurate to say that “atilla” is either like “little dad” or “daddy”.

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Everett True Comics

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A place to appreciate the twentieth century comic character Everett True of “The Outbursts of Everett True.” Feel free to check out the sticky.

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