Meanings
plural shvartzes · alternative shvartza · alternative shvartsa · alternative shvartse · alternative schvartza · alternative schvartze · alternative schwartza · alternative schwartze · alternative shvartzer
- JewishUSethnicoffensiveslurA person of sub-Saharan African descent; a black person.
1988, Leon Uris, Mitla Pass, New York: Doubleday, Part 3, “Baltimore 1902-1913,” p. 270, […] they were able to afford a full-time shvartze to keep the house.
4 more examples
[…] she irons better even than the schvartze,
1969, Philip Roth, “The Most Unforgettable Character I’ve Met”, in Portnoy’s Complaint, New York: Vintage, published 1994, page 121975, Robert Greenfield, The Spiritual Supermarket, New York: Saturday Review Press / E. P. Dutton & Co., p. 6, From the rabbi to the “shvartze,” the black man who turned on the synagogue’s lights on Saturdays, he was liked.
Jesse Jackson cracks a joke about Hymietown and everybody has a fit, but I’ve heard you call them shvartzes, and I’ll bet had your daughter married one you wouldn’t have cracked open a bottle of champagne.
1997, Mordecai Richler, “The Second Mrs. Panofsky”, in Barney’s Version, New York: Knopf, Part 10, p. 213‘We don’t have enough problems among the Jews, he has to go take on the problems of the shvartze?’
2006, Melissa Fay Greene, chapter 6, in The Temple Bombing, Cambridge: MA: Da Capo, page 139
alternative shvartza · alternative shvartsa · alternative shvartse · alternative schvartza · alternative schvartze · alternative schwartza · alternative schwartze · alternative shvartzer
- JewishUSethnicnot comparableoffensiveslurOf sub-Saharan African descent; of or pertaining to people of sub-Saharan African descent; black.
2012, Steve Stern, “The Tale of a Kite” in The Book of Mischief, Minneapolis: Graywolf Fress, p. 9, Ordinarily Boss Crump and his entourage […] like to tour the individual shops, receiving the tributes his shvartze valet shleps out to a waiting limousine.
1 more example
There was a shvartze wedding next door and something else too . . . some anniversary party.
1983, Richard Price, The Breaks, New York: Simon & Schuster, Part 1, p. 98
Origin
- Yiddishשוואַרצע
- Englishshvartze
Borrowed from Yiddish שוואַרצע (shvartse), feminine and plural form of שוואַרץ (shvarts, “black”). The generalization of the form was likely reinforced by the frequent use referring to black female domestic workers, although forms in -e/-a and -er would have merged in any case in a non-rhotic accent such as New York English. The context of domestic workers may also be that in which the word received a derogatory connotation, which of course it did not originally have (cf. German Schwarzer, the politically correct term for “black person”). Doublet of swart.
More words from Yiddish
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
shvartze. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 4, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shvartze
“shvartze.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shvartze. Accessed November 4, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “shvartze,” accessed November 4, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/shvartze.
Source: shvartze on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.