Green’s Dictionary of Slang

Paki n.

also Pakki, Pakky
[abbr. Pakistani; sometimes not derog. but merely abbr.]

1. a derog. term for any British Asian or East African Asian immigrant.

[UK]Guardian 15 Apr. 8/4: Some big Paki over the water’s got her set up for right trouble .
[UK]A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 200: One Paki ran a few yards and spluttered shot at them.
[UK]F. Norman Too Many Crooks Spoil the Caper 99: A group of black youths [...] were kicking the hell out of a turbanned Pakki.
[UK] ‘Rare Bengal Tiger’ in P. Ashton et al. Our Lives (1982) 109: Boys of my age would come up to me and say ‘Paki go home’.
[UK]S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 30: Kick out the Pakis, blackies, paddys and kikes.
[UK]Observer Rev. 26 Jul. 5 It used to be all Jewboys round here. Now, it’s all Pakis.
[UK]B. Hare Urban Grimshaw 220: Underclass kids could be frighteningly racist, especially towards those they labelled ‘Pakis’.
[UK]D. O’Donnell Locked Ward (2013) 287: Fuck off, Paki.
Twitter 27 June 🌐 In utter shock: just been called p**i in my home town! Haven’t heard that word here since the 80s!

2. as the Paki, the Paki’s, a corner shop, a small supermarket, latterly regardless of the race of the owner.

[UK]J. Morton Lowspeak.
[Scot]I. Welsh Glue 85: So we went roond tae the Paki’s n goat some beer n cheap wine.

3. as self-appropriated by second-generation UK Pakistanis.

[UK]G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 6: It ain’t necessary for u 2 b a Pakistani to call a Pakistani a Paki, Hardjit explains, — or for u 2 call any Paki a Paki for dat matter. But u gots 2 b call’d a Paki yourself. U gots 2 b, like, an honorary Paki or someshit. An dat’s da rule. Can’t be callin someone a Paki less u also call’d a Paki, innit. So if you hear Jas, Amit, Ravi or me callin anyone a Paki, dat don’t mean u can call him one also. We b honorary Pakis n u ain’t.

4. Pakistan.

[US]R. Robinett ‘Wheels’ in ThugLit July-Aug. [ebook] ‘You'll go to Paki, won't ya? Do a little deal for us?’.

5. used by Pakistani immigrants as an (affectionate) insult to suggest backwardness / lack of sophistication.

Nikesh Shukla burntroti.com Aug. 🌐 Blind paki. The word means something different from when me and my cousins use it on each other. We mean it to mean, you’re so backwards, you’re fresh from the desh, you’re uncultured, a savage. You’re being a real paki about things. But when we say it, for some reason it’s harmless and funny.

In compounds

Paki-basher (n.) [bash v. (1)]

a racist who beats up Asians.

[UK]Eve. Standard 19 Apr. n.p.: Pakistanis living in terror of the ‘paki-basher’ mobs of skinheads [DSUE].
[UK]A. Burgess 1985 (1980) 200: Pakistanis probably victims of East End paki-bashers.
[WI]L.K. Johnson ‘Fite Dem Back’ 🎵 Some of them say them a Paki-basher.
[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 850: [...] since ca. 1965.
[UK]G. Malkani Londonstani (2007) 28: Peeps like Kavi n Davinder [...] shud save up their aggro 4 Paki-bashers.
Paki-bashing (n.)

racially motivated attacks on the UK Asian community, usu. by white youths.

[UK]Observer 5 Apr. 3/2: The name of the game is Pakky Bashing. [...] Any Asian careless enough to be walking the streets at night is a fool .
[UK]G. Pearson [title] Paki-bashing in a north east Lancashire cotton town.
[US]J. Algeo Fifty Years Among the New Words (1993) 226: 1987 Winter. A recently newsworthy British form is Paki-bashing ‘beating up Pakistanis.
[UK]N. Cohn Yes We have No 257: In those same eighties [...] Paki-bashing became a sport of choice.
Joe Mean Streets at skinhead.no 21 Aug. 🌐 There are undoubtedly some [skinheads] that go paki-bashing.
[UK]Observer 21 Nov. 🌐 40 years ago [...] ‘Paki-bashing’ was a national sport and racism viscerally woven into the fabric of society.
Paki pox (n.) [SE pox; its supposed prevalence, in racist eyes, among the era’s Pakistani (in fact more likely Bangladeshi or East African Indian) immigrants]

a derog. term for smallpox.

[UK]Partridge DSUE (8th edn) 850: [...] since ca. 1960.
Paki-shagging (n.)

the alleged sexual grooming (despite statistics that attribute such activiity mainly to white criminals) of white girls by Pakistani men.

Twitter 3 Apr. 🌐 A chief inspector describing ‘grooming’ sex abuse as [...] ‘Paki shagging’ suggests that the ‘fear of racial tensions’ explanation for police inaction was [...] down to straightforward cynicism.