Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(US) a derog. term for an Arab; also attrib.

1865		M. Reid Boy Slaves 54: They were taken prisoners as they landed by a lot o' Ayrabs.
1884		Twain Hucklebery Finn 31: A whole parcel of Spanish merchants and rich A-rabs [...] with two hundred elephants, and six hundred camels.
1913		C.H. Robbins Gam 188: Then that Ay-rab begun cussin’ worse’ n forty pirates on a raft!
1926		Hearst’s International 80 136/2: You’ll act like a Christian and not an Ay-rab or back you go to the courts and reform school .
1933		V. Sheean Tide 161: ‘I’m a black Ay-rab Jewish bitch, McGinnis,’ she said calmly.
1944		O. Ferguson ‘Vocabulary for Lakes, [etc.]’ AS XIX:2 104: An Ay-rab, meaning almost any dark-skinned cousin of less than minimum competence.
1947		(con. 1944) J.H. Burns Gallery (1948) 19: The Ayrabs stood around [...] wearing G.I. mattress covers.
1956		N. Algren Walk on the Wild Side 36: City unions teach you that Chinamens are your brothers! Ayrabs! Mexes!
1961		L. Rosten Captain Newman, M.D. 120: Next thing, I’m in a Red Cross wagon or somethin’ with some Ayrab.
1975		J. Roe The Same Old Grind 14: Syria was one of those Ayrab countries.
1975		E. Torres Carlito’s Way 77: One look at [...] this fuckin’ A-rab of yours and he’ll bolt like a rabbit.
1978		Maledicta II:1+2 (Summer/Winter) 151: Ayrab Anyone from an Arab country, or of Islam religion excepting Black Muslims, or of Arab ancestry. Sometimes applied to Sephardic Jews by Jews of [East] European descent, as a gesture of extreme contempt, indicating the European Jewish attitude that Jews having adopted some Arab customs are not true Jews at all.
1989		M. Miller 1001 Coffee Mornings 191: Ayrab values and Ayrab culture and Ayrab morals are the greatest. He just doesn’t wanna know ’bout America. Says it’s corrupt, decadent, doomed.
1997		R. Laxalt Dust Devils 89: There was a horse inside, but I couldn’t tell if it was Ayrab.
2004		J. Ellroy ‘Jungletown Jihad’ in Destination: Morgue! (2004) 328: Ahab the A-rab. Where’s your camel, motherfucker?
2010		J.L. Kincheloe Teaching aghainst Islamophobia 39: Images of the manipulative, dishonest, and scheming ‘Ay-rab’ that fill our television and movie screens.