今天在车上听到有儋州人将大陆人称为“大陆佬”，实际上大陆人或海南其他地方的人也将儋州人称“儋州佬”。这使我想起一个问题来：“佬”和“-man”一样吗？

中国人对某地某国男人的轻视称呼和蔑称为“××佬”，如美国佬、外国佬、北方佬、阔佬、和事佬等。汉语中跟这个称呼有相似功能的还有“侉子”这个称呼。据百度词典，“中国一些地区的汉语方言词汇，该词具有轻蔑和嘲笑的意味，是一种不礼貌的称呼。一般所说的侉子，指的是中原官话地区以北的区域方言群体。源于中原对南蛮北侉西戎东夷的称谓。江淮地区，一个很有趣的现象是，把自己往北的人统统称为“侉子”，而自己往南的人统统称为“蛮子”，但是搞不清楚自己究竟是“侉子”还是“蛮子”。”

我小时候就听到家乡人称河南人为“河南侉子”，当时有很多河南人在山西当地挑担卖布、卖百货等。

英语中的“-man”情况却有所不同。

“man”作后缀，通常并不是个贬义字。“as a suffix in occupational words such as chairman and craftsman, is normally restricted now to male contexts in accordance with changing attitudes to the word man. When the person concerned is a woman, forms in -woman or -person, or some other gender-neutral term such as police officer for policeman and firefighter for fireman, are now commonly used instead.”（据ANSWER词典）

但当China和man 搭配成Chinaman时，就含贬义了（offensive terms for a Chinese man or a person of Chinese descent.）据说，Chinaman是150多年前，第一批华人去美国淘金，被白人称为“Chinaman”。用“Chinaman（中国佬）”称呼中国人，与用“Negroes（黑鬼）”称呼黑人一样，都有轻蔑的意思。但“man”与别的国名搭配产生类似效果的不多或没有。

与之相关的一个习语是“Chinaman's chance（中国佬的机会；机会有限、一个很渺茫的机会）。

Also, ghost of a chance. An extremely slim chance, a hopeless undertaking. Both versions are most often put negatively, as in He hasn't a Chinaman's chance of finishing the work in time, or They haven't a ghost of a chance to get as far as the playoffs. The first term, now considered offensive, dates from the late 1800s when many Chinese immigrants came to work in California and were resented because they worked for lower wages. Its precise allusion is unclear. The variant, which relies on the meaning of ghost as an insubstantial shadow, dates from the mid-1800s. Also see the synonyms fat chance; not an earthly chance（据ANSWER词典）

这个词还跟“not have a dog's chance（[口]毫无机会, 全无希望, 没有任何可能）”类似。

Chinaman's chance也是来源于清朝时中国人到美国加州的淘金故事。白人有优先淘金权，而华人只能在白人淘剩的渣滓里来淘，因此，中国人淘得黄金的机会就很小了。