The term "spic" is a 20th-century American English ethnic slur. It originated as a clipped form of the word "Hispanic" or, alternatively, from a mispronunciation of the Spanish word "español" by English speakers, particularly in the context of the phrase "No speak English." This truncation and phonetic alteration transformed a neutral identifier into a derogatory label. Its emergence reflects patterns of linguistic prejudice, where the language of an immigrant group is mocked and reduced to a single, disparaging syllable. The word's history is thus not one of classical morphology but of social conflict and pejoration.

This word is a simplex loanword and a clipping, not productively formed from combinable morphemes in English. Its origin is from the English word "Hispanic" or the Spanish word "español."