Purgatory 2024: Obscene language

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  • KarlLB wrote: »
    stetson wrote: »
    Sorry. Last sentence should read...

    '... there is really no situation where "stupid" could be taken as a compliment.'

    Oh I can think of one. It's a bit rude though.

    What is it?
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    stetson wrote: »
    KarlLB wrote: »
    stetson wrote: »
    Sorry. Last sentence should read...

    '... there is really no situation where "stupid" could be taken as a compliment.'

    Oh I can think of one. It's a bit rude though.

    What is it?

    Well, variations on "what a night! We shagged each other stupid!"

    Sorry, but you did ask.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    @KarlLB
    Sorry, but you did ask.

    Not sure why you thought I might be offended. That's actually pretty milquetoast by the standards of this particular thread.

    Not that it's not an interesting usage. I think I've more often encountered "silly" used in the same way, but not specifically with regards to sex, eg. "He drinks himself silly every night" is something I've heard at least once.
  • Nick TamenNick Tamen Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    stetson wrote: »
    Sorry. Last sentence should read...

    '... there is really no situation where "stupid" could be taken as a compliment.'
    Sure there is—“stupid good,” as reflected here or here or here or here. Much like “wicked good.”


  • "Stupid boy" ? referencing 'Dad's Army.
  • Nick Tamen wrote: »
    stetson wrote: »
    Sorry. Last sentence should read...

    '... there is really no situation where "stupid" could be taken as a compliment.'
    Sure there is—“stupid good,” as reflected here or here or here or here. Much like “wicked good.”


    Well, in that context, it's conjoined with "good", whereas Madonna just said "Hitchcock was stupid", which just sounded really awkward to me.

    But okay. I concede that "stupid" is not as irredeemable as I had originally thought.
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    "Sick" is London youth culture isn't it? It certainly isn't widespread, any more than "peng" or "bare".
  • ArethosemyfeetArethosemyfeet Shipmate, Heaven Host
    Ariel wrote: »
    "Sick" is London youth culture isn't it? It certainly isn't widespread, any more than "peng" or "bare".

    I've heard "sick" in this context and not the other two, but I did immediately hear "innit blud" in my head after it.
  • Ariel wrote: »
    "Sick" is London youth culture isn't it? It certainly isn't widespread, any more than "peng" or "bare".

    Well, speaking as a non-London, non-youth, I've seen or heard "sick" to mean "cool" numerous times, but only ever seen or heard "bare" to mean "naked", "basic", or "undisguised", IOW its standard meanings.

    And I think "peng" with any meaning was totally unknown to me prior to seeing your post. So I'd surmise that "sick" has a considerably higher profile than the other two.
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    "Bare" is pretty much "very" so "bare sick" or "bare peng" would both be terms of approval with "peng" being "very attractive" or something you like a lot.

    I expect they've probably all moved on to using other terms since these have filtered through and are being looked at by Old People.
  • RuthRuth Shipmate
    "Sick" as slang for "impressive" has been current here in Southern California for decades. I associate it with surfers and skateboarders.
  • Contra James Cleverly, I'm pretty sure I have never heard "shithole" used to describe a person, only a place.

    Closest would be "shithead" for a person.

    Saw on today's beeb that Cleverly was accused of calling Stockton North a "shithole" while heckling that constituency's MP, but he says he was refering to the MP.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    I don’t believe his denial.
  • Martin54Martin54 Suspended
    edited November 2023
    Nobody does. Nor his blaming the poor. Fucker.
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    He might I suppose be claiming it along the lines of it being equivalent to "arsehole" but if so, not very Cleverly done.
  • Asking with some trepidation, after reading the debate on badass - is kickass seen as bordering on obscene?
  • Depends on who is listening. I find them both to be and use both occassionally. I would not say either at church.
  • I would and have heard it said: usually apropos a sermon
  • Asking with some trepidation, after reading the debate on badass - is kickass seen as bordering on obscene?

    I think either word is about as obscene as the word "ass", refering to buttocks is, is. And probably actually less, because "ass" on its own is often directly sexualized, whereas "badass" and "kickass" aren't.

    So, I don't think you'd have a problem using "kickass" in most casual contexts, but see @Kendel's caveat about church, and we can extrapolate that to other formalized contexts. Don't write "I'm a kickass problem-solver" on your resume, for example.
  • Leorning CnihtLeorning Cniht Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    Asking with some trepidation, after reading the debate on badass - is kickass seen as bordering on obscene?

    Yeah. Animal cruelty is pretty obscene. You shouldn't go around kicking donkeys.

    As far as words for the posterior go, I seem to find shades of difference between the US and UK. Although ass and arse seem like they should be the same word, I find Americans happy to say "ass" in contexts where I'd be rather shocked if a Brit of similar standing said "arse".

  • Where does that leave the Brit abbreviation 'bum' for bottom, as the word has a compleely different meaning in the U.S: 'A burly bum came hiking' (Rock Candy Mountain). Incidentally, am I right in thinking that the term 'burly' implies that the itinerant gentleman might be a person of African ancestry?'
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    Eirenist wrote: »
    Where does that leave the Brit abbreviation 'bum' for bottom, as the word has a compleely different meaning in the U.S: 'A burly bum came hiking'

    I think you've answered your own question here? In the UK, "bum" will be understood as meaning the buttocks, in the USA, as refering to an impoverished transient.

    I will say that in Canada, I've heard both meanings.
  • More or less, UK bum <-> US butt. Although again I think there are shades of difference - I wouldn't say "bum" in contexts where I hear Americans routinely say "butt", and whilst "bum" and its derivatives can be used as rather mild swear words, I don't think I've ever seen someone drop something on their toe and exclaim "Oh, butt!"
  • Eirenist wrote: »
    Where does that leave the Brit abbreviation 'bum' for bottom, as the word has a compleely different meaning in the U.S: 'A burly bum came hiking' (Rock Candy Mountain). Incidentally, am I right in thinking that the term 'burly' implies that the itinerant gentleman might be a person of African ancestry?'

    Burly just means stocky or husky. Or, on topic for this thread, "built like a brick shithouse". There's no racial implication at all.
  • I had a record of that song as a child (in the UK) and oh, the mental images of a hitch-hiking bum!
  • "built like a brick shithouse"

    I've never quite understood that metaphor. Is it just that a structure made of bricks is sturdier than one made of, say, wood?

    But, then, why a washroom rather than any other building? Is the vulgarity just supposed to add an element of earthiness to the expression?

    I think I've usually heard the phrase used to describe the physical attributes of someone that the speaker finds attractive. So maybe scatological vulgarity just sorta goes along with expressions of sexual desire?

    Logically, a phrase such "built like the Hoover Dam" would seem a more suitable phrasing. That is, a widely recognized marvel of engineering.
  • Yes, subg by Burl Ives. And thanks for that clarification, L.C.
  • DoublethinkDoublethink Admin, 8th Day Host
    stetson wrote: »
    "built like a brick shithouse"

    I've never quite understood that metaphor. Is it just that a structure made of bricks is sturdier than one made of, say, wood?

    But, then, why a washroom rather than any other building? Is the vulgarity just supposed to add an element of earthiness to the expression?

    I think I've usually heard the phrase used to describe the physical attributes of someone that the speaker finds attractive. So maybe scatological vulgarity just sorta goes along with expressions of sexual desire?

    Logically, a phrase such "built like the Hoover Dam" would seem a more suitable phrasing. That is, a widely recognized marvel of engineering.

    Outside toilets were relatively small buildings not much taller than a person, about the size of a telephone box. So the comparison makes more sense than, say, built like a corner shop.

    I have also heard it given as built like a brick privy.
  • Is there a sense in which a vulgar term is less objectionable because it has another meaning which is not vulgar? An ass is a donkey. Shag can refer to a kind of rug. One can prick one's thumb. After an injury, the scene may be bloody.
  • HarryCH wrote: »
    Shag can refer to a kind of rug.
    Or where I live (the Carolinas), a kind of dance. Here, if someone says “we shagged all night,” it’s understood to mean “we danced all night.” “Shag” is never used here to refer to sex, unless someone is trying to sound British/Australian.

  • Or tobacco.
  • Or tobacco.
    I’m sorry; I’m afraid I don’t understand what this is in reference to.

  • Shag tobacco. It's a type.
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    HarryCH wrote: »
    Is there a sense in which a vulgar term is less objectionable because it has another meaning which is not vulgar? An ass is a donkey. Shag can refer to a kind of rug. One can prick one's thumb. After an injury, the scene may be bloody.

    Well, a writer of pornography, for example, could use the words "ass" or "shag" in composing a dirty story, and they would carry more of an erotic punch than "buttocks" or "copulate". Even though the latter pair of phrases don't have alternate, non-sexual meanings.

    So, mutatis mutandis, no, I would say that certain words, when used as sexual slang in everyday conversation, retain the power to shock or offend, regardless of any secondary definitions.

    And, FWIW, I think these days Jesus is more often than not described as riding a "donkey" into Jerusalem, precisely because of the unseemly double entendre accompanying "ass".
  • ArielAriel Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    Bird names are also quite good for rude words. Cock, tit and shag, for example. (A shag is a kind of cormorant.)
  • stetsonstetson Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    Ariel wrote: »
    Bird names are also quite good for rude words. Cock, tit and shag, for example. (A shag is a kind of cormorant.)

    I thought "tit" was derived from "teat", which I think is more-or-less a respectable anatomical term.
  • stetson wrote: »
    Ariel wrote: »
    Bird names are also quite good for rude words. Cock, tit and shag, for example. (A shag is a kind of cormorant.)

    I thought "tit" was derived from "teat", which I think is more-or-less a respectable anatomical term.

    It is. When it means breast anyway.
  • Or tobacco.

    Or bird.
  • Ariel wrote: »
    Bird names are also quite good for rude words. Cock, tit and shag, for example. (A shag is a kind of cormorant.)

    We have a set of these in our caravan.
    https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/304848938630?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=facmb2qjrjq&sssrc=4429486&ssuid=&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY
  • NicoleMR wrote: »
    Shag tobacco. It's a type.
    BroJames wrote: »
    Ah, thanks. Not a use I’m familiar with, despite having grown up in Tobacco Road.

  • SpikeSpike Ecclesiantics & MW Host, Admin Emeritus
    Ariel wrote: »
    Bird names are also quite good for rude words. Cock, tit and shag, for example. (A shag is a kind of cormorant.)

    There’s an Australian expression to mean feeling exposed or out of place - the English equivalent would be “fish out of water”.

    An Australian friend of mine tells of how he had just moved to the UK and started a new job. On his first day he said quite loudly “I feel like a shag on a rock”. The whole office went quiet and everybody stared at him.
  • Spike wrote: »
    An Australian friend of mine tells of how he had just moved to the UK and started a new job. On his first day he said quite loudly “I feel like a shag on a rock”. The whole office went quiet and everybody stared at him.

    An invitation to cocktails, perhaps? A bit like a Sex on the Beach, but less comfortable.
  • BroJamesBroJames Purgatory Host
    :lol:
  • DardaDarda Shipmate
    "built like a brick shithouse"
    Which also reminds me of the phrase "bangs like a shithouse door", meaning enjoys frequent and vigorous sex.

  • “Bangs like a shithouse door in a gale” straight out of the fillum “the adventures of Barry McKenzie” which caused quite a stir in both Blighty and Oz 50 years ago: author no less than the late & great Barry Humphries…
  • Spike wrote: »
    An Australian friend of mine tells of how he had just moved to the UK and started a new job. On his first day he said quite loudly “I feel like a shag on a rock”. The whole office went quiet and everybody stared at him.

    An invitation to cocktails, perhaps? A bit like a Sex on the Beach, but less comfortable.

    More like “what’s a nice Antipodean like me doing among these po-faced P**s?”
  • 'Tit' or teat is strictly speaking a nipple.
  • KarlLBKarlLB Shipmate
    edited November 2023
    Eirenist wrote: »
    'Tit' or teat is strictly speaking a nipple.

    Teat is. Tit, although derived from it, isn't because that's not what people mean by it. It's shifted in meaning.
  • Not here it hasn’t. Teat is a rubber thingy on the end of a bottle. Tit is a mammary thingy.
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