Oop--naughty words?

[Tim Regan]

Hi All,

--- In HPFGU Melissa wrote: 
> I was a bit alarmed, though, when I read 
> Uncle Vernon's words in chapter 2:
> 
> "Enough -- effing -- [name of magical item that was particularly 
> annoying him, deleted in case anyone is worried about spoilers]!"
> 
> Does that 2nd word there mean what I think it means, or does it 
mean 
> something different in the UK?

It's a phonetic shortening of f**k in the UK too.

I was nervous too when I read over that part to my children so the 
following morning I mentioned that there was swearing in the book. 
My kid's (8 & 10) normally have well honed antennae for spotting the 
swearing but they only mentioned the other language. I think 
Vernon's comment is in the midst of such gripping dialogue that his 
language went whoosh over there heads.

Once, when my daughter was young (3?), I was wheeling her around our 
local Supermarket (Tesco's in Woodbridge UK) when she started 
calling me "You stupid jungle bum" loudly. I told her to stop (it 
sounds stronger language in the UK than in the USA) and she just 
wouldn't. Eventually I lost my temper and shouted at her. It was 
only after that I found out that she was quoting directly from 
Disney's "Jungle Book"!

Cheers,

Dumbledad