DST / Shaun's shields of arms / talking dirty with Geoff

[Geoff Bannister]

--- In HPFGU-OTChatter at yahoogroups.com, "Catlady (Rita Prince Winston)" <catlady at ...> 
wrote:

> Geoff wrote in
> <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/HPFGU-OTChatter/message/31812>:
> 
> << In terms of questionable language, what I do strongly object to is
> the use of the f-word and the c-word because their use often extends
> beyond their Anglo-Saxon meaning with reference to sexual activity and
> they are often used as pejorative terms in order to insult or express
> anger >> 

Catlady: 
> I object to that usage as being anti-sex. I especially disapprove of
> using 'the c-word' to refer to any male person one dislikes, as being
> anti-female. One time I had a fight with my ex about it. He always
> called all the other drivers on the road 'you cunt', and finally I
> said: "You could call the bad drivers idiots or assholes, but it
> doesn't make sense to call them after something you like so much and
> are always chasing after." 

Geoff:
I see your point but there is another factor which , at least for me 
personally and for quite a number of people I know, makes these 
words and certain others which are used pejoratively different.

My feeling is that when the f-word and the others in this sort of 
category are being used, the user is not seeing them in a sexual 
format but as a word they learned to use when in a rage or really 
wanting to hurt someone verbally.

When I was a teenager, one gained a measure of street cred by 
swearing and  have to admit that when I was in my mid-teens, I 
did allow these words to escape my lips <shock, horror, sharp 
intake of breath>. I used them to try to be big and to achieve 
the result  mentioned above. I was not using them to make a 
sexual point.

Looking at the etymology involved may help to explain why these 
words annoy me intensely whereas I can shrug off a word like 
"cock" or "shag" as just a slang way of expressing things. When 
the Normans conquered England in 1066, the official language 
of the court and the crown became French and English was pushed 
out until perhaps the 14th century. As a result, to roughly quote a 
former English teaching colleague of mine, "English was left in the 
hands of the peasants for 300 years and what they did to it was 
nobody's business!"

Not only was grammar simplified but many words which had been 
everyday words in Anglo-Saxon became slang words, or swear 
words or derogatory terms. And many of the words involved were 
those referring to bodily functions. Hence what I would call lavatory 
words or words to do with sexual activity took on a second level of 
meaning as insults, provocative words, words to express anger etc. 
which really had nothing to do with their original meaning.

Which is why these words can be so inflammatory. Many other words, 
although not designed for conversation with the Prime Minister, do 
not carry this cachet. Some are sometimes quite funny. I creased up 
when the author of an early report about "Equus" made a comment 
about people wanting to see "Harry Potter's willie". That word, for me, 
is just so silly and childish. Again, as a hormone-driven teenager, I 
can remember falling about in gales of laughter when we were studying 
Shakespeare's "Henry IV Part 1" and someone says "and Pistol's cock 
is up". That was just too much for a 15 year-old...


Geoff: 
> << and they therefore carry much more in the way of undertones than
> the word we mentioned above. >>
> 
> "Cock" is a word for an anatomical organ and "prick" is an insult and
> "putz" is a different insult. (One time my bus passed a construction
> site and one of the big machines had a brand label on it "PUTZMASTER").
> 
> << Please note that this post was written after the 9.00 pm
> British watershed. :-) >>
> 
> What is '9:00 pm British watershed'?

Geoff:
This is an arrangement which relates in particular to television 
programmes. The TV channels do not transmit programmes which 
contain material which is considered to be unsuitable or harmful 
to children - often of an overtly sexual or violent nature - before 
nine o'clock in the evening.

I hope that, in this post, I have not damaged my image of being 
a quiet living, well-spoken young man possessing typical English 
reserve.
:-))