Terms Which Have Disappeared

[2jakes]

As long as you don't crash two minutes before showtime, you got nothing to worry about.

You bet, Lizzie!
Looks like rain and I've got to bring in & feed Polo.
Talk to you later.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I did not hear bad language when I was growing up with few exceptions. The chief exception was one aunt who used scatologies whenever appropriate, but which was still somewhat embarrassing to me, since my folks didn't talk like that. And again with few exceptions, I have not heard my friends or acquaintences use bad language. One exception was a three-year enlistment in the army. The other is an aunt of my wife who invariably used choice adjectives to describe Yankees and she wasn't talking about baseball. She is from Virginia.

The number one thing the the armed forces teaches to young people is how to swear 7 times in a 5 word sentence.

 

[tonyb]

All this talk of "bad language" reminds me of an old Bill Cosby routine which went something like, "Thanks to my father, it wasn't until I was 14 that I realized my first name wasn't really 'Goddammit.' And my brother Russell? He was 'Jesus Christ.' "

 

[BlueTrain]

Someone, don't know who, said that certain curse words (meaningless intensitivies) tend to have a certain form that make them suitable for use when frustrated, mad and generally unhappy. It's hard to describe but they are words that you almost spit out and in fact, spit has that very sound. It may be that their use provides the speaker with a form of release. Most of those words, previously unprintable, are of Western European origin as is everything else of our language. But I wonder if the Asian languages have the same kinds of words. I no longer have my Koren co-worker across the hall to inquire in matters like this. She still works for us in another location but this isn't something I'd ask about in an e-mail or even over the phone. She certainly knows all the contemporary American words and expressions, though.

Of course, all these unprintable words still retain their original, if vulgar, meanings. I am reminded here of the old Three Stooges short ("Disorder in the Court") when the bailiff is starting to swear in Curly as a witness:
"Do you swear..."
"No! But I know all the words."
Moe, of course, was fond of insulting Larry and whoever the other stooge was with words from his large vocabularly of all-purpose adjectives to describe his partners.

I'm also reminded of the graphic novel character Captain Haddock from the Tintin stories. He was known in the stories as an exceptional swearer, stringing together long sentences of obscure words as insults and expletives. I was almost stunned when my boss, who grew up in Africa, used one of those words once, but I don't remember which one now.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Mark Twain, a champion curser, once criticized an unskilled swearer for "knowing the words but not the music."

 

[ChiTownScion]

Dropping the f- bomb?

Meh. Anyone can do that.

I prefer creative maledicta. Yiddish curses translated are very creative and witty, but I've heard great stuff emerge from the mouths of co-workers who were of the Mountain William persuasion. "Funnier 'n a mountain lion j-----g o-- with a paw full of cockleburs!" remains one of my favorites in the latter category.

 

[2jakes]

In certain parts of California which
I visited that speak Spanish.
I found that the word "grab"
denotes the F word.
Not sure of other places.
The elders I spoke with use it but not as a swear word.
I don't know if other places that
speak the language use it.
But as Lizzie pointed out.
It is cathartic .
And may I add...even in
other languages as well.

In Guam, the language for
some natives is a combination
of Phillipine and Spanish.
And the swearing is very
melodious. At least for me
it was.

 

[LizzieMaine]

It's colder than a fish's nipple today.

 

[2jakes]

It's colder than a fish's nipple today.

...Uhhhhhh....thanks....I'll keep that in mind if I visit Maine around this time!

 

[tonyb]

Could have sworn I heard Mike Wolfe say, while climbing a rickety set of stairs during a segment on his TV show, say those stairs were "shaking like a fat hooker on a cold night."

 

[tonyb]

My frequent use of the F word doesn't betray any lack of imagination. Sure, I and the numerous friends and associates of mine who use the word in everyday conversation know it's a swear word, but in our world it isn't any more unspeakable than, say, "hell" or "damn."

My stepfather rarely uttered a sentence without at least a couple swear words. But he never used the F word. My theory is that he grew up in a sexually repressed atmosphere wherein any reference to copulation was vulgar. So that word was kept under wraps, as were his numerous extramarital liaisons (he was incapable of resisting most any woman's advances). In his emotionally stunted worldview, sex itself was dirty and unspeakable, so the dirtier and more unspeakable it was, the sexier it was.

Richard Pryor, who, in Jerry Seinfeld's words, was "the Picasso of our profession," made the F word less unspeakable, as he did with many other aspects of the human condition. He made our world a better place, which can't be said for those who always play it safe.

 

[tonyb]

Someone, don't know who, said that certain curse words (meaningless intensitivies) tend to have a certain form that make them suitable for use when frustrated, mad and generally unhappy. It's hard to describe but they are words that you almost spit out and in fact, spit has that very sound. It may be that their use provides the speaker with a form of release. Most of those words, previously unprintable, are of Western European origin as is everything else of our language. But I wonder if the Asian languages have the same kinds of words. I no longer have my Koren co-worker across the hall to inquire in matters like this. She still works for us in another location but this isn't something I'd ask about in an e-mail or even over the phone. She certainly knows all the contemporary American words and expressions, though.
...

My training has it that every culture in which the matter has been studied has its own taboo words.

The gist of your "everything else in our language" being of "Western European origin" observation is right, as it is a Germanic tongue with a whole lot of Latinate vocabulary. But we borrow words from anywhere and everywhere. I recently learned from a Filipina that our mutual acquaintance's cat's name is a real hoot among the folks back on her home island, where "Kiki" means a pussy of a whole nuther kind.

 

[BlueTrain]

I am not surprised that every culture, or language, really, has taboo words, some I suppose more taboo than others. I have heard otherwise, though, but that allows for an awful lot of languages in the world, some of which are not written languages. Likewise, acceptable practices and manners can differ widely around the world, except that these days, with what we call globilization, most differences any more are minor. We may have as much in common as far as taste, values and customs with someone halfway around the world as we do with someone on the other side of town. And we may not be comfortable with that idea, either. Some people need enemies, apparently.

Some people, though, will take a relatively exceptional and rare practice from a remote corner of the world or of history and suggest that because such a thing is or was done in such and such a place, then it should be acceptable everywhere now. But rules, laws and social conventions do not happen that way, even if such a thing were really done in fact, which isn't always the actual case.

 

[GHT]

Dropping the f- bomb?

Meh. Anyone can do that.

Maybe so, but I do like the story of the word's origin, as told to me, by a catholic priest.
Centuries ago, when the law of the land went hand in glove with church law, adultery was a crime on the statute. Those guilty of this heinous peccadillo were said to be:
Found
Under
Carnal
Knowledge.
I didn't believe the story for one minute, but it's a great excuse to drop a sanitised F bomb.

It's colder than a fish's nipple today.

Went to the garage to answer a cry for help from my missus. "I've got a puncture," she wailed. "Are you sure it's deflated?" I asked. "From where I'm looking," she answered cynically, "it's flatter than a fish's tit."

 

[Zombie_61]

Maybe so, but I do like the story of the word's origin, as told to me, by a catholic priest.
Centuries ago, when the law of the land went hand in glove with church law, adultery was a crime on the statute. Those guilty of this heinous peccadillo were said to be:
Found
Under
Carnal
Knowledge.
I didn't believe the story for one minute, but it's a great excuse to drop a sanitised F bomb...

According to a documentary I watched a few years ago that was essentially a historic and comedic examination of the "F-word", that is only one of the possible explanations for it's origin. Linguistic "experts" tend to have their favorite stories, but the truth is that no one today knows the actual etymology of the word.

When circumstances are appropriate, every great once in a while I'll find myself reciting George Carlin's "Seven Dirty Words You Can't Say on Television". Not the entire routine, of course, just the words. On the surface it sounds as if I'm simply stringing the words together, but done properly it's actually rather lyrical and one or another of the words is almost certain to get a reaction from someone within earshot.

 

[tonyb]

Dawdle.

The word is heard in the John Sebastian/Lovin' Spoonful song "Darling Be Home Soon," which I listened to a few days ago for the first time in several years.

It's not that the word is yet archaic, but it popped up with much greater frequency when I was a youngster. My wholly anecdotal recollections would suggest it was falling by the wayside about the time that song hit the airwaves, a full half century ago now.

 

[Stearmen]

Colder then an old maids bed!

 

[BlueTrain]

Somewhat related to dawdle are piddle and putter, both of which I'm getting in shape for since I hope to retire this year. My goal is to work until August when I turn 71--as does my boss. But I don't think we'll last that long.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^^^
I still hear "putter," but not often, and "piddle" hardly at all, leastwise when used to mean something similar to "putter" or "dawdle." I believe I've more frequently heard it used as an almost euphemistic term for urination, as in "We'll be a couple more minutes while the kids go piddle."

"Piddling," as an adjective indicating a trifling amount or matter, I hear a bit more often. I occasionally use it myself.

 

[LizzieMaine]

"Fiddle and diddle" was once a common New Englandism meaning to stall for time. It was coined and commonly used by the late Boston Celtics radio broadcaster Johnny Most to describe a player dribbling the ball in place while setting up a play. A player might "fiddle and diddle and daddle and doodle" repeatedly before either passing the ball or making a shot. An ordinary person might "fiddle and diddle" by making trivial small talk instead of coming to the point.