Terms Which Have Disappeared

[Trenchfriend]

"Chamber pot".

 

[de Stokesay]

My wife actively dislikes the word “broads” as a reference to women, and is quite glad it’s disappeared from common usage. This just makes me use it more...

 

[LizzieMaine]

There are several highly-offensive, belittling words describing men that you don't hear much anymore. I try not to use them, but sometimes the temptation is there. My mother has no such filter, but fortunately she isn't a member here.

 

[Ticklishchap]

There are several highly-offensive, belittling words describing men that you don't hear much anymore. I try not to use them, but sometimes the temptation is there. My mother has no such filter, but fortunately she isn't a member here.

Oh, dear. ...

Over here in Brexitland the feminist movement has (almost 100%) become ultra-conservative and lily white. The main impetus for our equivalent of ‘bathroom bills’ comes from feminists, who are extremely willing these days to form ‘coalitions’ with the far right. They are also strongly involved in anti-immigration politics, with Muslims the particular target (there’s no attempt to distinguish between different types of Islam of course: it’s all lumped together).
For today’s British feminist, the inspiration seems to be Christabel rather than Sylvia Pankhurst.

 

[LizzieMaine]

I wouldn't call my ma a feminist -- that wasn't her generation. She just doesn't take any sh*t from anybody, ever. She used to work at the admissions desk at the local hospital, and occasionally celebrities would pass thru and would say or do something to annoy her, and then she'd cut loose. She once told the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to "sit down and shut up." And he did.

 

[tonyb]

There are several highly-offensive, belittling words describing men that you don't hear much anymore. I try not to use them, but sometimes the temptation is there. My mother has no such filter, but fortunately she isn't a member here.

I’m confident I’m in plentiful company in having had my entire being likened to my genitalia, on more occasions than I could possibly recall.

But woe be to the man who so likens a woman.

For some reason, or maybe several reasons, the latter is more cutting. Sure seems to be, anyway. Might have something to do with we fellows being more given ourselves to identity with our reproductive apparatus. You’re tempted to say, “Why, thank you, ma’am; so good of you to notice.”

 

[LizzieMaine]

One of my ma's favorite squelches for a man who's getting in her face begins with the prefix "Needle-." When you imagine such a word coming out of the mouth of a small, wrinkled, 82 year old woman, the impact is greatly amplified.

As for genital-insults-men-use-for-women, I've been called them *here on the Lounge,* and it doesn't faze me the least bit. A word only has the power over you that you give it.

 

[tonyb]

^^^^

...
As for genital-insults-men-use-for-women, I've been called them *here on the Lounge,* and it doesn't faze me the least bit. A word only has the power over you that you give it.

As with all name-calling (as we all have done), the utterance tells more about the speaker than the person to whom to insult is aimed.

This is not to say, though, that the recipient is uninjured by it. Sticks and stones aside, words can indeed hurt.

As my lovely missus and I remind each other when tempted to speak out of anger: you can’t unsay it. You might hope, afterwards, that you hadn’t said it, and that you caused the recipient no real injury, and that the recipient is of a generous disposition and doesn’t expect people always to be the best version of themselves. Cut some slack lest you not be cut any slack yourself, etc. But it’s best not to put oneself in that position from the start.

 

[Ticklishchap]

One of my ma's favorite squelches for a man who's getting in her face begins with the prefix "Needle-." When you imagine such a word coming out of the mouth of a small, wrinkled, 82 year old woman, the impact is greatly amplified.

“Needle—“

There are two male political leaders I wish she would say this to, one British, one American. Both have freaky hair-dos and delusions of grandeur (or folie de grandeur: it sounds better, and more damning, in French).

Most readers will know who I mean. ...

 

[Turnip]

Hasn’t one dad of those two just applied for a French passport?

 

[LizzieMaine]

“Needle—“

There are two male political leaders I wish she would say this to, one British, one American. Both have freaky hair-dos and delusions of grandeur (or folie de grandeur: it sounds better, and more damning, in French).

Most readers will know who I mean. ...

Oh, trust me, she'd love to have the chance. She calls me every night to chat, and regularly and thoroughly expresses her views on such topics.

 

[Ticklishchap]

Hasn’t one dad of those two just applied for a French passport?

Oui

 

[Harp]

She once told the present Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to "sit down and shut up." And he did.

Et ioannes sedebat, et iste se.

I've met Justice Barrett and expect she will, or perhaps has so advised His Lordship, the Reverend Chief Justice.

 

[ChiTownScion]

My wife actively dislikes the word “broads” as a reference to women, and is quite glad it’s disappeared from common usage. This just makes me use it more...

Baby Herman used it best. I thought it was funny: my wife's remark was, "Nasty little creature..."

 

[de Stokesay]

My wife was walking the hound this afternoon, and was gone for quite a while. She was away for so long actually, that her 16 year old daughter asked where she was. Without thinking, I responded that she had gone for a walk and must have followed a wagon. My parents still use this particular turn of phrase, but they are the only people under 90 that I hear using it anymore.

 

[tonyb]

“Fussbudget,” meaning a person who gets fussy over trivial matters.

My dear old ma used it fairly frequently when I was a kid, but I can’t recall when I had last heard even her use it.

 

[LizzieMaine]

 

[Zombie_61]

^ Now that's funny, because Lucy Van Pelt is the only source I've ever seen or read or heard for the term "fussbudget". So when I read TonyB's post above, "Peanuts" was the first thing that came to mind.

 

[LizzieMaine]

Lucy is a Boomer. Fascinating.

 

[Zombie_61]

Lucy is a Boomer. Fascinating.

Except for Rerun Van Pelt, aren't all of the child characters in "Peanuts" Boomers? I thought they were supposed to be roughly the same age except for Linus being a bit younger, and he was "born" in 1952.