Olde insults

[dextrous]

"Thanks to everyone for keeping it "clean" (ish), non racist nor homophobic." - but you can call anyone with Down's syndrome a **** etc

Because I'm interested in looking at non-racist and non-homophobic insults, especially those no longer in use. I am also grateful that those included have not been deemed "crude" enough (thus "clean") by observers so that the mods haven't become involved and thus removed posts and/or locked the thread.

I am curious at how language has changed and specific types of insults have gone out of vogue. Therefore, why was "bounder" such a term which would at some time or another possibly have caused such offence that further action may have ensued? Also, as you like to bring it up, when and why was it considered no longer acceptable for the word "****" to be mentioned when, prior to this, it wasn't deemed to be so taboo?

 

[slick50]

Dextrous, did we have fiend. Plonker comes to mind but thats another story

 

[Thermo]

Pleb Think i win prize for oldest so far as i dates from roman times.

no you dont. UUUgggg ullll uggger uggg ug.

there dates from prehistoric times i win

 

[dextrous]

Pleb Think i win prize for oldest so far as i dates from roman times.

no you dont. UUUgggg ullll uggger uggg ug.

That is utterly disgusting - withdraw it from the post at once or the mods will get involved!

 

[Infidel]

Because I'm interested in looking at non-racist and non-homophobic insults, especially those no longer in use

Take a look or read some of Geoffrey Chaucer, (1345-1400) words in common day use then for natural events are now swear words.

Thank the Victorian moral values which they gladly shed themselves of when the maid was in for a good seeing to.

 

[oompah]

I think Chaucer (i am happy to be corrected here)was the first person to put English as a language in writing interesting how he interpreted these words into spellings.

 

[Homesafe]

This topic by it's very subject is bound to cause controversy, calling names generally leads to fallouts however well intentioned they are they are.

 

[dextrous]

This topic by it's very subject is bound to cause controversy, calling names generally leads to fallouts however well intentioned they are they are.

Apart from joe's (possibly mischievous and deliberately thought-provoking) misconstruction of the intent, on the whole everyone seems well behaved and responding in an adult manner and have contributed pretty much the sort of information desired.

It is peculiar how some of the insults mentioned are considered by some to be no longer commonplace, which is contrary to my (and presumably) other's experience. Maybe there's a possible line of enquiry which includes parameters of age and/or geography.

 

[Homesafe]

To be fair to joe the toe he has mentioned some names that would be deemed offensive in the general culture.

not havin a dig Dex he just got my attention with spaz and ****,

they could be classed as directed to the mentally and physically challenged.

Hey he might be one of them who knows

 

[oompah]

Never heard of **** must be a northern one.

 

[dextrous]

I'm not saying that "****" etc wouldn't cause offence. In fact, given that it doesn't seem to be much used nowadays, it may well be that that's one of the main reasons why it has broadly disappeared.

Where joe was repeatedly in error was that he seemed to be suggesting that I found words such as these less offensive than racist or homophobic ones.

I opened this thread as an afterthought t a comment made on another in which I brought up the term "spazz", which seemed to be in much use 30 years ago where I was brought up in London (and did not take race nor sexual orientation into account), but which has broadly now disappeared. Googling the word brought up a variety of "definitions", not all of them relating directly to spasticism, and which therefore begged the question of what other words have ever been reassigned meanings, although the intent of insult remained.

A simplistic example is the word "gay", which has a variety of meanings when uttered, but which now has been dropped as a derogotary term.

 

[Homesafe]

The word 'GAY' is being promoted now instead of the word homosexual, to make it seem more of an 'acceptable' term.

 

[oompah]

Yes, I'm the great pretender
Just laughin' and gay like a clown

I'm sure the platters didn't think of gay in homosexual terms.

 

[wotan]

The waves beside them danced; but they

Out-did the sparkling waves in glee:
A poet could not but be gay,

In such a jocund company:



From The Daffodils by W Wordsworth

the true meaning of gay...

Wotan

 

[WDIK]

Im concerned about a sector of the communitee, which used to be locked away out of decent folks sight, being mocked on account of their disability, without having the means to defend themselves.