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I miss being able to use that word without everyone's thoughts turning to homosexuality. It used to be one of my favorites back when I was s child and it was fun to use in place of "weird"... it just sounded sort of high-falutin' to me.

Actually "gay" is another one. Remember when it meant happy? Can't really use it for that anymore.

This is starting to sound sort of homophobic, which wasn't my intent. I just miss certain words that have become ... er... corrupted? I'm not sure what you'd call it.

Any other ones?

Just to put you straight about Grumpy Bums use of the word 'Fag'

It is a word used in the UK to mean a cigarette.

So.....if someone has a fag, they are smoking, not having intimate concourse with a homosexual.......although in Grumpy's case...........we will have to await and see.

SnoozeAgain;1377901 wrote: I just miss certain words that have become ... er... corrupted? I'm not sure what you'd call it.

Any other ones?


I'm distressed I can't announce that I'm off cottaging any longer without raising eyebrows. References to fruit occasionally come out wrong too. Even "are you coming out" has its risks. Mind you, taking a vada at someone's bijou lallies was always asking for trouble.

spot;1377908 wrote: I'm distressed I can't announce that I'm off cottaging any longer without raising eyebrows. References to fruit occasionally come out wrong too. Even "are you coming out" has its risks. Mind you, taking a vada at someone's bijou lallies was always asking for trouble.


You talk like that here people would say you were queer.

YZGI;1377922 wrote: You talk like that here people would say you were queer.:wah::wah:

Snooze, my kids and I use the word "gay" all the time and we are not referring to homesexuality at all. It is meant as weird or silly. I hardly ever use queer or fag but do immediately think of homesexuals when I hear those words.

Rainbow is one that comes to mind....not to stay on the homesexual lifestyle -just what popped in my head.

WonderWendy3;1377926 wrote: :wah::wah:

Snooze, my kids and I use the word "gay" all the time and we are not referring to homesexuality at all. It is meant as weird or silly. I hardly ever use queer or fag but do immediately think of homesexuals when I hear those words.

Rainbow is one that comes to mind....not to stay on the homesexual lifestyle -just what popped in my head.


Rainbow?

The funniest transatlantic confusion is the word fanny, That and an apparent slightly strange fascination with the nether regions of Equus africanus asinus although I suspect that ones' due to a speech defect americans share with the Japanese - the inability to pronounce the letter r properly. I always feel like shouting at the TV for them to pronounce the word arse properly.

Dave Allen on the Vagaries of the English Language - YouTube

gmc;1377932 wrote: The funniest transatlantic confusion is the word fanny, That and an apparent slightly strange fascination with the nether regions of Equus africanus asinus although I suspect that ones' due to a speech defect americans share with the Japanese - the inability to pronounce the letter r properly. I always feel like shouting at the TV for them to pronounce the word arse properly.

Dave Allen on the Vagaries of the English Language - YouTube


Its hard to pronounce an "R" when we spell it without one. Ass--Not you. Just spelling it.

YZGI;1377939 wrote: Its hard to pronounce an "R" when we spell it without one. Ass--Not you. Just spelling it.


Don't feel embarrassed about it several million English people can't pronounce it either.

It has become impossible to ask "Are you being served" with a straight face here. It doesn't sound like an expression any American would have heard to begin with though.

"I'm free" definitely has different connotations too.

gmc;1377932 wrote: The funniest transatlantic confusion is the word fanny, That and an apparent slightly strange fascination with the nether regions of Equus africanus asinus although I suspect that ones' due to a speech defect americans share with the Japanese - the inability to pronounce the letter r properly. I always feel like shouting at the TV for them to pronounce the word arse properly.

Dave Allen on the Vagaries of the English Language - YouTube


So, would you call someone a horse's arse?

And btw, your arse triggers my spell check to react.

spot;1377955 wrote: It has become impossible to ask "Are you being served" with a straight face here. It doesn't sound like an expression any American would have heard to begin with though.

"I'm free" definitely has different connotations too.


Niether one of those is a problem here.

YZGI;1377958 wrote: Niether one of those is a problem here.


The images those phrases bring up are distressing in the extreme - I shudder at the mere thought.

gmc;1377948 wrote: Don't feel embarrassed about it several million English people can't pronounce it either.


Well, you Scots have an abundance of "R"s so you make up for everyone else.

flopstock;1377956 wrote: So, would you call someone a horse's arse?




Better than calling someone a horses donkey ?

More than anyone probably wanted to know

Well, for this one we do have to go way back to Indo-European roots. You are correct that the IE root is *ors, "hindquarters, buttocks". Old English took it as aers, and we first find it in the written record in about 1,000 AD. It also turns up in early versions as ears, which might explain how you came to think the word meant "ears" originally. It didn't. It has always referred to the hindquarters, originally the hindquarters of animals, in fact.

There are cognates in the Teutonic languages, as one might suspect for a word referring to a body part - those are usually quite old. It is ars in Old High German, Old Norse, Old Danish and Old Swedish, ers in Old Frisian (Frisian being the Germanic language closest to English), and German arsch. The Old Teutonic root form has been hypothesized as ars-oz, which is the source, also, of the Greek word for "tail", ouros.

The Old English ears "arse" turns up in the name of a bird called the wheatear. Not only does it have no external ears but it has nothing to do with wheat, either. In earlier days, the bird was known as a wheatears (i.e. "white-arse") on account of its conspicuous white rump. Even more surprisingly, the word squirrel comes from the same Indo-European source. The first element in squirrel refers to "shade", a possible allusion to their preference for living in trees but more probably referring to the second element in the word, "tail", with the etymological meaning of "shade tail".

Why is ass considered derogatory? A moment's reflection on the condition of most human hindquarters before the advent of modern hygiene and the answer becomes readily apparent. In fact, many Old English words for parts of the body that we normally conceal came to be considered vulgar during the prim and proper Victorian Era, and ass became an unspeakable word. This so much so that we even stopped referring to donkeys as asses, too (donkey is a diminutive of Duncan, a common name given to asses).

More importantly, how did we get ass from arse? British English speakers still spell it arse, but as they are non-rhotic (not pronouncing r's between a consonant and a vowel) it comes out as "ahss". That approximate pronunciation was kept in the U.S. but the spelling was changed to match it.

Take Our Word For It, page two, Words to the Wise

SnoozeAgain;1377985 wrote: More than anyone probably wanted to know


See! told you it was the result of a speech defect

Posted by flopstock

So, would you call someone a horse's arse?

And btw, your arse triggers my spell check to react.






Well no, american insiults atre`rather inadequate and lacl the rich lanjuage sources I have at my fingertips, Pillock probably being the best alternative and one O would mote likely ise.

Bryn Mawr;1377971 wrote: The images those phrases bring up are distressing in the extreme - I shudder at the mere thought.


So, "Free Falling" is a nasty song there?

"And I'm free, I'm free falling"

So does this mean that during this holiday season, we can "don we now our gay apparel" as the carol says and not be misunderstood? :-2

Fa la la la la la la, la la la ...

YZGI;1378021 wrote: So, "Free Falling" is a nasty song there?

"And I'm free, I'm free falling"
Just to clear up a few things here is a bit of the TV program that gave us the terms mentioned.