eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words

[Paul Johnston]

dInIs,
Your perception certainly matches mine, and my students'.  What was a
real shocker was where the C-word's place was in Scotland, England &
Ireland.  There, it is profane, to be sure, but much milder than it
is on this side of the pool--you can call a man one, and in fact,
this is frequently done, more frequently than calling a woman one,
where it still has much of its literal meaning.  But it is a
very,very popular swear word over there, even used jocularly, as in
"you spawny (lucky) c__".  Dudley Moore and Peter Cook, on one of
their comedy albums as "Derek and Clive" (where they exhibited their
bluest humor) even did a skit based around its common use.
It can be used in its literal sense, and carries all the force it
does here when it is.  But, as here, other terms (including "fanny")
are most frequently used unless you are REALLY trying to be obscene.
I don't know of any communities here that use the term like the Brits
do, though I know there are other ethnic cultures where the cognate
of the word has less obscenity force.

Yours,
Paul Johnston
On Jul 31, 2007, at 6:58 PM, Dennis R. Preston wrote:

> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       "Dennis R. Preston" <preston at MSU.EDU>
> Subject:      Re: eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words
> ----------------------------------------------------------------------
> ---------
>
> In a number of studies done in the 70s, "cunt" was always ranked the
> "dirtiest" word in English, by both men and women. Frank Anshen
> turned up some interesting ethnic differences in one of his studies,
> but the top spot never changed if I remember these studies correctly.
> When I ask big classes of UG students at Michigan State today, it's
> still on top (so to speak).
>
> dInIs
>
>
>
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>> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
>> Poster:       "David A. Daniel" <dad at POKERWIZ.COM>
>> Subject:      Re: eggcorn: "profound" (profane) words
>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------
>> ----------
>>
>>> I've discussed this many times with various friends over the
>>> years and
>>> nearly every woman has said that, of the usual offensive words,
>>> "cunt" is
>>> the worst thing you can call a woman, especially from a man, I
>>> believe. If
>>> I
>>> remember right, "bitch" sounds worse coming from another woman.
>>> Of course,
>>> this is merely anecdotal.
>>
>>> Scot
>>
>> I ran into this over 20 (probably more like 25) years ago. A very,
>> very good
>> female friend, lots of banter, all cool. She said something - I don't
>> remember what - and I said, "Cunt!". Her eyes got wide, corners of
>> mouth
>> turned down, veins showing in the neck, teeth bared, major stress
>> evident
>> here. Then she seemed to get a grip - sort of - and simply said,
>> "WHAT did
>> you say?" rather than starting the WMD attack that had seemed
>> imminent. I
>> could see my good friend was upset and even through the alcohol-
>> induced fog
>> I was able to discern the reason. So I said, "Wait a minute. Why
>> is calling
>> you a cunt not the same as calling a guy a prick? I mean, it would
>> be kind
>> of silly for me to call you a prick." She dropped her gaze to the
>> lower
>> left, a posture of thoughtfulness, and said, "Oh. Hmmmmmm." And
>> things went
>> on from there very normally, as before. So I repeat the question
>> to the
>> world today, 25 years or so hence. She got it, but only after I had
>> encouraged her to think about it.
>>
>> Now, here is something interesting (at least to me): Only in
>> fairly recent
>> years have Brits begun referring to one another regularly - on the
>> street,
>> so to speak - as "assholes" or, for the more linguistically
>> conservative,
>> "arseholes". There was a time, not long ago, when "asshole" was
>> considered a
>> total Americanism, and British men referred to one another, in
>> this context,
>> after a few pints down t'pub, as "cunts". This practice does
>> continue to
>> this day though it is losing ground to the Americanism. So, I
>> would be
>> extremely interested to know what American females would think -
>> in the name
>> of political correctness - of British males referring to each
>> other (male to
>> male) as "cunts". I was going to make this multiple choice but
>> there were
>> too many permutations to make it viable.
>> DAD
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
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>
> --
> Dennis R. Preston
> University Distinguished Professor
> Department of English
> 15C Morrill Hall
> Michigan State University
> East Lansing, MI 48824
> 517-353-4736
> preston at msu.edu
>
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