Foul language

[rowyn]

Quick question: what's your vote for the most foul word in the English language -- a word so offensive you wouldn't even be inclined to think it, much less say it or write it? Y'all can just put down the first letter and ---.

Funny thing is, I know what word gets TREATED most often as unspeakable ... but I don't think it's any of the words people usually think of in that context.

Comments

[rowyn]

I refuse to find "niggardly" an offensive word. Its origins are wholly other anyway.

But your point about language is taken. It's like the way some women label themselves "bitches" with pride. Or the way homosexuals embrace the word "queer" which was, once upon a time, an insult. You tame a word, use it casually, to take away its power.

In some sense, I like the idea that certain words are imbued with power. If you almost never use obscenities, then when you do, people sense the seriousness of it. I remember Touchstone, I think, had a guideline that they could only use f--- twice in any given movie, and one producer saying, "it's a good rule, because you end up saving it for the time when it'll have the most impact."

OTOH, this particular word has a lot of power for no good reason at all. If the young black men who use it casually manage to tame it, and take away all its power, I will be quite happy about it.