Forum: Author Hangout

If, however, you are writing for the YA or Adult market, and simply using words and phrases that are appropriate to the character and setting, then people need to grow up and quit whining.

Amen!

Sure, you don't want the president saying CUNT in a State of the Union

The current president, I could see him doing that. Particularly if Rosie O'Donnell pissed him off again.

Probably ten years ago, those two got into it. He verbally demolished her. So given the history... yeah.

the current US President does tend to call an idiot and idiot and a thief a thief

But does he call a spade a nigger?

Ernest Bywater
10/4/2020, 2:54:45 AM

@madnige

But does he call a spade a nigger?

No, he leaves that up to certain members of his political opposition.

I'll have to confess. I've never hard the current president or his political opposition use the n-word.

I have no doubt he used it, back in the 60s or 70s. And southern Democrats pretty much coined the term.
But yeah, pretty much the only people using the term now are rappers.

I have no doubt he used it, back in the 60s or 70s. And southern Democrats pretty much coined the term.

That term goes back to at least the early 1800s.

That term goes back to at least the early 1800s.

Were southern Democrats the only people who said it back then?

Were southern Democrats the only people who said it back then?

The Democratic Party didn't exist until 1828. And the "Southern Democrats" as the term is used today is a post Civil War Phenomenon.

I opened up the date windows on the Google ngram viewer to 1500 (the earliest start date you can select)

https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nigger&corpus=26&year_start=1500&year_end=2019&smoothing=3&direct_url=t1%3B%2Cnigger%3B%2Cc0

The term nigger goes all the way back to 1700. In other words the "Southern Democrats" couldn't have coined the term, because the term existed before they did.

Interestingly, on the generic English corpus, the peak usage is current, but on the American English corpus, the peak usage is in 1864.

But does he call a spade a nigger?

Don't be silly, he calls it a shovel.

To my children the 'c' word that they insult each other with is 'communist'!!

When one of my children was about 4 years old their preferred insult was "Your despicable!". It worked quite well on other kids that age 40 years ago. I guess that was a pretty vile thing to say for a child back then.

I guess that was a pretty vile thing to say for a child back then.

No, it's a line from Loony Toons cartoons, specifically Daffy Duck.

No, it's a line from Loony Toons cartoons, specifically Daffy Duck.

I should have elaborated.

It was a rather illiterate neighbourhood. The playmates mother did not know the meaning of the word. It just sounded dirty to her. The mountain she made out of the despicable mole hill is why I still remember it.
I don't remember if they had a TV. I knew that Daffy was where my kid got the phrase.

"You're despicable" is a quote from Daffy Duck to Bugs Bunny in Warner Brothers cartoons.

He also says it to Elmer Fudd.

"You're despicable" is a quote from Daffy Duck to Bugs Bunny

- pronounced with an extreme lisp ("You're dethpicable") with the s/th being a really wet near-raspberry...

It's apparently a commonly-used word in Australia.

Communist?
Not really.

And Cunt is only used when people want to be as insulting as possible.

Most frequent usage is by Indigenous people calling someone a "a white cunt" when they're trying to bum money off of people and get told no.

Something, I guess, like you might greet a friend you hadn't seen in a while with "Good to see you, you old fart".

Bastard and even Arsehole are often used in that way.