What word do you hate most?

[madinmaryland]

For me it is the one in caps:

Donald Rumsfeld is giving the President his daily briefing. He concludes by saying: "Yesterday, three BRAZILIAN soldiers were killed."

"Oh No!" the President exclaims. "That's terrible!"

His staff sits stunned at this display of emotion, nervously watching as the President sits, head in hands.

Finally, the President looks up and asks, "How many is a BRAZILLION?"

:evilgrin:

[crim son]

1. Nancy.

No offence to any Nancy's on DU of course.

[Mad_Dem_X]

2. I hate it so much I can't even type it

much less say it: C-*-*-T.

Hate, hate, hate that word!

[jpgray]

4. Remind me not to loan you my Irvine Welsh collection

[Katina]

6. agreed

it's just gross!

[madinmaryland]

8. That word does not exist in my vocabulary.

I refuse to acknowledge its existance.

[Blue_In_AK]

10. Oh, I'm right there with you on that one.

[arwalden]

14. That's My Favorite One.

:evilgrin:

[SKKY]

33. Spend some time in England. You'll get over that real, real quick.

They drop "C bombs" like Rocky says "Ya know?"

[querelle]

41. Yeah

That's a nasty one. I swear alot, but that's one word that really gets under my skin. Probably the single worst thing that one could call another person (particularly a woman).

Q

[SteppingRazor]

3. moist

Dunno why.

[sweetpotato]

26. Moist?

Dead like me???

[mainegreen]

29. *self delete*

[begin_within]

5. Divulge

[miss_american_pie]

7. lotion

hate the sound of it, color of it, feel of it

[Deep13]

9. It begins with an "N".

Hearing it is like the chalkboard noise. I'm not even Black and I hate it. Saying that to Black people is like throwing a cobra into a full elevator.

[Rabrrrrrr]

17. Noblesse oblige? Nidulant? Nutant?

[Deep13]

28. Nope

[atomic-fly]

11. got me

[johnnie]

12. Hate

Never liked that word

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

23. I'll second that

[Rabrrrrrr]

13. "No"

[arwalden]

And...

"Headache"?

[Rabrrrrrr]

18. not headache, but "no" and "can't" are words I hate

Thankfully, I've never had to deal with the "I have a headache" assinine bullshit from anyone. My partner is the honest type, not the duplicitous bitchy type, so she just says the truth: "I'm not in the mood" or "I don't feel like it", or whatever. Thank God!

[arwalden]

21. So the man...

... and wife are getting ready to go to bed and he reaches over to hand her two aspirin. She says, "What's that for? I don't have a headache". He responds, "GOTCHA!"

[Rabrrrrrr]

45. LOL!

Sometimes I wish I were gay, just to be able to spend time with people who make emotional sense.

Women are fucking nuts.

Sadly, I love 'em.

Sigh....

[Patiod]

15. co-ed

Oh, and by the way, I was listening to the radio, and the were honest to god talking about Brazilians, and I can no longer hear that word without thinking of sly devils sneaking in The Brazilian Joke (I'm envisioning a day when Penn does a documentary of famous comedians telling the Brazilian joke, each with their own take on it....)

[wildhorses]

16. precious....thanks to the wicked witch, Gollum and, that dude in

silence of the lambs

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

22. Lol, I liked all of those movies. . .

[NNadir]

19. The "c" word expletive. I also hate the "n" word expletive.

I will never say or write these words.

[TheFriendlyAnarchist]

20. The racist 'c word' or the misogynistic one?

(to be honest, the racist one doesn't bother me)

[NNadir]

24. The misogynistic one. I really despise that word.

[billyskank]

31. Why misogynistic?

Have you ever called someone a dick? Or an asshole? Even if you haven't, you must recognise that these insults are in very wide use. Body-part expletives abound, so why is cunt singled out?

[Deep13]

34. Can't explain it except to say that usage has made it harsh and ...

...degrading. The N word used to be a mere description once, but its usage has made it dehumanizing in its connotation. The same with C-. It is more than simply a reference to a body part. How come allegedly weak men are call pussies but only women are called the other word?

[billyskank]

37. In Britain I've heard it used of men frequently

In fact I would say it is used almost exclusively of men. It is considered a very forceful word, that is true here too. For that reason I use it only to describe the very worst of people: those who seem devoid of any redeeming feature. (Rather like a "cad" in old parlance).

[NNadir]

38. Because it is used with special vituperation and involves power

relationships.

It is the same with the N word.

There are many racial groups and many racial epithets, but there is only one class of people in this country who were legally treated like farm animals and ruled at one time to be farm animals by the United States. (I am referring to the Dred Scott decison.) Given that in recent times, books like "The Bell Curve," have been seriously discussed in general parlance, given that our citizens of African origin have given so much to our culture and still suffer egregriously, the N word is especially offensive and is especially beneath contempt.

The number of situations in which people use that word in my presence - and I am a white male for the record - is effectively zero. This is the case because over the years, I have maintained friendships and relationships predicated on the use of language.

As for the "c" word, I feel very much the same. It took a Constitutional Amendment that is less than 100 years old for our female citizens to enjoy the same rights as I do. Many of the rights of women are now in question. One such question is the right of some women to control of their own bodies the outcome of what may happen in cases of rape. In general, women are far more likely to suffer violence, and as is the case with African Americans, they receive in general less pay for equal work. Women have their bodies objectified routinely and are more likely to be victims of violence - particularly familial violence - than men.

In fact, one of the few times I observed this word used in my presence, it was in the act between two married (now ex) friends who were about to break into an act of domestic violence.

I have, of course, heard the word used in my life time, but only, in general, by people who I personally regarded as having a special contempt for women.

I would like to pretend that neither sexism or racism exist, but they do.

I frequently curse. I say words like "fuck" and "dickhead" and so on with abandon these days. However I am aware of studies that show that the frequency of the use of expletives as been correlated with a weaker abiliites in the use of language and smaller vocabularies in those who most frequently use the words. In my tenure writing here, occassionally it has been necessary for the moderators to remonstrate me for some of my choices of words and I have been challenged to find more precise language than the simplest expletive or insults I have used in "flaming." This challenge has, in my opinion, improved both my skill with language and my thinking.

I was asked what words offended me, and I answered. These are my reasons.

I really wish in that you had not felt compelled to use the word.

[billyskank]

39. So you are quite happy to call someone

dickhead

[madinmaryland]

42. Just about any of the talking heads on the Faux News Channel

would be deserving of that name:

O'reilly, Hannity, Cavuto, Rivera, etc.

[NNadir]

44. I wouldn't characterize it as "happy."

I am, for reasons I described, not especially "happy" about being goaded into using expletives in general.

They are linguistically weaker than other approaches.

But there are two words that are off limits for me and that I would never use, for the reasons previously described.

[Mad_Dem_X]

25. Me either

I'll admit that I have *thought* the "c word" about certain females (like Ann Coulter), but I have never called another woman that, and if anyone (especially a man) uses that word in my presence I go off!

[Deep13]

27. This is the grammar police, pull over.

Do you know why I'm pulling you over? You were using the term "expletive" in the wrong context.

Expletive is a word that is not a part of speech and has no real meaning but is added to a sentence for aesthetic reasons.

The big one is the one that we want. "That" is an expletive.

In the 1970s the Washington Post released transcripts of secret conversations by Nixon and others. He used a lot of foul language. The Post did not want to be on record accusing the president of cursing, so the called them "expletives": words that have no meaning. Since then people have used the term incorrectly to describe foul language as often as they say "apropos" to mean appropriate.

[madinmaryland]

43. I don't recall using that word,

unless you are taking the Brazilian Joke as an expletive?

:shrug:

[Deep13]

48. I was responding to the thread as a whole.

[Dervill Crow]

47. My son uses the F word as an expletive.

It is extremely annoying to me. He and my other son were talking about movies, and he was apparently comparing one to Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. He said, "It's like (expletive) Willy Wonka."

I was going to call him on his language, so I said, "You really shouldn't use--hey, wait a minute. You fucked Willy Wonka?" I started laughing and kept after him. "No, you said it. You said it was like fucking Willy Wonka. How do you know what fucking Willy Wonka is like unless you or someone you know actually did fuck Willy Wonka?" He got madder and madder at me. The madder he got the more hilarious I found it.

He has not used "fuckin'" as an adjective or an adverb within earshot since that conversation.

[mainegreen]

30. Could

Can't stand that word. It's loaded.

[Deep13]

32. All those -ould words are ambiguous.

They are also conditional. Well, I could do it .... Implicitly there is an "if" following it. Otherwise is would be, "Well, I can do it."

I remember the book The Runaway Jury where a fictional plaintiff is suing a fictional tobacco company. The defense counsel asks in jury selection something like, "Do you agree that a person should know the risks of smoking?"

I though, what exactly does that mean. A person does know? A person has the responsibility to know? A someone should tell that person?

[WannaBePassingFair]

35. School.

A part of me dies every time someone says it.

[SKKY]

36. I hate the word "Irregardless", and soooo many people use it...

...IT'S NOT EVEN A WORD!!!!!

[swag]

40. Literally

[Deep13]

49. My feet are literally killing me.

Somehow I picked up a gun with my toes and shot myself.

[graywarrior]

46. bush

or dick