Thread: bad, bad words

Some English words look quite normal but may sound very offensive though we may read them in literature and listen to them while watching movies.

Besides f* and s* words I got : slut (towards a woman)

Do you know such words which we shouldn't use in good society?

Originally Posted by garans

Some English words look quite normal but may sound very offensive though we may read them in literature and listen to them while watching movies.

Besides f* and s* words I got : slut (towards a woman)

Do you know such words which we shouldn't use in good society?

There are many swear words in the English language, just like in Russian. If there's a specific term you want, then you should ask for it here. Otherwise, just try google -- it's not something you can just supply a list of -- there's just too many.

Here's a link Google provided -- keep in mind that American English and British English vary in their use of these terms (this list is Brit); you won't hear "tosser" or "bloody" in the US very often -- if ever (I've never heard of "tosser" before).
http://www.hotenglishmagazine.com/HE...ini%20dict.pdf

s* words? Hmm... I can't really think of any really bad words starting with an 's'...

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

s* words? Hmm... I can't really think of any really bad words starting with an 's'...

saibot

LOL!

I think I need some ice for that burn...maybe you could chizzle some off your heart.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

s* words? Hmm... I can't really think of any really bad words starting with an 's'...

I can think of some bad words -- just not REALLY bad words, lol.
sh*t, skank, slut, son of a b*tch (ok a stretch -- but then how'bout summab*tch? lol). On a "bad scale" of 1-10, with 10 being a threat to your life for using it, these are about 4s -- enought to be rude and crude, but not THAT bad.

Here are a few s words off the top of my head.

scumbag, scumball, scumbucket, shиthead, sleeze, suck, snothead, shиtforbrains, sonofabиtch, shag, slimeball

I think the s* word he meant was sh*t, after reading your suggestions...

It isn't really that bad of a word (ok, medium-bad), and the other ones are just silly...

I can find much ruder and hard hitting words on d* c* and a*... but let us not digress too much.

garans, what do you want? A complete list of words which you shouldn't say?

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

I think the s* word he meant was sh*t, after reading your suggestions...

It isn't really that bad of a word (ok, medium-bad), and the other ones are just silly...

I can find much ruder and hard hitting words on d* c* and a*... but let us not digress too much.

garans, what do you want? A complete list of words which you shouldn't say?

I want to know what words seemingly not offensive (in Russian at least) are rude and appropriate in English.

Sh*t, as well as I know, is more offensive than f*ck in English.

rubber is an offensive word in USA?

Rubber is another word for a condom, not offensive.

Originally Posted by garans

rubber is an offensive word in USA?

rubber (i.e. condom) is not an offensive word

On the other hand, never say the word p*ssy unless it is followed by the word "cat".

Originally Posted by garans

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

I think the s* word he meant was sh*t, after reading your suggestions...

It isn't really that bad of a word (ok, medium-bad), and the other ones are just silly...

I can find much ruder and hard hitting words on d* c* and a*... but let us not digress too much.

garans, what do you want? A complete list of words which you shouldn't say?

I want to know what words seemingly not offensive (in Russian at least) are rude and appropriate in English.

Sh*t, as well as I know, is more offensive than f*ck in English.

rubber is an offensive word in USA?

By the way, sh*t is much less offensive than f*ck, thought they both have lost their "shock factor."

There was a TV programme on about censorship on TV and part of it was about swearing.

Basically, conventional swear words (sh*t, f*ck, even the dreaded c*nt) have lost there shock factor and value (this is British TV we are talking about, you Americans are still up tight when it comes to swearing). But the point is racist terms are the new swear words. Which is interesting, since racist terms used to be OK, but swearing wasn't, now it's reversing.

For me, I'd be shocked by hearing the N word rather than the F word.

Originally Posted by saibot

LOL!

I think I need some ice for that burn...maybe you could chizzle some off your heart.

"Chisel"?

I think тату brings up a good point:
you should really, really avoid the N-word (N*gger, where *=i); I belive the rough translation used in Russian would be Негр and doesn't really carry such a stigma. If you use it here, in the wrong context (ie if you're not black basically), you're probably going to start a fight. To that end maybe you can throw "cracker" in there too? Same idea but with a white person (doesn't really offend me though)? A cracker=крекер in standard usage, but here it refers to skin color.

Also, going back to words that carry a dual-usage, bitch and ass, of course come to mind -- but I think that's the same idea as in Russian too. You can use the word bitch to talk simply about a female dog, and it's really not offensive, apply it to some one's mother, and it's another story...

And "rubber" is something you'll probably find more in non-American English, for whatever it's worth -- and it's really just a bit slangy I think, not offensive (i.e. I think the official word in other countries is still "condom").

Originally Posted by Barmaley

I think тату brings up a good point:
you should really, really avoid the N-word (N*gger, where *=i); I belive the rough translation used in Russian would be Негр and doesn't really carry such a stigma.

It's because Russia is racist. :P

It's like, the N word in the US and Britain used to be OK, when it was OK to be racist, before Martin Luther King, and such.

I heard a white person say it t'other day, and it wasn't even jokingly, but fortunately not directed at anyone. It made me cringe.

What? Is негр offensive? What's the non-offensive way to say black person?

Originally Posted by challenger

Originally Posted by saibot

LOL!

I think I need some ice for that burn...maybe you could chizzle some off your heart.

"Chisel"?

Fo shizzle!

Originally Posted by TATY

Originally Posted by Barmaley

I think тату brings up a good point:
you should really, really avoid the N-word (N*gger, where *=i); I belive the rough translation used in Russian would be Негр and doesn't really carry such a stigma.

It's because Russia is racist. :P

It's like, the N word in the US and Britain used to be OK, when it was OK to be racist, before Martin Luther King, and such.

I heard a white person say it t'other day, and it wasn't even jokingly, but fortunately not directed at anyone. It made me cringe.

Dude, it is all in our heads. I went to Russia and my landlady said in passing something about a black person and I heard the word негр. So I told her that it is very offensive, but she was perplexed that it could be. That is their word for a black person, it is not meant in a negative way. The fact we react to it, is because we have been too eager to use it as an insult in our racist history (after all we enslaved them). In Russia, they hardly even see them!

Which brings me to another note: Funny how the Americans used slaves from another race (africans), while in Russia their "slaves" (serfs) were all slavic. In fact, whenever they conquered a new terratory with a different ethnic population, they had strict rules of not taking the natives as serfs and left them in peace. You don't have many Tartar serfs for example, or Innuits or any of the billion ethnic minorities that exsisted in the olden days.

Originally Posted by kalinka_vinnie

Dude, it is all in our heads. I went to Russia and my landlady said in passing something about a black person and I heard the word негр. So I told her that it is very offensive, but she was perplexed that it could be. That is their word for a black person, it is not meant in a negative way. The fact we react to it, is because we have been too eager to use it as an insult in our racist history (after all we enslaved them). In Russia, they hardly even see them!

I had the same experience, as I'm sure many others have. It's really a lousy situation either way -- on one hand you're kind of a jerk imposing your linguistical morals on some one else (which I did once, "correcting" a friend on his use of негр), but on the other, you'd feel like a total dunce if your friend were to use the word abroad and get into a bad situation. And you're right, in Russia especially, there seems to me to be a really strange relationship vis-a-vis a black person -- there seem to be two different options: a) stare at them like they're exotic or b)beat the crap out of them b/c you're a skinhead idiot. I could probably count on my fingers the number of blacks I saw in 4 months in a Russian city of 4.5 million.

Which brings me to another note: Funny how the Americans used slaves from another race (africans), while in Russia their "slaves" (serfs) were all slavic. In fact, whenever they conquered a new terratory with a different ethnic population, they had strict rules of not taking the natives as serfs and left them in peace. You don't have many Tartar serfs for example, or Innuits or any of the billion ethnic minorities that exsisted in the olden days.

I would say though, that "serfdom" doesn't necessarily equate with "slavery." That's not to say that being a serf was a great gig, but I think I'd still place it on a rung above being a slave. However poor a life they may have led, serfs still had certain rights at various points in Russian history -- St. George's Day leaps to mind, for instance. A slave, at least in the US, had precisely *0* rights -- he was property, pure and simple, no different than being a wagon or a horse.

It's an interesting point about the Russians not incorporating non-Slavs into the serf-system, though one that I'm not thoroughly familiar with.
If it is as you say, then it makes you wonder if perhaps the fact that Russians themselves were frequently subjected to Turkic/Tatar enslaving raids may have had some impact on this. I would assume though, that the greatest reason was that they simply lacked the manpower to enforce a fundamental alteration of the tribal systems -- it wasn't really until the mid-19th century that much was done with Siberia/Far East, beyond trading posts and forts. It was much more sensible to simply collect tribute and trade for fur, and leave the tribal societies entact. The US, I would suspect, was initially, underpopulated and the labor was needed from somewhere -- importing slaves fulfilled this need (and also to some extent, European indentured servants), and once it was in place it was really difficult to get rid of, due to social and economic considerations.

To end on a light note, I'm just glad that those "billions of minorities" didn't unite and take over the world...