Thursday, May 8, 2008

Give Me that Old Time Profanity

Some things fall out of fashion. Profanity is not excluded. A few old curses come to mind.

Hot Damn
I think this is southern term, but I haven't heard it spoken in years by anyone but me. It keeps The Lord out of the situation, yet the "hot" of it lets there be no doubt that were talking about hell. It sounds close enough to God damn to serve as a euphemism too.

Ass Chewing
When someone was harshly reprimanded, it was often said that they had their "ass chewed out". I like the term. The metaphor matches the situation like a glove.

Shit Ass
This was used largely by elementary school kids. The distinction needed to be made from the more mild (and in the bible) ass - a.k.a donkey. The clarifying " shit" made it known that the recipient of the insult was an ass of the most vulgar kind.

Dirty Bastard
South Park brought bastard back in focus, but the Dirty Bastard, which no doubt followed the words "Why you..." in old movies has yet to return in full force. Technically there many bastards about theses days, so what's the big deal?

Jigaboo
Like the Eskimo is said to have 100 words for snow, the old-style racist used to have 100 or more words for anything not as white as they were. As far as slurs go, it's a good one. Comical sounding, yet unambiguous. This one, like mustard gas, needs to stay retired.

No comments: