Do Lawtalkers Dream of Electric Sheep?

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Pussy's always positive?

How much pussy have you gotten on those nights when you and your friends were out discussing how you were "chasing pussy"?

how much did you get chasing "cunt?" actually probably more* than me, if you went into it with your expectations lower.

here's what I was reading while you penned your challenge, from an etymology webpage:

• There is another another possibility, at least theoretically. The ancestral form of cunt could be a borrowing from some I-E language that didn't undergo the [k] --> [h] change. On this theory, cunt would have been borrowed into the language after the sound change occurred. If this happened, we would have a parallel to borrowed forms like cardiac and coronet. Since these words are relatively late arrivals to English, they don't show the effects of the old sound change.
  
  The problem with the borrowing hypothesis, though, is when it would have occurred. Since we have many related forms in the Germanic languages, the word is clearly not a recent borrowing. It would have to pre-date the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.
  
  Now it is true that there is an early stratum of borrowing from Latin into Germanic. These are words that the Germanic tribes borrowed as a result of their contact with the Roman Empire. For example, words like camp, street, pipe, and cheese all come from this period. However, it seems difficult to believe that cunt was borrowed. First, virtually all of these borrowings are for items of technology, warfare, merchandise, etc. The sorts of things that Germanic peoples would have encountered in dealing with the Romans. Obviously, cunts would have been familiar to the Germanic tribes with or without Roman contact, and it's impossible to believe that they didn't have some preexisting term. Further, even if the word somehow was borrowed, the [t] is unexplained.
  
  If you're expecting me at this point to offer an alternative root for cunt, don't hold your breath. Many people have made proposals, but all of them have problems. The simple fact is that we don't know where the word came from, but we do know enough to reject the superficially plausible connections.

how did my life get to the point where my Friday evening genitalia thoughts are etymological?



*worst you can do is tie.

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
I have never heard anyone refer to a woman as an "asshole."

You know, I have never really thought about it, or noticed one way or another about the gender divide on insults. I will have to start paying attention.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by Not Bob
You know, I have never really thought about it, or noticed one way or another about the gender divide on insults. I will have to start paying attention.

ever tell a guy he had a good hairdo?

[Not Bob]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
ever tell a guy he had a good hairdo?

Just Mitt Romney. Damn, that dude has a good head of hair.

[dtb]

I both use, and have heard others use, the word "asshole" to describe a woman. Even some women [cue scary-movie music] ON THIS VERY INTERWEBS CHATBOARD!! Though perhaps more men are deserving of the honorific.

Thinking about this (as the topic came up today), I realize that the only people I know who say that women cannot be called assholes are men.

[ThurgreedMarshall]

Originally posted by dtb
I both use, and have heard others use, the word "asshole" to describe a woman. Even some women [cue scary-movie music] ON THIS VERY INTERWEBS CHATBOARD!! Though perhaps more men are deserving of the honorific.

Thinking about this (as the topic came up today), I realize that the only people I know who say that women cannot be called assholes are men.

Really? This occupied time you devote to thought? What conclusion did you draw from this revelation?

Whether you have used it or heard other women use it isn't really the point. I don't think it can be argued that the term is used overwhelmingly to describe men by men and women. But what's the the conclusion to be drawn from this? I don't know. Is there more significance behind this than the fact that 'bitch' (when used in the same way as asshole) is used to describe women? Is it particularly telling that both men and women have assholes, but the word 'bitch' also means female dog? Again, I don't know. But as far as I'm concerned, the fact that women are rarely referred to as 'assholes' has essentially no significance whatsoever.

TM

[bold_n_brazen]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
Ever called a woman a douchebag?

I just this very second referred to a lawyer at a bank in Delaware as a douchebag.

If anyone here works at a bank in Delaware, it could have been you.

The douchebag is a man.

[Hank Chinaski]

Originally posted by ThurgreedMarshall
Really? This occupied time you devote to thought? What conclusion did you draw from this revelation?

Whether you have used it or heard other women use it isn't really the point. I don't think it can be argued that the term is used overwhelmingly to describe men by men and women. But what's the the conclusion to be drawn from this? I don't know. Is there more significance behind this than the fact that 'bitch' (when used in the same way as asshole) is used to describe women? Is it particularly telling that both men and women have assholes, but the word 'bitch' also means female dog? Again, I don't know. But as far as I'm concerned, the fact that women are rarely referred to as 'assholes' has essentially no significance whatsoever.

TM

spoiler



ok. I'm no conspiracy theory guy, but just rewatched the Wire. The last scene. omar's face straight on? no scar. freeze it. am I crazy?

[Diane_Keaton]

Originally posted by Hank Chinaski
ever go out with your friends "chasing cunt?"

but it can't be the cadence alone. there must be something in the root of the words.

"Cunt" sounds angry and bitter. And it is a popular word of rapists during the crime (and other crimes against women). So it's got that mean kind of association.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Diane_Keaton
"Cunt" sounds angry and bitter. And it is a popular word of rapists during the crime (and other crimes against women). So it's got that mean kind of association.

I think you have the chicken before the egg there. The word has a stigma considered insulting, so a rapist would of course be quick to use it. But why the stigma? That's owing to its sound, I think.

[Fugee]

I just finished Season 2 of The Wire. I love that show.

Speaking of insulting names to call people, it cracks me up when Avon's drug dealers call the interlopers/compeition "off-brand n****."

and I miss D'Angelo.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by sebastian_dangerfield
I think you have the chicken before the egg there. The word has a stigma considered insulting, so a rapist would of course be quick to use it. But why the stigma? That's owing to its sound, I think.

The stigma is owing to the synecdoche. For a man to be summarized as his own genitals is a backhanded compliment; for a woman it is a vague threat of rape or other dehumanization.

[Atticus Grinch]

Originally posted by dtb
I both use, and have heard others use, the word "asshole" to describe a woman. Even some women [cue scary-movie music] ON THIS VERY INTERWEBS CHATBOARD!!

Cite please, with link to Breasticle Day photo verification.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
The stigma is owing to the synecdoche. For a man to be summarized as his own genitals is a backhanded compliment; for a woman it is a vague threat of rape or other dehumanization.

You don't think that's a bit of a sexist explanation? A man can handle the use of an insult a woman can't? There's something about the sound of it. Think of all the worst slurs. They all have that short, crisp, blunt sound to them. I think there's a certain "extra insult" implied when the word is so short and uncreative that it sounds like the speaker couldn't even be bothered to consider the subject more than a couple thrown together consonants with the obligatory vowel slapped in the middle.

I think that's why "fuck" had such a stigma for so long. It's the cheapest word imaginable. And isn't that the real crux of the insult? That somebody took something of such social importance to so many and reduced it so brutally?

ETA: Yes, I'm aware of fuck's alleged administrative derivation. However, throughout history there have been endless words for that act, and none had been considered so taboo.

[sebastian_dangerfield]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
I just this very second referred to a lawyer at a bank in Delaware as a douchebag.

If anyone here works at a bank in Delaware, it could have been you.

The douchebag is a man.

If you ever think you're going to be hit with a substantial judgment, kiss and make up and ask him to open an account for you. DE does not allow judgment creditors to attach bank accounts. It has to be a DE chartered bank with no out of state branches.

Just an FYI. Nobody ever knows when he or she might need this sort of info.