Location: A Whilom nimble brain. With 31 million posts.
Age: 73
Posts: 3,387
Is it reasonable to call her a bitch, or have I gone too far?
The dog that is. I was having a conversation with a lovely lady about dogs. She had a lovely bitch, and I told her that 'These two are dogs, and this is a bitch.' She looked as though she was going to swoon. I laughed, and said that the Queen of England would use the word for a female dog...but I didn't really know if her majesty, despite being a doggy person, really would.
I'm tired of people stealing words. It seemed to start with Gay. I remember a Times columnist saying what a shame it was, 'Such a happy little word'. Now it's lost forever.
Pussy. I really love our cat. She's called Kitty Park. I also hail her as Puss puss. or Puddy cat. Even in moments of determined resistance, I don't holla "Puuuuussy!" out into the neighborhood. They wouldn't understand, despite having watched endless Tom and Jerrys.
Beaver. What the heck did that little critter do wrong? It's interesting, and cute...well, sort of. How dare they say its name in vein?
Now, the worst conceivable misuse of a word. 'Mother'. It's a contraction of... well, you know. That - the full version - will not be heard in our house. Ever.
An American chum once said "I'm going to lick your fanny" in polite company when he meant "I'm going to whoop your ass, kick butt etc." The smelling salts had to be passed around.
The word "Cootchie" gets a few giggles in Fraser Towers. Mrs Beef does however often sport a rather charming pearl necklace.
Location: An old flying boat station on Moreton Bay
Age: 73
Posts: 293
Let's just persist with the usages we know.
I am with loose rivets , our language should not be hi-jacked. We can accommodate alternative meanings for alternative social situations, but we should not hesitate to use bitch or gay or queer appropriately in our own social environment.
The language is a live, evolving and accommodating thing. I'd hate to put in/out or taboo labels on words.
(Largely because I would always be half a lap behind)
Nice neck. Nice necklace.
Last edited by Wod; 3rd Oct 2009 at 07:51.
Reason: bad taste attack
Location: Propping up bars in the Lands of D H Lawrence and Bishop Bonner
Age: 48
Posts: 5,734
Or as I once said to American colleague, "Can I bum a fag off you?"
Never understood why "bitch" (or even "cow" for that matter) is used to describe a rather unpleasant woman; both bitches and cows are actually quite sweet-natured.
While Durex in Australia is what we call Sellotape and the Americans call Scotch tape. But the hijacking has gone too far......
I wonder what would be made in the US of a kid singing the nursery rhyme 'I love little pussy, her coat is so warm, and if I don't hurt her, she'll do me no harm'?
Shortly after starting an office job with a US company in Stockholm, a friend contracted a hoarse throat one morning and it took her several minutes to understand why every English speaking male was asking her how she was and then walking off bowled over in laughter.
Well, in English, you have a "frog in your throat"; in French it's a "cat" and in Swedish it's a 'rooster".
Asked "How are you?" by her colleagues, she replied with perfect fluency: "Fine, except for the c**k in my throat."
"Or as I once said to American colleague, "Can I bum a fag off you?" "
If I was in the UK standing with my typical US airline cabin crew, I would calmly reply, "take any of them". Same goes if you wanted to "bum a bitch off me too"
meaning "cheap, saving of money, economical..." a good old Anglo-Saxon word, got one poor civil servant in Washington, D.C. in so much hot water he lost his job over using it perfectly correctly. He finally made a truly cringe-worthy apology for using a word that could be misunderstood.
One night in the bar I was discussing poetry with our English Chief Pilot's wife when we came to "This Be The Verse" by the great modern English poet Philip Larkin. After I quoted the opening line he went slightly mad but I simply flashed my poetic licence and stoutly maintained that the word as used was not mine but Larkin's so argue with him except that he's dead, okay? I won that argument but was later passed over for an upgrade and I have always wondered why...
chuks, I was lucky that ol' skip didn't say anything after I informed a lady first class passenger that I was the Captain's sexual adviser.
She did ask for it a bit. After engaging skip in conversation for some time, as she left the flight deck, she asked me, as an afterthought and rather imperiously "And whatt doo yoo doo?"
When I enlarged upon the job description she exclaimed "Really!" and quickly left
