Origin of Swear Words, Insults etc.

tbh

mods: this probably doesn't deserve a thread of it's own, I just find these things interesting, would like to see more on this board - maybe I should have started a general word origins thread - feel free to move/edit/delete (obviously )


anyway, funny how these things start This word popped up in the insult thread, over in the thunderdome and got me wondering about it's origins. To quote Wikeopedia:

Various backronyms such as "Not on Normal Courtyard Exercise" and "Non-Specified Offender" are suggested in some sources to explain the origin of the slang term nonce and the segregation of sex offenders, but they should not be taken seriously. The actual origin of this word is unknown, but it is probable that it is an abbreviation of nonsense or nonsense case, possibly derived as British prisoner slang for prisoners who have committed a "nonsense crime", as opposed to a crime such as theft. There is also evidence for a possible connection with nancy, a derogatory term referring to effeminate or homosexual males, and with a dialectical use of "nonse" to refer to a worthless person.


But I also found a definition of "a nonce word"
—to meet a need that is not expected to recur. Quark, for example, was a nonce word appearing only in James Joyce's Finnegans Wake until Murray Gell-Mann quoted it to name a new class of subatomic particle. The use of the term nonce word in this way was apparently the work of James Murray, the influential editor of the Oxford English Dictionary.

Nonce words frequently arise through the combination of an existing word with a familiar prefix or suffix, in order to meet a particular need (or as a joke). The result is not a non-word: although it would not be found in any dictionary, it is instantly comprehensible (e.g., bananular phone). If the need recurs (or the joke is widely enjoyed), nonce words easily enter regular use (initially as neologisms) just because their meaning is obvious.

some examples:

* Slithy, as a portmanteau of "slimy" and "lithe"; one of several used by Lewis Carroll in Jabberwocky.
* Unidexter - a one-legged person. Coined by comedian Peter Cook in One Leg Too Few.
* Aequeosalinocalcalinoceraceoaluminosocupreovitriolic, one of the English language's longest words according to the book The Dictionary, was used once in describing a particular British aquarium's water.
* Surlecultant in French, meaning that gets you to sit down in a rather vulgar manner. A rough translation would be 'onto-the-arse-ing'.
* Contrafibularity was one of several nonce words used by the fictional Edmund Blackadder to confuse the lexicographer Samuel Johnson, whom he despised.

Scraggs

Crap
Crap' is vulgar, but less so than 'shít'. In addition to 'excrement', it can be used to mean 'stuff' or 'things'. Like shít, it may also be used as an adjective: a Brit might describe something as being crap or crappy, in the same way they might describe something slightly worse as shít or shítty. There are two possible origins for the word. The word has links to the Middle English for chaff, and the Middle Dutch 'to tear off' which is more suitable than ever in these days of velvet-soft toilet tissue. A second possible origin is the Victorian plumber named Thomas Crapper who gave the world the syphonic flush: British Standard 7357 (1990) still requires that 'Cisterns shall be supplied with an efficient flushing apparatus of the valveless syphonic type which prevents the waste of water.' Crapper left his name not only on toilet cisterns, but also on manhole covers across southern England. And thus a crapper is a toilet, and not the person who uses it.

Crap is obsolete slang for money, which is presumably the origin of the Craps game. So an American might 'throw a crap', that is they might throw a seven while trying to make a point. These American usages leaves Brits either sniggering or confused or both.
• Crap is a noun rather than a verb, and Brits will 'have a crap', except when they are afraid, then they are 'crapping it'.
• Confusingly 'crapulence' (from the Latin for being drunk) is sickness caused by heavy drinking. However it often also involves toilets.

Taken from this interesting article.



Thread title changed tbh;)

Talliesin

Scraggs wrote:

Crap
Crap' is vulgar, but less so than 'shít'. In addition to 'excrement', it can be used to mean 'stuff' or 'things'.

**** can mean "stuff" in some cases (quite commonly so in parts of the US).

WindSock

Cnt, is a variation of the word Quim meaning valley...I think it was originally Welsh.

punka

boreds wrote:

Cnt, is a variation of the word Quim meaning valley...I think it was originally Welsh.

Latin has cunnus. Greek has kysos/kysthos (which comes from kuo, to be pregnant). Also there's a Sanskrit word, cushi, which means ditch.

Talliesin

Cυnt and Quim both come from Middle English quente, with Germanic origins. It is indeed cognate with cunnus. It is not from Welsh.