The word Bloody

[LBK]

the "b" word that was used before the word "confusing" is as obscene, to British speakers of English, as the "F" word is to American English speakers.

Forty years ago, perhaps.

The F bomb is still considered obscene in Britain, Australia and New Zealand, but bloody has long ago been stripped of its former odium, according to my friends from those countries, and as is evident in its use over the past generation in TV shows of PG rating and above from those countries. Vulgar, perhaps, among some, but not obscene.

[Seraphim98]

The b word is vulgar…a profane oath because it is a contraction of "By our Lady". It is disrespectful to the Theotokos.

[theistgal]

The b word is vulgar…a profane oath because it is a contraction of "By our Lady". It is disrespectful to the Theotokos.

According to the Wiki entry (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bloody), while that's one theory, "others regard this explanation as dubious. Eric Partridge, in Words, Words, Words (Methuen, 1933), describes this as "phonetically implausible". Geoffrey Hughes in Swearing: A social history of foul language, oaths and profanity in English (Blackwell, 1991), points out that "by my lady" is not an adjective whereas "bl**dy" is, and suggests that the slang use of the term started with "bl**dy drunk" meaning "fired up and ready for a fight".

(** asterisks inserted by moi, so as not to offend. However, wonder if a mod could clarify whether we are forbidden to use any word which might be considered profane somewhere in the world?  )

[orthonorm]

An acceptable word in the course of the English language that got tied up with menstruation, then folk etymologies as suggested by Seraphim above.

The origin of its use in this manner is up for debate but it certainly had nothing to do with menses or the Vigin Mary.

And when referring to the words themselves, can we pretend to be adults and just use them either with quotes or in italics? Few things sound more ridiculous than an adult saying the [letter of the alphabet]-word.

[theistgal]

Bloody right.

[Kerdy]

Any word can be offensive in another country.  Take cigarettes for instance.  Go to England.  I tend not to get too wrapped up in the small stuff, but if something is universally recognized as vulgar, I make every attempt to not use it in proper company.  In fact, legitimate words are recently becoming offensive to crazy people everywhere.  About a year ago I made some people extremely angry when they asked people to stop using the “R” word.  Once I found out what they meant, I went into a lengthy explanation of why that request was absurd and how the word is properly used in everyday language.  They weren’t happy.  I am thinking of starting a campaign against the “G” word, just to make people angry.

[Ansgar]

Now when we are talking about words in different languages, can somebody please tell me why titicaca can be seen as a bad word? I have a suspicion, I just need to be sure.

[LBK]

Bloody right.

My dear theistgal, I'm told the proper idiom amongst Australians, and possibly New Zealanders, is too right. Not bloody right.   But I stand by my earlier post which stated that bloody has lost its seriously offensive character decades ago in the nations where it is used. It is in no way as offensive as the F-bomb.

[LBK]

Now when we are talking about words in different languages, can somebody please tell me why titicaca can be seen as a bad word? I have a suspicion, I just need to be sure.

I'll bite:

Titties is a slang word in many English-speaking countries for breasts. Caca is a slang word for feces in several Mediterranean languages and dialects.

[Ansgar]

Now when we are talking about words in different languages, can somebody please tell me why titicaca can be seen as a bad word? I have a suspicion, I just need to be sure.

I'll bite:

Titties is a slang word in many English-speaking countries for breasts. Caca is a slang word for feces in several Mediterranean languages and dialects.

Ah, my supicion was right 

Now I at least know why people are always bringing up this one.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RJxdL0pH9pw

[Punch]

Now when we are talking about words in different languages, can somebody please tell me why titicaca can be seen as a bad word? I have a suspicion, I just need to be sure.

I'll bite:

Titties is a slang word in many English-speaking countries for breasts. Caca is a slang word for feces in several Mediterranean languages and dialects.

So, what you are saying is that whoever named that lake down in South America must have watched a lot of German porn.

[88Devin12]

I use bloody more often than probably other Americans, but I think that simply comes from having played video games with British people for several years and hearing one person shout "this is *fill-in-the-blank* stupid" and the British person yelling "this is bloody stupid".

If it isn't your culture, is it really that bad? When I was in Greece, we learned that sticking your open hand toward someone (or worse, both on top of each other) was essentially our middle finger. As Americans, we kind of forgot this and if someone in a car would allow us to walk across the road we'd wave, which for some of us is not even a hand wave but just a hand and I think I may have upset the person as he peeled out and sped away.

[Anastasia1]

I use bloody more often than probably other Americans, but I think that simply comes from having played video games with British people for several years and hearing one person shout "this is *fill-in-the-blank* stupid" and the British person yelling "this is bloody stupid".

If it isn't your culture, is it really that bad? When I was in Greece, we learned that sticking your open hand toward someone (or worse, both on top of each other) was essentially our middle finger. As Americans, we kind of forgot this and if someone in a car would allow us to walk across the road we'd wave, which for some of us is not even a hand wave but just a hand and I think I may have upset the person as he peeled out and sped away.

I think that avoiding certain language is a matter of respect and love for others. The question isn't is it your culture, but what is your intent, and are you causing offense. If you do not intend anything hurtful or disrespectful (beyond necessity to make a point and not of others), and you are not around people who would be offended by it, then no worries.

Personally, I would probably look at you askew, ask how you came to use the word, and ask you about European pop music.

Titties would feel weird to hear all of the time, even if "Save the Titties" has some mildly amusing awkwardness to it.  I'd rather hear bloody.

[theistgal]

But the real question is, do we have to avoid any word that might conceivably cause offense to someone elsewhere in the world, even if it's a word that has absolutely zero "profane" content in our world?

I mean, come on; I know people who get offended when people use euphemisms instead of the actual profanity (like Father Ted's "feckin' ",  or Scrubs' "frickin'"). Isn't there a point where you can just say, screw it, I'm using the real word because it means what I feel right now?

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