Newsgroups: sci.lang
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From: jcf@world.std.com (Joseph C Fineman)
Subject: Re: Taboo words (was Re: Tendency of Inflections to Disappear - Why?
Message-ID: <DvzrDo.28H@world.std.com>
Organization: The World Public Access UNIX, Brookline, MA
References: <4suk93$pob@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <4sv017$2oa@seagoon.newcastle.edu.au> <4t5nj1$peo@netsrv2.spss.com> <4taeev$8cr@brachio.zrz.TU-Berlin.DE> <4tgg3h$9t9@carrera.intergate.bc.ca> <Pine.OSF.3.93.960729022255.24851C-100000@oak.cats.ohiou.edu> <4 <4ug14o$557@nosy.bart.nl> <5tPw4Pj.padrote@delphi.com>
Date: Sun, 11 Aug 1996 20:53:48 GMT
Lines: 19

John <padrote@delphi.com> writes:

>   What about "asshole"? When applied to a person it means bad, rotten
>and generally disagreeable. Have any trouble associating that with a
>certain part of your body? Same goes for "prick" incidentally.

"Asshole" & "prick" are terms of abuse -- the latter, as far as I
know, being applied only to men.  "Cunt", as applied by men
metonymically, is rather different.  As a term of abuse, applied
either to men or to women, it seems to me far stronger than "prick".
But it is also sometimes used more casually to refer to women as such
-- not implying that the women so called are especially obnoxious.  Do
women ever use "prick" in that manner?  For example, would women
speaking to women ever call a group of men unknown to them "a
truckload of pricks"?
-- 
        Joe Fineman             jcf@world.std.com
        495 Pleasant St., #1    (617) 324-6899
        Malden, MA 02148
