caretaker

Nobody should, that definition is specific to prison and even there it doesn't have to have a sex offender connotation, but it isn't used jokingly like it is in society.

scrubbedexpat091

Certainly do learn daily.

I had no idea goof was used as slang in such a way. Neither does my Canadian born spouse.

Never would have thought it would be an offensive word in any way.

Souvy

I had to look it up.

I'd never associated it with anything else but being a twit. The nastier version is new to me.

I'll be careful about using the word in future!

Howefamily

I hadnt either
I hope it takes on a whole new context when part of "goof-ball" as thats what my daughter calls our dog alot

Souvy

One lives and learns.

I'd always thought that twat was just another spelling of twit until someone went errrrrr...

I didn't know.

Gordon Barlow

If "goof" is a terrible insult in Canada, I didn't know, and I sincerely apologise. It's a very mild criticism, in my life - and applicable to just about all young men who fall head over heels in love. Goof | Define Goof at Dictionary.com
It has other connotations, equally innocent, although your "Community dictionary" of slang-words doesn't seem to recognise them either. P G Wodehouse wrote a comedy-story called "The Heart of a Goof" about a young man who was a fanatical golfer. Walt Disney named one of his cartoon characters "Goofy"; I'm pretty sure he didn't mean him to be associated in the public's mind with child-molestation. Please believe me when I tell you that I have never heard of it being used as a serious insult. It certainly wasn't used as such in any of the Canadian communities I encountered when I lived in Toronto in the 1960s: in fact it was never used at all there, to the best of my knowledge. Maybe I have led a sheltered life, but I have never heard it used by any of the many Canadians I've associated with during my long and reasonably full life.

So. I do think you were rather uncharitable to presume that I - a non-Canadian - actually understood the level of insult that the word has in your community, but I can only offer my apology again. And to all other Canadians reading this thread - I apologise if I have ever used the word in conversations with you, too.

caretaker

As I said, that definition is specific to prison. We were testing you, Gordon, to see if you'd been in prison.

Gordon Barlow

Well, not a Canadian prison, at least...

Souvy

That wasn't very nice.

The Cayman Islands probably wouldn't have let him I'm if he'd been to prison.

caretaker

the night is young....

Souvy

Young enough for a goof?

Danny B

When I was banged up in Belmarsh we called them a 'nonce'.

Never heard of a Goof before, must be North American prison slang.

BristolUK

True enough. On the other hand, while the death of Mary Tyler Moore was reported on CBC News, they played back this conversation from the MTM show.
Word use often changes, sometimes over time and other times in different cultures.

Former Lancastrian

I can honestly say having worked in a Provincial prison for 12 months that word was never used to describe a person who had committed sexual assault on children. See how PC that was.
I looked at the link Siouxie gave and my question would be when did you first encounter this word and when was this link published?
I have heard the term goof used in Canada for over 20 years to describe the person as an idiot or something similar. So which came first the idiot description or the child sex offender description?

Siouxie

My former husband told me it was an unacceptable word to use in Canada, when I had used the term. Additionally, in my job I have to be aware of all nuances of words in use - hence the link.

Regardless of whether it was being used in the 'Canadian' way or otherwise, I still find it an insulting term and not something I would say about someone's son or daughter or other family member, ever.

Anyway....

Can we get back on topic?