jmh

I was on an Open Uni forum for a course I was doing and a guy who posted 'I'm buggered' meaning he was tired, was threatened with expulsion!!

In NZ the word would not be considered rude, but it is here in the UK it seems.

Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg

Read the list from the ASA, first you will laugh, then you will cry. The fact that bar one, racial/religious slurs rank lower and receive fewer complaints than Bollocks! What a sad world we live in!

mistahsinclair

(Being Scottish) My favourite made number 1! Would make number 1 in the US too!

mistahsinclair

Number 11...hahah

Seperated by a common language...

I took a picture in Walmart the other day of an item they had on sale...

The Ultimate Shagger - made by Wilson sporting goods!

Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg

Well apparently that word, had never been uttered on US Network TV until Feb 2008 ... by JANE FONDA of all people!

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/0...f_n_86686.html

I suspect it would top the ranking in all English speaking countries mainly because it is always 100% derogatory and demeaning to women, unlike the Male equivalents which have in some cases become almost complimentary... again strange sad world we live in.

mistahsinclair

Funny that...I've most often heard it directed at men, by men.

Bluegrass Lass

Was driving past a carpet store a few months back. The OH and I had a great laugh because their sign was advertising a "Short Shag Sale"

orangemirror

I'd say that No 5 is considered worse than No 1 in this day and age. And quite right too. Afterall No 1 is only a rude word for a part of the body. i use No 1 all the time but i'd never use no 5.

Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg

As an insult a male directing that word at another male is particularly demeaning to women as it infers negativity towards the female body and a superiority of the male. Otherwise it would be a compliment

Interesting that women also direct this word at other women (and men) when they want to cause maximum offence (depending on which pubs you hang out in of course) and rarely use male orientated versions, which are not generally seen as so severe/powerful.

Okachickima

The use of the word "Jew" is considered swearing in Britain? How do you refer to a practitioner of Judaism?

mistahsinclair

Uhm...as a "practitioner of Judaism" maybe.

Good morning my practitioner of Judaism-ish friend...something like that.

...or maybe just Rabbi (wait that might not be P.C. either).

Sir Denis Eaton-Hogg

No5 is an out and out insult that brings with it a huge amount of cultural and historical baggage. particulary in America for what it represents and the power that it once had to oppress by word alone.

It is grossly offensive, but interestingly more so within a certain generation.

Some older people in the UK do not see it as that offensive, but they also tended to watch Alf Garnett and Jim Davidson 'innocently'. At the other end of the scale you will hear a lot of kids and teens using this word 'casually' between themselves, both in the US and UK, almost in an attempt to destroy any power that the word may retain by making it trivial.

I suspect and hope 'that word' will have disappeared entirely from popular speech within a generation, and will be consigned to history along with the obsolete and outmoded ideas that it came to symbolise.

Englishtart

I just looked at the list, I was thinking exactly the same thing! I don't use #1
but I wouldn't ever think about saying #5

dunroving

You've been reading "Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson, maybe? Many of the spellings, certainly, changed in the UK but remained the same in the US - so it's US spelling that is "correct" most of the time and UK spelling that is "wrong/changed" And apparently there are pockets of people up in the Appalachian mountains who speak Elizabethan English

Lothianlad

Meat pies have been reported as being on sale at Kinross Market but when I went over there especially on Saturday I couldn't find any anywhere. I reckon it was just a wicked rumour.

The TV TImes says that with a wee bit of luck The Bill should make an appearance on British TV sometime in mid to late 2010.