Naughty words and phrases

Posted by ESC on June 15, 2000

In Reply to: Phrase: Blowing someone off posted by John Bailey on June 14, 2000

: : : I posted this question two months ago and didn't get a response. It is not on the search the archives of the discussion group anymore either.

: : : This is a phrase I hear more and more in public in America. I want to know how it meaning has totally changed in the last twenty years, when you couldn't say such a thing in public. I'm sick of hearing it.

: : While public discourse has gotten immeasurably more vulgar, this particular phrase is not guilty. Think of blowing dust off a book, or blowing off a feather that lands on your shoulder. This is the sense of lightly getting rid of someone of no importance. Discarding a person not worthy of your attention. (Come to think of it, that IS vulgar.)

: Thanks for the reply Bob. You're right of course, but I can't get used to thirteen year old girls saying it, especially my daughter. I was just getting used to "dumping someone", and you don't even want to analyze that one.

Oh, John, you've only just begun. Have you listened to some of Marilyn Manson's tunes? Kids can pick up some pretty vile little phrases from that. And, another example, a while back someone posted a truly HORRIBLE song on Phrase Finder. I mentioned it to my children. And they said, "That's from the South Park movie," referring to a movie based on a Comedy Channel "adult cartoon."

The scary part is that a lot of these words and phrases are not just "dirty" (RE: sexual) but they are mean-spirited and hateful. Hate-filled might be a better word.