Cussing...

[manike]

I'm intrigued as to some of the cusswords which are allowed here and some that are not.

Obviously it's a different culture thing because certain words we would find harmless over here and that are even used more in an amusement way are censored (Thanks Army for the only time I think I have ever been edited I normally try to not be offensive by my own standards).

And some (mainly just one) which I find quite offensive is allowed completely. I know you guys use it to mean annoyed/angry but over here it's an offensive swear word when used in the same context as you guys use it. It can be used in a non-offensive manner, to mean very drunk but it's not the kind of word I would use in front of my mother in the ways it gets banded about on here.

While on the subject it was quite funny when I explained to an American friend just quite what some of the words she was using actually meant

manike

[Load SM5]

Actually, one of the best days I spent in England was in a small pub in York listening to a group of guys at a bachelor party who were really pi..drunk. They were all loud, especially the groom, and not afraid to tell you and everyone exactly what was on their mind. It proved really educational.

I picked up a great book comparing American and British insults. Who would have thought sticking 2 finger in the air would cause such a reaction?

[cphilip]

Interesting story in reverse Manike:


One of our Professors here of Indian Decent and Schooled in England. Another totaly American Prof took him and his family camping for their first time at one of the state parks. They wanted to make a camp fire so the Indian Prof went up to the little store in the park to buy some wood. he also wanted some small "kindling" wood to help start it. So in his English manor this was reffered to as "***gots". You'll just have to guess the word as the filter doesn't like it see? So he asked the store keeper repeatedly if they had any ***gots as he wished to buy some. They were agast as you can imagine as that is a unkindly reference to Homosexuals here in America. Luckily the other Prof came in before anything got out of hand and explained the situation.

True story.

Just shows to go you it works the other way around too!

[manike]

Yeah it means something completely different in the USA if you say you are 'going to go outside and smoke a ***' Here a ***got is food and a *** is a cigarette. It is sometimes used as a term for homosexuals but not as much as in the US.

I was drinking at the World Cup this year and was ahem 'very' drunk. I told one of my US mates that I was p'd and he said why what's the problem? I replied no problem I'm just very p'd and he was all concerned until I realised and explained that I was just drunk as a newt... (where did that expression come from?)

manike

[manike]

Oh yeah a very common expression here is to 'bum a ***'... it means to request a cigarette from someone

If you 'bum' something from someone it means to get given it without having to pay for it.

manike

[Shaft]

I'll say it again, Brits are silly.

If it weren't for English beers - I'd say we make that island our next Hawaii. Hah!

[shartley]

[manike]

Actually the reason that sticking two fingers up is an insult is because if Bowmen were caught by the opposite side they would have the two fingers that they used for Archery cut off.

So it was a way of showing disrespect to the opposition to stick their fingers up and show that they still had them. It wasn't just a class thing.

It was a kind of 'nah nah look my fingers are still attached' thing In the same way that if someone just missed your leg in paintball you might stick it out from behind the tree and wave it at them (seen someone do that to me and I shot it when they waved it )

I live near Warwick Castle in the UK which is one of the finest examples in this Country (and I dare say the World) they have re-enactments of archery and Swordfighting and Jousting etc. It's really quite fascinating and you'd be amased at how many modern terms and ways are derived from such things in our history.

manike

[shartley]

Manike

[synreal]

http://www.ooze.com/finger/html/history.html - hmm, what a surprise, it's a phallic reference

[manike]

The reason the USA just uses one finger? Maybe because you are two lazy to use two

I've never heard of the 'two finger salute' being anything to do with class, but it may have been. We were always just told about the finger cutting off reason. But bowmen were selected from the lower classes. Extremely successful though. I used to do some archery and it's amazing what an original longbow is capable off. An extremely powerful and effective weapon of it's day. There was little to stop it. They are some displays of armour and chain mail with arrow holes in it at Warwick and if I remember correctly there is a display of arrow heads telling you what each was for. They designed them for attacking different defences and for hunting different game etc.

I find medieval weapons fascinating. I once made a scale model of a trebuchet and it was remarkably effective and accurate...

They made a full size one in Scotland with which they hurled cars

manike

[manike]

The history of the two fingered salute...

"Before the Battle of Agincourt in 1415, the French, anticipating victory over the English, proposed to cut off the middle finger of all captured English soldiers. Without the middle finger it would be impossible to draw the renowned English longbow and therefore be incapable of fighting in the future. This famous weapon was made of the native English Yew tree, and the act of drawing the longbow was known as "plucking the yew" (or "pluck yew").

Much to the bewilderment of the French, the English won a major upset and began mocking the French by waved their middle fingers at the defeated French, saying, "See, we can still pluck yew! "PLUCK YEW!"

Over the years some 'folk etymologies' have grown up around this symbolic gesture. Since 'pluck yew' is rather difficult to say (like "pleasant mother pheasant plucker", which is who you had to go to for the feathers used on the arrows for the longbow), the difficult consonant cluster at the beginning has gradually changed to a labiodental fricative 'F',and thus the words often used in conjunction with the one-finger-salute are mistakenly thought to have something to do with an intimate encounter. It is also because of the pheasant feathers on the arrows that the symbolic gesture is known as "giving the bird".

And yew all thought yew knew everything!"

Exactly as taken from:-

http://www.thebeckoning.com/medieval/longbow/longbow-finger.html

manike

[synreal]

Ah, the "F" word, it seems to have half a dozen other back grounds as well.

"The word F*** was actually used quite some years ago, starting in about the 1500s. It was back in those times when you had the kings who had their ladies in waiting and everything. In order to keep the blood lines "blue", the kings chose men they wanted to father children with their ladies-in-waiting. So pretty soon it became known as to "fornicate under the command of the king" which is abbreviated to well, we all now what it got abbreviated too."

It has also been claimed to be an acronym for criminal sexual conduct "full/forced unlawful carnal knowledge"

[Thordic]

I read something once about all the alledged sources for the F word. It gave all these stories about plucking yew, and fornicating under the command of the king, etc, and then at the end it simply said that in truth, we aren't sure where the word came from exactly.

I personally think all these stories are just stupid things people made up because they think it sounds cool.

Not the two finger thing, I don't know about that, I just mean the sources of the F word.

[TheTramp]

My mother was on a walking tour in England and one morning she asked the group if anyone had seen her "fanny" pack. The walk guide got a little worked up and told her she should say "but" pack or something else. Just NOT "fanny" pack.

What she didn't know is that while fanny means rear-end in the States, it means something very different in the UK. I think Manike will see where she went wrong.