Is 'arse' a swear word?

swiller · September 2023

Funkfingers said:

The etymology of the word Arse is Germanic, via Dutch. There is nothing wrong with the word. The problem is that some British people are still ashamed to openly discuss body parts and bodily functions.

swiller said:

"good evening , whats arse?" is a perfectly acceptable and arguably more relevant greeting.

Acceptable to whom and in what language?

Anyone who understands english.

Funkfingers · September 2023

Arse is a noun. The sentence requires a verb. Schools appear to have ceased teaching English Grammar roughly forty years ago.

swiller · September 2023

Funkfingers said:

Arse is a noun. The sentence requires a verb. Schools appear to have ceased teaching English Grammar roughly forty years ago.

well i went to cardiff high so that might explain it. But i cometh not from the teachings of jacob rees mogg old bean. Is that better?

Emp_Fab · September 2023

Feck. Arse. Girls.

BillDL · September 2023

Image: https://tfb-user-images.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/5806725eda5c2ded2497522c682356a0735888bf7ffe8f5df1

Tannin · September 2023

Interesting list @Shrews.Very different from the list you'd get in this country.

BAD

Cunt

Twat

Shit

Slut

Slag

Bitch

Arsehole

Fucking (Usually pronounced as fuckin' - in some circles, pronouncing the G marks you out as a toff and invites ridicule)

STRONGER MODERATE

Piss

Dickhead

Arse

Crap

Fuck

Cock

WEAKER MODERATE

Wanker

Bloody

Bastard

Dick

Tits

Tosser

Prick

SELDOM USED

Shag

Fucker

Goolies

Motherfucker

Cocksucker

Bollocks

Spunk

NEVER USED

Bellend

Fanny

Pillock

Knobhead

Plonker

NOT A SWEAR WORD (not even slightly)

Wally

(In Oz, a "Wally" is someone who isn't too bright and makes dumb mistakes.)

Do we have someone who speaks fluent American in the house? It would be interesting to see the American version of this list.

Timcito · September 2023

proggy said:

I wouldn't say 'twat' is a swear word, it's another word for idiot.

I agree. It no longer really refers to the anatomy and is, as you say, just another generalized insult word. A bit like 'prick.'

But I do think 'arse' is a swear word, interpreting 'swear word' as a vulgarity not in polite use which has to do with religion, sex or bodily functions. I wouldn't use the word in class or in a meeting or other formal professional contexts. I also didn't use it in front of my parents, and the only time I ever heard my father use it was in a joke.

The ones that I did grow up with as being mild were 'damn,' 'bloody,' 'bugger,' and 'sod.'

thecolourbox · September 2023

The article isn't claiming that arse is a swear word is it? They print that word but label the F-Word as, well, the F-Word?

Philly_Q · September 2023

Tannin said:

Fucking (Usually pronounced as fuckin' - in some circles, pronouncing the G marks you out as a toff and invites ridicule)

Yeah, but in writing in works much better with the G. I don't know why really, it just does.

Timcito said:

proggy said:

I wouldn't say 'twat' is a swear word, it's another word for idiot.

I agree. It no longer really refers to the anatomy and is, as you say, just another generalized insult word. A bit like 'prick.'

Agreed, I think the original meaning has become redundant. "Twat", to me, is just an infinitely more effective version of "Twit".

Tannin · September 2023

^ Don't say "twat" in Oz or NZ unless it is your intention to offend.

Although, come to think of it, British pronunciation of the word is so different to the rest of the world that you are probably safe. (No-one will recognise it unless you write it down.)

It is probably best regarded as a homograph (two different words with the same spelling). In the UK "twat" rhymes with rat and seems to mean something like "fool" or "unpleasant person", elsewhere it rhymes with "dot", explicitly means the female genitalia and not in a nice way, and is pretty much as offensive a word as you can get.

BillDL · September 2023

In Scotland the word "bawbag" (ballbag) can be used in several ways ranging from banter between friends through to a proper insult, but it is commonly used without causing any major offence to people of most ages that overhear it or read it. In fact a couple of the news channels a number of years ago referred repeatedly to "Hurricane Bawbag", as it had been named by some Scottish person. The word "fanny" can be used in similar ways in Scotland, although some older non-Scots can find it a little objectionable.

Philly_Q · September 2023

Tannin said:

^ Don't say "twat" in Oz or NZ unless it is your intention to offend.

Although, come to think of it, British pronunciation of the word is so different to the rest of the world that you are probably safe. (No-one will recognise it unless you write it down.)

It is probably best regarded as a homograph (two different words with the same spelling). In the UK "twat" rhymes with rat and seems to mean something like "fool" or "unpleasant person", elsewhere it rhymes with "dot", explicitly means the female genitalia and not in a nice way, and is pretty much as offensive a word as you can get.

Growing up in South Wales we always pronounced it to rhyme with "rat", as you say, and it basically meant fool, idiot, twit (although I knew the original meaning)... when we moved to Hertfordshire in the 1980s I did hear people pronouncing it "twot", but whether the meaning was different I never really knew. I think now most people I know, if they use the word, use it in the former sense.

Dr_Necessiter · September 2023

I'm not sure piss is a swear word any more and kind of ranks with fart (often occuring simultaneously at my age).

Taking a piss is perhaps slightly stronger wording than having a pee whereas taking the piss, pissing in the wind and go piss up a rope are IMHO completely innocuous these days.

In fact most fucking swear words have really lost their impact these days as the cunts are used routinely rather than saved up for a mother-fucking moment of exreme emotion. Rats' cocks.

Reverend · September 2023

Tannin said:

Interesting list @Shrews.Very different from the list you'd get in this country.

BAD
Cunt
Twat
Shit
Slut
Slag
Bitch
Arsehole
Fucking (Usually pronounced as fuckin' - in some circles, pronouncing the G marks you out as a toff and invites ridicule)

STRONGER MODERATE
Piss
Dickhead
Arse
Crap
Fuck
Cock

WEAKER MODERATE
Wanker
Bloody
Bastard
Dick
Tits
Tosser
Prick

SELDOM USED
Shag
Fucker
Goolies
Motherfucker
Cocksucker
Bollocks
Spunk

NEVER USED
Bellend
Fanny
Pillock
Knobhead
Plonker

NOT A SWEAR WORD (not even slightly)
Wally
(In Oz, a "Wally" is someone who isn't too bright and makes dumb mistakes.)

Do we have someone who speaks fluent American in the house? It would be interesting to see the American version of this list.

I'd question your understanding of the phrase "never used".

DannyP · September 2023

I remember Billy Connolly discussing various applications of the word cunt. I forget the details, but the line "Who's that cunt with the Pope?" has always stayed with me.

Tannin · September 2023

Question away, @Reverend. I've lived here for more than 60 years and have never heard any of those words used by anyone other than foreign-born (i.e., British) people, or locals who have (for example) worked in the UK for 10 years and then come home talking a bit funny.

Oh, I've seen people write "knobhead" on a forum to avoid the swear filter that crosses out "dickhead". No-one would actually say it. Very occasionally people who watch too much TV use the American term "fanny" which means something completely different to the English term. And I think "bellend" might be part of a motor car. As a swearword though, nope. Never.

Jalapeno · September 2023

Tannin said:

Question away, @Reverend. I've lived here for more than 60 years and have never heard any of those words used by anyone other than foreign-born (i.e., British) people, or locals who have (for example) worked in the UK for 10 years and then come home talking a bit funny.

Oh, I've seen people write "knobhead" on a forum to avoid the swear filter that crosses out "dickhead". No-one would actually say it. Very occasionally people who watch too much TV use the American term "fanny" which means something completely different to the English term. And I think "bellend" might be part of a motor car. As a swearword though, nope. Never.

in the US Fanny means Arse

(More like bum to be fair)

Hurling_Fruitmig · September 2023

Tannin said:

Very occasionally people who watch too much TV use the American term "fanny" which means something completely different to the English term.

The priceless look on a colleague's face when an American co-worker told her that another member of the team had driven into town to get away from us because he was "pissed". Two people divided by a single language.

Tannin · September 2023

Jalapeno said:

Tannin said:

Very occasionally people who watch too much TV use the American term "fanny" which means something completely different to the English term.

in the US Fanny means Arse (More like bum to be fair)

My point exactly

! Once in a long while you see a situation where some poor prune only knows one of the two different meanings and uses it in the wrong place (where they only know the other one). Catastrophe!

Sassafras · September 2023

I miss the days when bland radio DJs would invent inoffensive ways to insult people, eg: prawn, pilchard etc...

BillDL · September 2023

When we first started communicating, my American friend once mentioned how she had only ever been ice skating once, and decided it wasn't for her after she fell hard on her fanny and bruised it. I had visions of her being suctioned to the ice in the splits and having to be slid across it to the edge by stewards before she could be helped up. I eventually told her what the word meant here. Now she enjoys using UK insults, because few of her American friends realise what she is calling them.

Jonathangus · September 2023

SpoonMan · September 2023

Having a young child I try to be careful with my choice of words.

If they called me an arse hole, or a wanker, I don't think I'd be too happy tbh.

bloodandtears · September 2023

springhead said:

Bollocks is multi functional. It can also mean something very good, eg “that’s the bollox”, or indeed “dogs bollox”. Must be very confusing learning English as a foreign language.

so the F-bomb..

EricTheWeary · September 2023

I never say arse. Just doesn’t roll off the tongue, I sound like I’m doing a bad Fast Show type character.

In context Keegan sounds like an egotistical idiot, the swearing very much the least of it.

Cunt owes most of it's vulgarity to the British class system. It was a fairly ordinary word (used by Chaucer for example) but it's gradual replacement by the euphemism Vagina made it seem common and therefore considered vulgar. Odd really that vagina became the acceptable term, bit like a doctor saying they need to look at your frufru.
There were several Gropecunt Lanes/Roads in the UK. Mostly renamed Grape Lane or similar. Anyone walking around York, for example, going up Grape Lane and wondering what the city's connection to vineyards is have got it a bit wrong.

My grandmother used Tit as her only swear word. Which doesn't seem too bad but said with a great deal of venom, you didn't mess with her when she said that.

Nitefly · September 2023

BillDL said:

In Scotland the word "bawbag" (ballbag) can be used in several ways ranging from banter between friends through to a proper insult, but it is commonly used without causing any major offence to people of most ages that overhear it or read it. In fact a couple of the news channels a number of years ago referred repeatedly to "Hurricane Bawbag", as it had been named by some Scottish person. The word "fanny" can be used in similar ways in Scotland, although some older non-Scots can find it a little objectionable.

Hahaha @BillDL you have reminded me again of the IrnBru TV ad where the guy goes to the maternity hospital to see his newborn daughter: "Fanny??!! Ye cannae call her Fanny!!"

BillDL · September 2023

Nitefly · September 2023

Sorry I can only give you one LOL for that, Bill! Absolutely priceless!

sinbaadi · September 2023

No Sod or Bugger?

Timcito · September 2023

Hurling_Fruitmig said:
The priceless look on a colleague's face when an American co-worker told her that another member of the team had driven into town to get away from us because he was "pissed". Two people divided by a single language.

I remember the first time I heard that one from an American colleague in Spain. He said that one student had come into his class 'pissed.' I was amazed. That was a serious student and the idea of her coming into class drunk was unfathomable!

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Is 'arse' a swear word?

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