Megan Scott quotes me in an article where she tackles the very large subject of “bitch”. She comes out of it pretty much okay.
Mark Weisenmiller also quoted me, this time in an article about new words for Inter Press Service, but unfortunately the article is behind a paywall. If you have a subscription, go for it.
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“If you allow the b-word to come in, then [other obscenities come in],” she said. “It’s going to be normal everyday language. Somebody has got to stop and say, ‘This isn’t OK anymore.’ “
Of course the sad part is if it becomes “normal everyday language,” it probably wouldn’t be nearly as offensive. That’s the great irony (or at least a catch-22) about so-called “bad words”...such resistance is what makes them “bad” in the first place. And thus more appealing to someone setting out to offend people.
This is the personal weblog of Grant Barrett, editor of the Double-Tongued Dictionary, a collection of words from the fringes of English. More about this site...
