The author thinks we should be using these slang words more often. Really?

Some of them are kinda fun, aren't they? Like bufflehead and whoopensocker. Some are used quite a bit, like y'all (in the South) or bubbler or even loo. I've not heard of pank or hella.

I like the way the author says we all should start using them. They're slang! Surely the essence of slang is that it's only used by a minority?

[Edited for clarity]

This message has been edited. Last edited by: arnie,

I lived in the Pacific Northwest for forty years without ever hearing the name of the German lighting products company besmirched as slang. http://www.hella-press.com./se...anguage=e&newdir=eng

Yes, arnie, you are right. However, I do think the word "slang" is used loosely here. Many are regionalisms and some are used 100% in a region, such as "y'all" in our South. For instance, would you call "loo" slang?

Geoff, I suspect hella is a younger generation phenomenon.

My girl said let's go to the loo.
I am sure we can find things to do.
But a cramped bathroom stall
Is exceedingly small
And inhibits the notion to screw.

But I don't mean to say that I stopped.
Oh, no. First just a feel I copped.
Then despite the great strain
And the physical pain
My girl had her bippity bopped.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: <Proofreader>,

I lived in the Pacific Northwest for forty years without ever hearing [hella]

I heard "hella" (and its school-approved euphemism "hecka") a lot here in the Bay Area. Now only in an "ironic" manner, but then I always read that it was a San Francisco Bay Area regionalism.

quote:

would you call "loo" slang?

Yes.

Oh, I thought loo was acceptable, or commonplace or whatever you call it, in England. I guess the common word then is toilet, right arnie?

I thought loo was a euphemism, not slang.

'Loo' is common, as is 'toilet'. 'Lavatory' is also very common. All three are euphemisms.

Is there any word for this room that is a) not a euphemism and b) not considered impolite.

"Shithouse" comes to mind as a non-eupemism, but it's hardly polite is it?

Wasn't "shit" polite five hundred years ago?
I suppose we could say excretorium. Or the non-peevologists could say "The Truss Estate." Ahhh, no, that's euphamistic too.

Lavatory, or bathroom. I suppose turd bucket is out.

I don't see how toilet is a euphemism for that porcelein container of water with a flushing mechanism that is used for urination and excretion. Isn't that the legitimate name for it, like a chair is the name for that piece of furniture?

One's toilet was originally the act of washing and dressing. Therefore it's an euphemism when applied to elimination.

I think "faire la toilette" is still in common use in French. One can purchase
toiletries in stores, so unless you mistake that porcelain pot as a wash basin, as happened in this French comedy, https://www.google.com/webhp?s...58vhhoC4AHgszXX4BAAA it's a euphamism.

Speaking of the French: lavabo is '(bathroom) sink'; it's from Latin meaning 'I shall wash'.

quote:

Originally posted by Proofreader:
Lavatory, or bathroom. I suppose turd bucket is out.

Both euphemisms. You don't wash or bathe there.

quote:

You don't wash or bathe there.

Perhaps that says more about you than you think.

quote:

Originally posted by zmježd:
Speaking of the French: lavabo is '(bathroom) sink'; it's from Latin meaning 'I shall wash'.

Which reminds me of the famous Roman mouthwash, Lavoris.

Maybe "toilet" is an example of a word that was a euphemism, but has now been used so much it's come to mean the actual thing and is now itself euphemized with "loo" and so on.

Interesting, if so! Makes you wonder which other words might go that way in, say, 100 years' time. Also, what criteria would be used to decide which were examples of this? Maybe when a euphemism is itself euphemized, we could consider it no longer a euphemism?

Stanley, you probably meant that as a joke, but I completely think you are right. I don't see "toilet" in the same light that I do the euphemisms, "passed away" or "passed on." [Frankly I don't like "passed away," but I do use it now and then.]

However, the whole "toilet" thing seems like past it's euphemism time. When was the last time we used the word as an act of dressing or washing (though we do have "toiletries")? I'd see using the "washroom" or "bathroom" or "ladies room" as euphemisms, but not "toilet."

No no, quite serious! It seems reasonable to think that a euphemism could get used for so long it's no longer a euphemism, and "toilet" feels the same for me as it does for you, even though arnie has a point about its origin. Only thing is I can't think of any other examples...

disease

Expand, goofy?

quote:

Originally posted by Stanley:
It seems reasonable to think that a euphemism could get used for so long it's no longer a euphemism

The first meaning of "disease" in the OED is "absense of ease". Later it meant "illness". It seems to me that usage was a euphemism. It's not a euphemism any more though.

"stupid" first meant "Having one's faculties deadened or dulled". The usage "Wanting in or slow of mental perception" was maybe a euphemism.

The disease meaning makes perfect sense. I think euphemisms do become obsolete.

I like y'all and find that I use it often. I attribute this relaxation of my vocabulary to my long stint of working in "da hood", which was hella good time. I've heard Ohio kids use hella, too, and I think it's being used in Rap music.