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OP During a chat in the hall, a co-worker asked for examples of insults that don't refer to originally neutral things. For example, why is "You cow" so insulting? There's nothing essentially wrong with cows, or with various body parts; bitches and bastards aren't actually rotten or evil. I came up with jerk, but that wasn't insulting enough. Ditto for rotter. So - what is an insult that really insults?
Have a field day - I promise not to be offended, no matter what names you throw my way.
You turkey!
You dog!
Milksop!
Pirate varmint!
Lily-livered coward!
Pusillanimous buzzard breath!
Bottom feeder!
Slime!
...but the best of the insulters are found among Shakespearean characters--the bard has long lists of terrific insults. I know none of them by heart.
Bad remarks,
WantonWords
That reminds me of a Winston Churchill story
Whilst at some extremely posh function WC was indulging in his usual heroic consumption
of brandy and weaving around the place a bit , upon seeing this the hostess Lady
something-or -other strolled up to WC
and said loudly and disapprovingly "YOU SIR ARE DRUNK!" to which WC replied "AND YOU
MADAM ARE UGLY BUT I WILL BE SOBER IN THE MORNING"
the Duncster
but the best of the insulters are found among Shakespearean characters--the bard has long lists of terrific insults
Actually, as I recall, the bard was rather tame by the standards of his day, and some of his contemporaries were much more creative in their invective.
Can't quite recall who were examples (Ben Jonson?); can anyone help?
In a review, Dorothy Parker once panned a stage performance by the great Katherine Hepburn saying that "Her performance ran all the gamut of emotions from A to B."
Combine one word from each of the three columns below, prefaced
> with "Thou":
> Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
>
> artless base-court apple-john
> bawdy bat-fowling baggage
> beslubbering beef-witted barnacle
> bootless beetle-headed bladder
> churlish boil-brained boar-pig
> cockered clapper-clawed bugbear
> clouted clay-brained bum-bailey
> craven common-kissing canker-blossom
> currish crook-pated clack-dish
> dankish dismal-dreaming clotpole
> dissembling dizzy-eyed coxcomb
> droning doghearted codpiece
> errant dread-bolted death-token
> fawning earth-vexing dewberry
> fobbing elf-skinned flap-dragon
> froward fat-kidneyed flax-wench
> frothy fen-sucked flirt-gill
> gleeking flap-mouthed foot-licker
> goatish fly-bitten fustilarian
> gorbellied folly-fallen giglet
> impertinent fool-born gudgeon
> infectious full-gorged haggard
> jarring guts-griping harpy
> loggerheaded half-faced hedge-pig
> lumpish hasty-witted horn-beast
> mammering hedge-born hugger-mugger
> mangled hell-hated jolthead
> mewling idle-headed lewdster
> paunchy ill-breeding lout
> pribbling ill-nurtured maggot-pie
> puking knotty-pated malt-worm
> puny milk-livered mammet
> quailing motley-minded measle
> rank onion-eyed minnow
> reeky plume-plucked miscreant
> roguish pottle-deep moldwarp
> ruttish pox-marked mumble-news
> saucy reeling-ripe nut-hook
> spleeny rough-hewn pigeon-egg
> spongy rude-growing pignut
> surly rump-fed puttock
> tottering shard-borne pumpion
> unmuzzled sheep-biting ratsbane
> vain spur-galled scut
> venomed swag-bellied skainsmate
> villainous tardy-gaited strumpet
> warped tickle-brained varlet
> wayward toad-spotted vassal
> weedy urchin-snouted whey-face
> yeasty weather-bitten wagtail
http://www.renfaire.com/Language/insults.html
Thank you, slithy! I was just gonna ask if anyone had a link to those.
I must be dazed or something here, but I don't count three columns in the insulting list.
Do I need my eyes checked?
Stary-eyed,
OrB~
try the link instead; it doesn't copy well unless you use preformatting.
try the link instead; it doesn't copy well unless you use preformatting.
Yeah, OB~. Like that tottering knotty-pated mumble-news said.
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