I want to know if there is a word for the insults blokes level at each other as an alternative to (gasp!) expressing affection.

A character in a Don DeLillo novel described it as “the stand-up scorn that carries [men's] affections.” You could call it the flattery of scorn, the roast, the rib, the josh, etc.; but what I want to know is, is there a term not for the practice but for a given insult? A colleague of mine always greets me with a term only politely applied to a female dog; and is thereby doing a double-kindness in the twisted world of male affection, since his tag for me is both insulting and emasculating.

Term of besmearment? I know there's a word.


Last edited by Hydra; 10/19/2007 8:02 PM.