Rod in LaPorte, Indiana, has Welsh ancestry, and always wondered if the expressions to welsh on a bet suggests that the Welsh are dishonest. The verb to welsh and the noun welsher are indeed mild ethnic slurs. To welsh dates back to at least the...
Aaron, a law enforcement employee in the Midwest, asks about honey hole, used at work for a spot where parking citations are easy to write. The phrase honey hole has many recorded uses and meanings, including a hole in a tree or ground filled with...
Laura in New Bedford, Massachusetts, asks how offensive bloody is when her mother uses it as a swearish adjective, as in this bloody car won’t start. The force depends heavily on where you are: Jeffrey Hughes’s Encyclopedia of Swearing describes...
David in Los Angeles says his churchgoing mother avoids swear words so faithfully that even a stubbed toe can bring out oh, piffle. Piffle has been around since at least the late 19th century, and to American ears it often sounds distinctly British...
How far back does cursing go? People have been using coarse language for thousands of years. Just check out the filthy graffiti on the walls of Pompeii. Although cursing has changed over time, the F-word and its ilk have been around for hundreds of...
Tom in Indianapolis, Indiana, remembers hearing Irish pennant in the Marine Corps for a loose thread hanging from a uniform. The term belongs to the category of ethnophaulism, or ethnic slur, alongside expressions such as Irish screwdriver for...