Timeline for Are -er insults a British phenomenon?
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 2011 at 19:16 | comment | added | Kit Z. Fox♦ | @Jason Orenduff Actually, the Word Which Must Not Be Referenced is one who nigs (dresses a stone with a pick). | |
| May 17, 2011 at 7:46 | comment | added | Golden Cuy | "Truther", "birther" and "deather" are recent ones. | |
| Mar 24, 2011 at 13:24 | comment | added | Jason Orendorff | @nohat But etymologically those words come from attaching -er to an existing word (see cracker and nutter; poofter is presumably from poof). The Word Which Must Not Be Referenced gets its r from negro. | |
| Sep 24, 2010 at 20:32 | comment | added | nohat | @Mr. Shiny I think it is in the same category as cracker, nutter, and poofter | |
| Sep 24, 2010 at 19:49 | comment | added | Mr. Shiny and New 安宇 | @nohat: Is the "n-word" in the same category as these other "-er" words? Seems to me the other ones are "X-er, a person who does X", where doing X or being accused of doing X is insulting. | |
| Sep 6, 2010 at 23:26 | comment | added | nohat | @Cinque if you want to continue this discussion, I started a thread at meta: meta.english.stackexchange.com/questions/253/… | |
| Sep 6, 2010 at 22:48 | comment | added | nohat | @Cinque I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you are not just trolling here—but by all appearances you are. If you think people can legitimately be offended by having a discussion about language and referencing the existence of an offensive word (without even mentioning it explicitly, and which, mind you, is completely relevant to the question of “insults ending in -er”), then you’re out of your mind. I would never actually use the word in question, but to pretend that it doesn’t exist in an intellectual conversation about language is, frankly, absurd. | |
| Sep 6, 2010 at 19:02 | comment | added | nohat | @Cinque, are you really suggesting that even referencing the existence of an offensive word is in itself offensive? | |
| Sep 6, 2010 at 7:10 | comment | added | Picturepocket | Yes, most of these words are offensive to someone. Take care when and if you use them. | |
| Sep 5, 2010 at 17:41 | comment | added | nohat | some others: codger, greaser, hater, muckraker, poser, not to mention the “N-word”, which ends in -er. | |
| Sep 5, 2010 at 17:35 | comment | added | nohat | I want to note that wanker is one of the very small number of modern Britishisms that has made its way to some degree into ordinary American usage. | |
| Sep 5, 2010 at 12:45 | comment | added | cori | "Mother fucker" reads totally differently than "Motherfucker" | |
| Sep 5, 2010 at 12:01 | history | answered | JoFrhwld | CC BY-SA 2.5 |