# Butthurt
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052
**Category:** The BBQ Pit
**Created:** [November 10, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052 "2009-11-10T15:48:21Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 3:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/1 "2009-11-10T15:48:21Z")
Folks, this term makes you sound like a 12 year old. Why the fuck has it now become the gold standard of snark on this board? Every time I see it, I think to myself, “Really? He used ‘butthurt’ to bring it home? I really hope there’s an adolescent in their house that hijacked his SDMB account.”
I don’t even know what it means. It sounds like an attempt to be a dirty word, made up by a 12 year old child that doesn’t want to get in trouble for using actual big-boy words. What’s next, “poopoo head”?
---
### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/2 "2009-11-10T15:54:56Z")
> [@Munch](#):
>
> Folks, this term makes you sound like a 12 year old. Why the fuck has it now become the gold standard of snark on this board? Every time I see it, I think to myself, “Really? He used ‘butthurt’ to bring it home? I really hope there’s an adolescent in their house that hijacked his SDMB account.”
>
> I don’t even know what it means. It sounds like an attempt to be a dirty word, made up by a 12 year old child that doesn’t want to get in trouble for using actual big-boy words. What’s next, “poopoo head”?
It was a key word in a big Pit smackdown between a moderator and a poster shortly after the New Rules were implemented. I’ll see if I can find the thread.
---
### Author:  [@Commander\_Keen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Commander_Keen)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/3 "2009-11-10T15:55:50Z")
Just send people this link
[http://stopsay.in/butthurt](http://stopsay.in/butthurt)
This also explains what it means.
---
### Author:  [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/4 "2009-11-10T16:35:32Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> It was a key word in a big Pit smackdown between a moderator and a poster shortly after the New Rules were implemented. I’ll see if I can find the thread.
Shortly before, IIRC.
The upshot:
Poster: Point
Mod (as POSTER) : Counterpoint
Poster: Point
Mod (as POSTER) : Counterpoint
Poster: Bullshit!
Mod (as MOD) : Breaking rules! You’re insulting a mod! Naughty! Warning!
Poster: I was insulting you as a poster. Aaww-are you all butthurt now ‘cause I won?
Big Ed Zotti, Ever the Diplomat: Warning! Threats of banning
Everyone else: Wha’?
Mod (as…MOD? Maybe?) : "In my country, “butthurt” means “I want to fight you in a knife fight.”
Big Ed Zotti: See? He was threatened! Warnings!!! OFFICIAL WARNINGS!
Everyone else: Wha?!?!
And thus, because of the utter, utter stupidity of A) watching a mod tapdance between “poster” and “mod” to suit his whims and THEN B) claiming that “butthurt” meant he was physically threatened with a knife fight, the term has entered legend status here.
(Note, the above dialogue is an abbreviated, hopefully funny short hand version of what happened)–it’s not a transcription. This is for the hyperbole impaired.
---
### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/5 "2009-11-10T16:42:07Z")
I’ve never heard or read this term before, or seen that thread. And now it’s already being misused, and having people censure others for using it incorrectly.
I’m way behind the curve, as usual.
---
### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/6 "2009-11-10T16:51:15Z")
**Fenris** ,
Yeah. That’s the one. And your dialogue is enough spot on to make finding the thread useless.
---
### Author:  [@Ogre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ogre)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/7 "2009-11-10T16:54:39Z")
> [@Contrapuntal](#):
>
> It was a key word in a big Pit smackdown between a moderator and a poster shortly after the New Rules were implemented. I’ll see if I can find the thread.
Yeah, that was probably its point of entry into SDMB, but that term is in wide use all over the internet, and has been for quite some time now.
---
### Author:  [@Lestrade](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lestrade)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 4:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/8 "2009-11-10T16:59:01Z")
I always thought it was a reference to the experience of unpleasant anal sex. If so, it’s a powerful term that doesn’t sound excessively rude. There are precious few of these, a shame considering how often they can be useful. I like it and bite my thumb at the prescriptionists at stopsay.in.
I suspect it originated at 4chan, so it may well have been created by a 12 year old.
Also, butthurt over the term butthurt is too ironic.
---
### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 5:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/9 "2009-11-10T17:00:30Z")
> [@Ogre](#):
>
> Yeah, that was probably its point of entry into SDMB, but that term is in wide use all over the internet, and has been for quite some time now.
Sure. But the OP was asking about “this board.”
---
### Author:  [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/10 "2009-11-10T17:02:52Z")
[Here’s the thread where Big Ed Zotti goes insane and starts tossing around warnings for a poster saying he’d win a debate.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=502463&page=2)
and
[Here (post 110-ish) is the mod claiming that “butthurt”=“knife fight”](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=503203)
So the actual sequence goes:
Poster: Playing with trolls is fun
Mod (as poster) : No it’s not, it’s mean. ☹
Poster: No, it’s fun. Like a cat with a laser-pointer
Mod (as mod) : So…you admit you’re trolling. I’ll remember this next time you post.
Poster: Geez, are you butthurt: If you try to use that line of reasoning, I’ll mop the floor with you.
Big Ed Zotti: ALERT! ALERT! THIS WAS A THREAT! DO NOT THREATEN MODS\*. You’re in trouble buddy.
Everyone else: Whafuck?
Big Ed Zotti: “mop the floor”-clear physical threat
Mod: (in other thread): Plus, “butthurt” is a knife-fight type insult
Everyone else: \< jaws drop \>
\*Apparently, unless you sent the threat via PM, in which case, it should just be deleted and ignored (or sent to GFactor, who’s apparently the only mod who gets that actual threats are bad). See ATMB right now for that one.
---
### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/11 "2009-11-10T17:04:20Z")
What if my butt actually hurts? Is it okay then?
---
### Author:  [@Wile\_E](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wile_E)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/12 "2009-11-10T17:30:30Z")
Silly me, I thought Butthurt was a new poster’s username.
---
### Author:  [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/13 "2009-11-10T17:31:12Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#):
>
> What if my butt actually hurts? Is it okay then?
No-then your butt-cheeks have a knife fight, possibly to the score of West Side Story.
---
### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 5:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/14 "2009-11-10T17:31:47Z")
I hate the word with a violent, blinding passion. It’s one of my easily-pushable buttons; it can send me into a red rage.
Basically, it’s a more snide version of “Gosh, can’t you take a joke? :rolleyes:” It is, at its heart, a dismissal of one’s feelings or opinions. It says that the person saying it has absolutely no regard for you as a person and does not empathize with you in any way. It’s one of the most effective ways I know to dehumanize someone in casual conversation online.
Yeah, I realize I’m being more melodramatic than a stupid word deserves, probably to the point of being “butthurt” myself. But I don’t think I’m wrong and I think less of anyone who seriously uses it (knowing full well that people who use it don’t give two shits about my opinion).
---
### Author:  [@Munch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Munch)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 6:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/15 "2009-11-10T18:00:55Z")
> [@Lestrade](#):
>
> Also, butthurt over the term butthurt is too ironic.
Trust me, it’s not lost on me. But I’m not worked up about it - I’m just perplexed why anyone would willingly use the term and think they really threw a zinger out there. When I read it, it has the same weight as if someone were to call someone else a doodoo head.
The “knife fight” thing is hilarious and ridiculous.
---
### Author:  [@Beware\_of\_Doug](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beware_of_Doug)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/16 "2009-11-10T18:08:08Z")
> [@Lestrade](#):
>
> I always thought it was a reference to the experience of unpleasant anal sex. If so, it’s a powerful term that doesn’t sound excessively rude. There are precious few of these, a shame considering how often they can be useful. I like it and bite my thumb at the prescriptionists at stopsay.in.
>
> I suspect it originated at 4chan, so it may well have been created by a 12 year old.
>
> Also, butthurt over the term butthurt is too ironic.
On an essential, mythic level, butsecks equals punishment and domination, so it’s _supposed_ to hurt.
So is that other common source of rectal rawness, the ass-kicking.
In either case, the message is, “You either asked for this feeling or you deserve it for some other reason. So stop complaining and fucking accept it.”
---
### Author:  [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/17 "2009-11-10T18:12:14Z")
Anyone here butthurt about being butthurt over the word butthurt?
---
### Author:  [@DoctorJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DoctorJ)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/18 "2009-11-10T18:18:04Z")
I think it’s a useful word to describe over-the-top whiny reactions to minimal (or nonexistant) personal insults. See nearly any speech by Sarah Palin for a prime example.
It is in danger of overuse, though.
---
### Author:  [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/19 "2009-11-10T18:29:44Z")
> [@DoctorJ](#):
>
> I think it’s a useful word to describe over-the-top whiny reactions to minimal (or nonexistant) personal insults. See nearly any speech by Sarah Palin for a prime example.
>
> It is in danger of overuse, though.
Danger, hell. It already is. I agree that’s where it originated and it can be useful, but it’s been hijacked, probably within 15 minutes of being coined, into minimizing real and valid reactions and dismissing them as whiny overreactions. There’ve been many instances where I’ve tried to communicate issues to someone, usually when I’m in charge of a small community and having a problem with members in that community, and I get dismissed as being butthurt. From that point, I know I’m not being taken seriously, and any authority I might have is just shot.
---
### Author:  [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)
#### Post date: [November 10, 2009, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052/20 "2009-11-10T18:30:24Z")
> [@Bosstone](#):
>
> It’s one of the most effective ways I know to dehumanize someone in casual conversation online.
>
> Yeah, I realize I’m being more melodramatic than a stupid word deserves, probably to the point of being “butthurt” myself.
You do seem to be exaggerating its impact and intent, just a smidgen. It’s basically an abbreviated version of “aw, whassamatta. Baby gonna cwy?”
[Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/butthurt/517052.md?page=2)