# Is "sucks" still profanity?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion
**Created:** [November 8, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566 "2006-11-08T16:24:46Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@charizard](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/charizard)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/1 "2006-11-08T16:24:46Z")
I have teen and pre-teen kids, and so far we have not used the phrase “This sucks” (and its many variants) at our house - on the basis that it’s profanity.
But now it’s everywhere, and people use it while pretending, straight-faced, that it’s _not_ profanity. It even had a prominent appearance in “Madagascar”, of all places.
So, I want to get some thoughts on this. Has this become “bleached” to the point where it’s lost its sense of the profane? Or do people just use it in spite of that, as a part of our general societal slide into crudity?
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### Author:  [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 4:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/2 "2006-11-08T16:34:24Z")
I think it has gotten downgraded to mean “sucks like a vaccuum” or otherwise generally indicative of an undesirable situation, rather than meaning “this is like getting a blowjob.”
Not certain exactly how the original was a negative, actually, but there it is.
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### Author:  [@kelly5078](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kelly5078)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/3 "2006-11-08T16:46:59Z")
No, it’s not. Anyone who says otherwise is a douche bag.
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### Author:  [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 4:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/4 "2006-11-08T16:53:58Z")
“Sucks” was never profanity. It was, depending on context, either vulgar or obscene, but it was never used to reduce the divine to the profane or use the sacred in a profane manner. (This has been a Straight Dope[sup]®[/sup] lexical moment.)
That said, you are really looking for opinions among different folks as to how they view or use the word, so I am going to nudge this over to the **IMHO** Forum.
[/Moderating]
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### Author:  [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/5 "2006-11-08T17:30:11Z")
It’s on our list of “Not a Swear, But Don’t Say It Around Your Grandmother, Please.” It’s not on the list that makes WhyDad bellow, “Hey! Language!”, but we did both do a doubletake the first time we heard WhyKid say it (around 9 years old, I think.)
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/6 "2006-11-08T17:40:11Z")
What **WhyNot** said.
Basically wanted them to be aware of their word choices, time/place/manner restrictions and such.
But if you try to enforce a strict line against “sucks” you are in for a long slog. It is INCREDIBLY prevalent in all kinds of situations. I suspect most people are not cognizant of its pervasiveness - provided they are not dealing with young people who are exploring boundaries.
Personally, I encouraged “stinks” as a pretty fine substitute which doesn’t run the risk of offending anyone.
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### Author:  [@John\_DiFool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_DiFool)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/7 "2006-11-08T17:49:25Z")
“Piss” has also passed that blurry invisible line. Anyone want to take bets on how long it will
be before “shit” also crosses the Rubicon?
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### Author:  [@Hal\_Briston](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hal_Briston)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/8 "2006-11-08T17:58:45Z")
I think it crossed over to non-profane the minute Bart Simpson said “I didn’t think it was physically possible, but this both sucks _and_ blows”.
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### Author:  [@Eureka](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eureka)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/9 "2006-11-08T18:51:07Z")
Another vote for **WhyNot’s** description. It’s way over used by society, so complete banishment is difficult, but that doesn’t make it universally acceptable.
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### Author:  [@Lissa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lissa)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/10 "2006-11-08T19:13:32Z")
[QUOTE=John DiFool]
“Piss” has also passed that blurry invisible line.
[/QUOTE]
The history of the word “piss” is sort of interesting because it’s one of those words which was acceptable\*, then became forbidden and then has become nominally acceptable again.
\*Cite: King James Version of the Bible, “Piss[eth] against the wall.” (1 Samuel 25:22, 1 Samuel 25:34, 1 Kings 14:10, 1 Kings 16:11, and about ten more places. 2 Kings 18:27 and Isaiah even discuss drinking piss and eating “dung.”)
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### Author:  [@Surly\_Chick](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surly_Chick)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 7:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/11 "2006-11-08T19:22:09Z")
Way back in 1985, I almost got fired from my first job for saying “pissed off.” I received a verbal warning from my boss and she said if I was ever caught using obscenities at work again, I’d be dismissed immediately.
I told her she sucked and I quit. 😉
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### Author:  [@Trunk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trunk)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/12 "2006-11-08T20:08:17Z")
I never thought it was.
We used it when we were kids in front of our parents. However, I’ve run into people throughout life who seem to think it’s a stronger cuss than I ever did.
Over the last 10 years, it seems to have been totally neutered. Bart Simpson has always used it, and it also has been entrenched as the jokey counterpoint to “rules”, has it not?
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### Author:  [@zweisamkeit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zweisamkeit)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/13 "2006-11-08T20:54:07Z")
> [@](#):
>
> But now it’s everywhere, and people use it while pretending, straight-faced, that it’s not profanity.
That’s not an accurate way to describe it at all. Sure, _you_ think it’s profanity, but there are plenty of others who think it’s _not_. Therefore, they’re not “pretending” it’s not profanity, any more than you are “pretending” it is.
Personally, I can’t see why you’d think it’s profane. Crude? Yes. But it’s not profanity.
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### Author:  [@Interrobang](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Interrobang)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 9:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/14 "2006-11-08T21:13:32Z")
Seth Stevenson has [an article in Slate](http://www.slate.com/id/2146866/) for you. Choice bit (though the whole thing is worth reading):
> [@Seth Stevenson](#):
>
> When someone says Bill Gates is a geek, do you picture him as a circus performer biting the head off a live chicken? Of course not. The word’s root meaning has been replaced with a new connotation. Similarly, when I call Paris Hilton a moron, I don’t mean she’s mentally retarded, and when I call bungee jumping lame I don’t mean it’s disabled. What once was offensive is now simply abrasive. Language moves on, and the sucks-haters are living in the past.
I don’t honestly remember ever being chided for using the word sucks, but maybe my parents were exceptionally permissive. Or I didn’t use the word as much as I’d like to think I did.
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### Author:  [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/15 "2006-11-08T21:20:29Z")
[QUOTE=Trunk]
I never thought it was.
We used it when we were kids in front of our parents. However, I’ve run into people throughout life who seem to think it’s a stronger cuss than I ever did.
[/QUOTE]
Ditto. I remember the first time I used “sucks” in front of my mother in my wife’s presence–Mrs. AG was absolutely shocked I would say such a thing (though I grew up saying it, originally oblivious to its early connotations; honestly, I still doubt my mom suspects that “sucking” would have a more lurid meaning beyond the “is really bad” definition).
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### Author:  [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 9:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/16 "2006-11-08T21:26:05Z")
[QUOTE=Ethilrist]
I think it has gotten downgraded to mean “sucks like a vaccuum” or otherwise generally indicative of an undesirable situation, rather than meaning “this is like getting a blowjob.”
Not certain exactly how the original was a negative, actually, but there it is.
[/QUOTE]
I am not convinced that “sucks” originally had anything at all to do with a blowjob. As you said, it makes no sense whatsoever.
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### Author:  [@jsc1953](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jsc1953)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/17 "2006-11-08T21:49:31Z")
[QUOTE=The Swan]
I am not convinced that “sucks” originally had anything at all to do with a blowjob. As you said, it makes no sense whatsoever.
[/QUOTE]
It makes more sense if you picture it being said of a male, in the giving instead of receiving, position.
I always thought it obscene, at first; but agree that it’s crossed the line to “vaguely coarse”.
(I think “jerk” was obscene, once upon a time, too)
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### Author:  [@The\_Swan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Swan)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/18 "2006-11-08T21:55:36Z")
[QUOTE=jsc1953]
It makes more sense if you picture it being said of a male, in the giving instead of receiving, position.
I always thought it obscene, at first; but agree that it’s crossed the line to “vaguely coarse”.
(I think “jerk” was obscene, once upon a time, too)
[/QUOTE]
I always assumed that it derived from “Sucks Eggs” (!904), or “Sucks at the hind teat” (1940), though there still seems to be some debate among etymologists.
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### Author:  [@sinjin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sinjin)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/19 "2006-11-08T22:00:05Z")
[QUOTE=Hal Briston]
I think it crossed over to non-profane the minute Bart Simpson said “I didn’t think it was physically possible, but this both sucks _and_ blows”.
[/QUOTE]
Huh?? I thought he was talking about a fan: Stand in front of: it blows. Stand behind it: it sucks. Stand beside it: it does absolutely nothing for you. As in: \*\* is like a fan. Substitue the corporation, employer, government agency for \*\*.
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### Author:  [@Contrapuntal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Contrapuntal)
#### Post date: [November 8, 2006, 10:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-sucks-still-profanity/379566/20 "2006-11-08T22:00:47Z")
[QUOTE=The Swan]
I am not convinced that “sucks” originally had anything at all to do with a blowjob. As you said, it makes no sense whatsoever.
[/QUOTE]
Of course, neither does “blowjob,” when you think about.
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