# Is there any foul language you won't use? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 6, 2010, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876 "2010-02-06T02:14:48Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Annie-Xmas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ecc23a/32.png) [@Annie-Xmas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Annie-Xmas)\ **Post date:** [February 7, 2010, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/61 "2010-02-07T18:31:18Z")
I have no problem with describing any action or inanimate object with a swear word–Kicking that bitch of a desk is fucking stupid! I have major problems with calling _people_ by cuss words, or for that matter any negative word. People do fucking stupid things. People are rarely fucking stupid. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/62 "2010-02-08T03:44:56Z")
> [@alexandra](#): > > I try and avoid “bitch”, which I actually find worse than cunt. Indeed, I find that “bitch” just seems…overplayed. It doesn’t help that it’s used both as a somewhat indiscriminate insult towards any form of disagreeable woman, _and_ just a feminine form of “bastard” or “asshole.” I fear it’s burned out. ---
**Author:** ![Tethered\_Kite](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a5b964/32.png) [@Tethered\_Kite](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tethered_Kite)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/63 "2010-02-08T03:49:41Z")
Not in public with people whose habits aren’t known to me. I’d consider it similar to littering in its offensiveness. ---
**Author:** ![carlotta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/898d66/32.png) [@carlotta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carlotta)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 4:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/64 "2010-02-08T04:19:26Z")
I won’t use any ethnic slurs, it wouldn’t even occur to me to do so, even in a rage. I don’t say “cunt” out loud ever, but I do use it in my head a lot, but not as a swear, just as a word for my lady parts. The one I used to say and won’t anymore is “motherfucker”. Since becoming a mother it sort of got rewired in my brain and is too disturbing. ---
**Author:** ![Maiira](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f04885/32.png) [@Maiira](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maiira)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/65 "2010-02-08T04:21:18Z")
> [@twickster](#): > > No slurs about race, ethnicity, sexual preference. > > No c-word. > > Other than that, anything goes … and does. I’m a fucking potty-mouth. This. Though I _might_ do the c-word if I’m _really_ angry. Like, so angry I can’t control myself. But that doesn’t happen often. ---
**Author:** ![Inner\_Stickler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/inner_stickler/32/318_2.png) [@Inner\_Stickler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Inner_Stickler)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 4:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/66 "2010-02-08T04:24:56Z")
Either all words are fair game or none are. I don’t use certain words because I don’t wish to offend others or because they don’t have any vehemence personally\*. But in my head I use whatever words I wish. \*Which is the category ethnic slurs fall under. ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/67 "2010-02-08T21:39:22Z")
ALWAYS keeping in mind who I’m speaking with, I have no problem with the standard four-letter words and their combinations. But there are two words that I find utterly despicable: “the N word” and the anti-Chinese slur that rhymes with clink. . ---
**Author:** ![TreacherousCretin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/treacherouscretin/32/476_2.png) [@TreacherousCretin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TreacherousCretin)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/68 "2010-02-08T21:42:17Z")
> [@Tethered\_Kite](#): > > Not in public with people whose habits aren’t known to me. I’d consider it similar to littering in its offensiveness. I should have said this as well in my minutes-ago posting. . ---
**Author:** ![5-HT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/5/f19dbf/32.png) [@5-HT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/5-HT)\ **Post date:** [February 8, 2010, 11:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/69 "2010-02-08T23:05:58Z")
ethnic slurs only if I’m in company that will know I’m being sarcastic. C word only when referring to other guys. ---
**Author:** ![pope\_hentai](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ee59a6/32.png) [@pope\_hentai](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pope_hentai)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 1:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/70 "2010-02-13T01:53:19Z")
i almost never use c\*nt. but i liberally throw out the goddamns. last person that tried to give me crap about it got a healthy explanation of how i wasn’t using anyones name in vain, it was more of a request, and god damn him for wasting my time about it. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/71 "2010-02-13T02:05:19Z")
I won’t call someone here a _khwai_ (water buffalo). That is a very, very, very serious insult, and unless you’re very, very, very good friends with the person you’re calling that, you will most likely be set upon by a pack of Thais. This would be analagous, I guess, to calling a Navajo a coyote, which I learned from my time in the Southwest was a mortal insult to them. ---
**Author:** ![rhubarbarin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/eb9ed0/32.png) [@rhubarbarin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rhubarbarin)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/72 "2010-02-13T02:08:20Z")
I can’t bring myself to use racial or ethnic slurs. In fact I can’t even think them. Everything else is fine. Great, even. I love to curse. All the men who consider ‘cunt!’ a fight-winner - I’ve won many an argument by calling them a cunt right back, or even first. 🙂 I was raised in a household where we weren’t even allowed to take the Lord’s name in vain, so I’ve had a lifelong interest in dirty words. ---
**Author:** ![mascaroni](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/dc4da7/32.png) [@mascaroni](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mascaroni)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2010, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876/73 "2010-02-13T02:22:41Z")
> [@My\_Darn\_Snake\_Legs](#): > > I had some friends from UK who used that one liberally, but they said they’d never use it to refer to a female. It’s almost a term of endearment in SE England… I don’t really swear a lot, but, if the hammer hits the thumb or someone’s winding me up I can get unberfuckingbelieviably creative. As for racial words… my best mate is Italian and I hate to think about how many times I’ve called him a “Fat Eyetie C\*\*\*”. Mind you, he is one… [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-there-any-foul-language-you-wont-use/527876.md?page=3)