# proper meaning of phrase "fighting words"

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-meaning-of-phrase-fighting-words/491541>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [April 1, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-meaning-of-phrase-fighting-words/491541 "2009-04-01T03:53:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Lumpy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lumpy/32/446_2.png) [@Lumpy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lumpy)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 3:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-meaning-of-phrase-fighting-words/491541/1 "2009-04-01T03:53:47Z")

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Wiki says that it refers to offensive speech that is legally prosecutable. But I had always heard it referred to in a different manner, as in the phrase “them’s fightin’ words”. Meaning, an insult so egregious that verbal or physical assault is a justifiable response. (In olden times, sufficient cause to challenge to a duel.) Specifically, the defense against a charge of assault on the grounds that one had been verbally provoked beyond the limits of civility- Buzz Aldrin punching out the guy who called him “a liar and a coward” for example. If “fighting words” does not mean that, then is there a legal phrase for what I’ve described?

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**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-meaning-of-phrase-fighting-words/491541/2 "2009-04-01T04:05:01Z")

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Don’t know about a legal phrase, but I agree with you about its common usage. I’ve never heard it used as Wiki’s definition.

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**Author:** ![Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Kimmy\_Gibbler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimmy_Gibbler)\
**Post date:** [April 1, 2009, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/proper-meaning-of-phrase-fighting-words/491541/3 "2009-04-01T04:13:55Z")

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Well, the colloquial meaning and the legal meaning aren’t all that different. The current law on “fighting words” is _Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire_ (as perhaps distinguished from incitement to violence, which would be _Brandenburg_). Very briefly, _Chaplinsky_ approved criminal penalties for one who uttered phrases so insulting that a reasonable person of ordinary restraint could not resist the urge to respond physically. Two points: (1) merely calling someone a liar or coward would not rise to that level, and (2) as a society, at least within that subset that works in the courts, physical responses are roundly disfavored. I think these days, a fact pattern that presented a fighting words scenario would more likely be evaluated under _Brandenburg_. The difference is this: under _Chaplinsky_ the audience’s mischief is the grounds for the restriction, under _Brandenburg_ it is the “bad tendency” of the speaker’s remarks that justify the prohibition.

It is not a defense to assault; it asserts the constitutionality of restrictions on speech.