# Sayings you didn't realize were obscene **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [September 28, 2017, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507 "2017-09-28T12:38:58Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 6:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/41 "2017-09-28T18:37:27Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > The reverse is best illustrated by [this](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/573/why-do-we-call-it-the-bathroom-even-when-it-has-no-tub) column from Unca Cecil. The word “crap” began innocently enough, from the name of Sir Thomas Crapper, inventor of the flush toilet. No, “crap” predates Crapper. Cecil even says: > [@](#): > > Does this mean that Mr. Crapper’s name is the origin of the word “crap”? Not exactly. There was crap before there was Crapper (you should pardon the language), but big-C Crapper quite possibly gave rise to little-C crapper, meaning “toilet.” ETA: Ninja’d. ETA2: Apparently twice! ---
**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:** [September 28, 2017, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/42 "2017-09-28T18:46:02Z")
Okay. It’s one of life’s little ha-ha’s that someone who invented a way to flush crap should be named Crapper. What are the odds? ---
**Author:** ![Defensive\_Indifference](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/defensive_indifference/32/6502_2.png) [@Defensive\_Indifference](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Defensive_Indifference)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/43 "2017-09-28T19:19:01Z")
When I was in my teens and twenties, I thought “light in the loafers” meant something like “odd” or “eccentric”. I once referred to a slightly offbeat coworker as “light in the loafers” and accidentally started a rumor he was gay. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 8:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/44 "2017-09-28T20:10:41Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > Okay. It’s one of life’s little ha-ha’s that someone who invented a way to flush crap should be named Crapper. What are the odds? Yes, that’s exactly what it is. ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 8:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/45 "2017-09-28T20:24:00Z")
> [@Enola\_Straight](#): > > Does “Lickety-Split” mean something…dirty? > [What’s the origin of "lickety-split"? - The Straight Dope](http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2164/whats-the-origin-of-lickety-split) There is a quote attributed to Mae West. Whether it’s real or not, I don’t know. She called the Chinese laundry down the street wondering why her clothes hadn’t been delivered. The laundryman replied, “I come lickity-split!” Mae responded, “Don’t forget the laundry!” ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/46 "2017-09-28T20:30:21Z")
Think back to your childhood: anyone remember any phrases involving “pussy” which for some strange reason the speaker didn’t seem to be referring to cats? ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/47 "2017-09-28T20:37:19Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Yes, that’s exactly what it is. Also, all you wanted to know [about crap and Crapper.](http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/1930243) ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 8:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/48 "2017-09-28T20:37:32Z")
“Raspberry,” as a word for the “Bronx cheer” noise made with your tongue, is derived from Cockney rhyming slang. Raspberry tart = fart. Pumpernickel bread is supposedly derived from German words meaning “devil’s fart,” since it is hard to digest. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > “Putz” means “dick” but as noted above “schmuck” means jewels, i.e. family jewels. “Schmuck” in German means jewelry or adornment. (I was amused to see a jewelry store in Switzerland with a big sign that said “Christ Schmuck.”) In Yiddish it means “penis,” as a humorous extension of that meaning. (It’s in English that “the family jewels” refers to testicles.) [Wiki](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schmuck_(pejorative))however does say that there is some disagreement over whether the Yiddish word is derived from the German one or not. ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/49 "2017-09-28T21:10:08Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > “Putz” means “dick” but as noted above “schmuck” means jewels, i.e. family jewels. > > I once used the Yiddish word [Shiksa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiksa) at work in front of my Chassidic boss. He told me never to use it again in the store, and explained its origin. I don’t use it anywhere now. A Jewish ex-girlfriend once told me she imagined her grandmother berating her because she was “shtupping a shegetz.” ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2017, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/50 "2017-09-28T21:15:14Z")
> [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I once used the Yiddish word [Shiksa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiksa) at work in front of my Chassidic boss. He told me never to use it again in the store, and explained its origin. I don’t use it anywhere now. “Shiksappeal” is probably not allowed either? ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Lord\_Mondegreen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/91b2a8/32.png) [@Lord\_Mondegreen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lord_Mondegreen)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/51 "2017-09-29T01:28:49Z")
In Australia, it is a very mild insult to call someone a “drop kick”, somewhat on par with the word “idiot”. Its origin however is much stronger, being rhyming slang - “drop kick and punt” I had been using the term for a couple of decades before I heard the origin. ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/52 "2017-09-29T02:18:23Z")
> [@Lemur866](#): > > What? It just means jewels… Shmok, or shmuk, in Yiddish means a shlong. But it’s a very mean, nasty thing to call a person. You wouldn’t call a person a shlong. Calling a person a shmok is saying he is beyond contemptible. Men who beat their wives, rophy their date’s drinks, and drive civilian Hummers, which they double park in handicapped spaces, even though they don’t have a permit for even one are shmoks. Donald Trump is a shmok, mostly for the “pussy grabbing” remark. > [@Annie-Xmas](#): > > I once used the Yiddish word [Shiksa](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiksa) at work in front of my Chassidic boss. He told me never to use it again in the store, and explained its origin. I don’t use it anywhere now. For people in the dark, “shiksa” means a “female abomination.” “Shaygets” is the male equivalent, although not as serious as Shiksa, because a Jewish woman (unless she is a cohen, but more on that later) can marry a shaygets and still have Jewish children. Not so if the man marries the gentile. ---
**Author:** ![TokyoBayer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tokyobayer/32/13989_2.png) [@TokyoBayer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TokyoBayer)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 2:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/53 "2017-09-29T02:20:44Z")
Mormon missionaries are strongly prohibited from using any vulgarities, so we always had a long list of supposedly innocuous alternative. Some missionaries couldn’t open their mouths without saying “flip” or “flipping” but you knew what they wanted to say. However, I had no idea that the expression “don’t know Jack” is simply dropping the “shit.” ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/54 "2017-09-29T03:08:57Z")
My mother used to refer to a quick cleanup (instead of a thorough cleaning) as “giving it a lick and a promise.” Years later I wondered where the hell that expression came from.:eek: ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 3:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/55 "2017-09-29T03:12:19Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > “Raspberry,” as a word for the “Bronx cheer” noise made with your tongue, is derived from Cockney rhyming slang. Raspberry tart = fart. Cockney rhyming slang: How _not_ to understand what the fuck anyone is saying. 😛 ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 4:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/56 "2017-09-29T04:10:10Z")
To pee should actually be “to ‘p’” as it’s the first letter of the word ‘piss’. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/57 "2017-09-29T05:08:01Z")
> [@RivkahChaya](#): > > I dunno. We used to to say that something “sucks raw eggs,” when I was a kid. [“Teach your grandmother to suck eggs”](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teaching_grandmother_to_suck_eggs) is a very old saying in English, going back to the 1700s. It means trying to teach someone something they have more experience in than you do. > [@](#): > > I don’t know why, and it was probably a euphemism for “sucks dick,” Unlikely. It’s probably derived from the earlier saying. > [@](#): > > It’s just as logical to say that women who sucked dick used to be thought of as sluts, and therefore “sucks” is a form of slut-shaming. No one thinks of it that way in their heads when they say it. Certainly when I was a teen in the 1960s, when we said “That sucks” what we had in mind was “That sucks dick.” But it didn’t refer to women. As **Quimby** says, it referred to homosexuality. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/58 "2017-09-29T05:10:36Z")
“Scumbag” gets tossed around rather freely these days. When I was a kid in the 1960s it referred to a condom, more specifically a used condom. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 7:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/59 "2017-09-29T07:47:33Z")
\*When correctly viewed, Everything is lewd! I could tell you things about Peter Pan, and the Wizard of Oz! (There’s a dirty old man!)\*[indent]-- Tom Lehrer[/indent] ---
**Author:** ![TwoCarrotSnowman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/twocarrotsnowman/32/15879_2.png) [@TwoCarrotSnowman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TwoCarrotSnowman)\ **Post date:** [September 29, 2017, 8:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507/60 "2017-09-29T08:35:12Z")
I called a friend a “berk” once - a term for “silly person” so mild in the UK that there was [a children’s TV character named after it](http://monster.wikia.com/wiki/Berk) when I was a kid. My friend took offense, because he knew the word’s origin in rhyming slang: “Berkshire hunt”. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/sayings-you-didnt-realize-were-obscene/797507.md?page=4)