# Slang in Trump's latest horror-tweet?
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [June 29, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140 "2017-06-29T15:27:59Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Hooleehootoo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hooleehootoo)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 3:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/1 "2017-06-29T15:27:59Z")
Trump’s latest tweet is bullying, inappropriate, insulting, etc. But how is it vulgar? His comment about Megyn Kelly … “blood coming out of her… whatever” clearly was vulgar, but I don’t understand why blood per se would be. I have tried searching for slang meanings of “face lift”, etc. but can’t figure it out.
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### Author:  [@Gary\_T](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_T)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/2 "2017-06-29T15:52:22Z")
Here are definitions of “vulgar” from one source:
\*Crudely indecent.
Deficient in taste, delicacy, or refinement.
Marked by a lack of good breeding; boorish. \*
The second one definitely applies to the tweet, and there are many who believe the third one applies to the tweeter.
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### Author:  [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/3 "2017-06-29T15:54:02Z")
Yeah. “Vulgar” doesn’t only mean “related to sex or sex organs”.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/4 "2017-06-29T16:03:48Z")
Which tweet are we talking about?
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/5 "2017-06-29T16:07:23Z")
> [@scr4](#):
>
> Which tweet are we talking about?
Mika Brzezinski hosts a MSNBC show called _Morning Joe_. There as a comment on the show Trump didn’t like. So he tweeted:
\*I heard poorly rated @Morning\_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came…
…to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!\*
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### Author:  [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/6 "2017-06-29T16:17:23Z")
NM-Response not proper for this forum.
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### Author:  [@SpoilerVirgin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SpoilerVirgin)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/7 "2017-06-29T16:18:00Z")
This is the tweet in question (actually two tweets)
> [@@realDonaldTrump](#):
>
> I heard poorly rated @Morning\_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came…to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!
He was upset because her boyfriend apparently said something mean about him, so he attacked her and exposed the fact that she had had a facelift. My mother would definitely call that vulgar.
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### Author:  [@gnoitall](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gnoitall)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/8 "2017-06-29T16:19:02Z")
> [@naita](#):
>
> Yeah. “Vulgar” doesn’t only mean “related to sex or sex organs”.
[Etymology dictionary](http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=vulgar) is your friend:
[Quote=Online Etymology Dictionary]
late 14c., “common, ordinary,” from Latin _vulgaris_, \*volgaris \*“of or pertaining to the common people, common, vulgar, low, mean,” from \*vulgus \*"the common people, multitude, crowd, throng
[/quote]
So, “vulgar” mostly means “common”, in the way that certain Southern ladies might sniff and say “that’s so _common_.”
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### Author:  [@Duckster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duckster)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/9 "2017-06-29T16:19:11Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Mika Brzezinski hosts a MSNBC show called _Morning Joe_.
Actually [Joe Scarborough, Mika Brzezinski and Willie Geist](http://www.msnbc.com/morning-joe/about) are the hosts.
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### Author:  [@Dinsdale](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dinsdale)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/10 "2017-06-29T16:43:06Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> \*I heard poorly rated @Morning\_Joe speaks badly of me (don’t watch anymore). Then how come low I.Q. Crazy Mika, along with Psycho Joe, came…
>
> …to Mar-a-Lago 3 nights in a row around New Year’s Eve, and insisted on joining me. She was bleeding badly from a face-lift. I said no!\*
Good god - to think that some people think it is a good thing that we have a president who expresses himself like this! :smack:
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### Author:  [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/11 "2017-06-29T16:49:05Z")
> [@Dinsdale](#):
>
> Good god - to think that some people think it is a good thing that we have a president who expresses himself like this! :smack:
Mark Kornblau, who’s a spokesman for NBC news, wrote, _"Never imagined a day when I would think to myself, ‘It is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States.’ "_
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### Author:  [@Ornery\_Bob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ornery_Bob)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/12 "2017-06-29T17:51:58Z")
Etymology is interesting, but meanings change over time, often dramatically.
Look in a current dictionary for today’s meaning.
Etymology is for entertainment purposes only.
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### Author:  [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/13 "2017-06-29T17:57:02Z")
> [@Ornery\_Bob](#):
>
> Etymology is interesting, but meanings change over time, often dramatically.
>
> Look in a current dictionary for today’s meaning.
The [Merriam-Webster online dictionary](https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/vulgar) counts as a current dictionary, doesn’t it?
> [@](#):
>
> 1a : lacking in cultivation, perception, or taste : coarse
> b : morally crude, undeveloped, or unregenerate : gross
> c : ostentatious or excessive in expenditure or display : pretentious
>
> 2a : offensive in language : earthy
> b : lewdly or profanely indecent
>
> **3a : generally used, applied, or accepted
> b : understood in or having the ordinary sense**
> “they reject the vulgar conception of miracle” — W. R. Inge
>
> …
(bolding mine)
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### Author:  [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/14 "2017-06-29T18:31:27Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#):
>
> Mark Kornblau, who’s a spokesman for NBC news, wrote, _"Never imagined a day when I would think to myself, ‘It is beneath my dignity to respond to the President of the United States.’ "_
I wonder if I need Mr. Kornblau’s permission to use that as a sig.
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/15 "2017-06-29T18:38:57Z")
> [@Ornery\_Bob](#):
>
> Etymology is interesting, but meanings change over time, often dramatically.
>
> Look in a current dictionary for today’s meaning.
>
> Etymology is for entertainment purposes only.
While true, I’m not sure how this applies. Characterizing the tweet as “vulgar” seems to be congruous with how I hear people using the word “vulgar” these days: most often to refer to something as crass and uncouth.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/16 "2017-06-29T19:32:36Z")
While “vulgar” usually means “a crude, sexual reference”, I’ve always understood it to have also retained its original meaning of “common” or “pertaining to the common, unrefined, folk”. Many of Trumps tweets fall into that latter category-- things one might expect to hear in a bowling alley, but not the hallowed halls of the WH (at least not in public).
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### Author:  [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 8:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/17 "2017-06-29T20:11:36Z")
Well, in my experience, it doesn’t necessarily mean “sexual” to me at all. Perhaps I’ve just misunderstood it all these years, but I’ve always known it to mean “coarse” or something not said/done in “polite” company. Sex isn’t part of my understanding, as I know it. If I heard someone described as “vulgar,” I just think they’ve got a potty mouth or are otherwise rude, not some sort of sexual deviant.
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### Author:  [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/18 "2017-06-29T20:34:42Z")
Sexual in the sense of using vulgar sexual terms. Fuck you, you little cunt.
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### Author:  [@Morgenstern](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgenstern)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 8:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/19 "2017-06-29T20:39:28Z")
Actually, Mika’s response was priceless. It was a picture of a cheerio box with a little kid reaching for a cheerio. Over the picture is printed “made for little hands.”
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### Author:  [@Mr.Nylock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Nylock)
#### Post date: [June 29, 2017, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/slang-in-trumps-latest-horror-tweet/790140/20 "2017-06-29T20:47:00Z")
I think this is a pretty good tweet; I can see it being effective. It emphasizes the fakeness, the superficiality of the news and also hints at newspeople having different values/priorities than much of the voting public. For better or worse, it associates Mika with plastic surgery. Not that plastic surgery is inherently bad, but it does point to a certain vanity that goes along with a different life style that has little to do with the lives of many people.
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