# Why does saying something sucks mean it's bad?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-saying-something-sucks-mean-its-bad/821111>\
**Category:** Great Debates\
**Created:** [September 10, 2018, 4:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-saying-something-sucks-mean-its-bad/821111 "2018-09-10T16:26:33Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 3

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**Author:** ![DavidwithanR](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3bc359/32.png) [@DavidwithanR](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DavidwithanR)\
**Post date:** [September 17, 2018, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-saying-something-sucks-mean-its-bad/821111/41 "2018-09-17T18:18:33Z")

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Normally, etymology relies heavily on finding the earliest printed records of words to help determine what was going on. But for words that were taboo in that time, it becomes much more difficult to find the word printed at all.

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