# Words I didn't realize were pejorative until later in life **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 22, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604 "2024-07-22T13:00:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 15
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2024, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/281 "2024-11-30T21:49:11Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > “Twat”! In grade school the joke going the rounds was, “ on an airplane when the stewardess asked, would you want TWAcoffee, TWAmilk, or TEAtea?” Oh yes. I knew it was insulting but it was always treated as a mild insult; I didn’t find out what it meant until years later. Possibly not until the Prime Minister of the day said it on national radio… ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/282 "2024-12-02T06:59:01Z")
[It’s part of a nun’s attire](https://www.seh.ox.ac.uk/blog/reading-gone-awry), right? ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/283 "2024-12-02T16:23:47Z")
At which point I discover that my mental pronunciation of the word – which wasn’t generally part of spoken slang where I lived – is incorrect. I didn’t know that it rhymes with “hat”; I thought it was closer to rhyming with “taught”. ---
**Author:** ![colinfred](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colinfred/32/21338_2.png) [@colinfred](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/colinfred)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/284 "2024-12-02T16:37:01Z")
Americans generally pronounce it like someone saying “trot” with a lisp. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/285 "2024-12-02T16:47:30Z")
It does rhyme with taught. Browning was mistaken about the pronunciation as well as the meaning. ---
**Author:** ![thorny\_locust](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/thorny_locust/32/431_2.png) [@thorny\_locust](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thorny_locust)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 4:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/286 "2024-12-02T16:49:56Z")
The poem he apparently took it from also rhymed it with hat. Maybe the pronunciation has changed over the years. ---
**Author:** ![muldoonthief](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/muldoonthief/32/3188_2.png) [@muldoonthief](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/muldoonthief)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/287 "2024-12-02T16:52:12Z")
A lisp? ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 5:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/288 "2024-12-02T17:09:13Z")
In the UK ‘twat’ is pronounced to rhyme with rat. Wikipedia says that the US version, twot, is an older pronunciation. > **[Twat](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twat)** > > Twat is an English-language vulgarism which means the vulva or vagina, and is used figuratively as a derogatory epithet. In British English, and Irish English it is a common insult referring to an obnoxious or stupid person regardless of gender; in American English, it is rarer and usually used to insult a woman. In Britain and Ireland, the usual pronunciation rhymes with "hat", while Americans most often use the older pronunciation that rhymes with "squat". This is refl The literal sense is ... Note that in the UK ‘twatting’ someone means hitting them hard enough to cause harm. ---
**Author:** ![markn\_1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f9ae1b/32.png) [@markn\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/markn_1)\ **Post date:** [December 2, 2024, 7:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/289 "2024-12-02T19:42:11Z")
Ah, yes, the OED agrees that the UK and US pronunciations differ. For the US pronunciation it gives only the one that rhymes with “cot”, but for the UK pronunciation it gives both that one and the one that rhymes with “cat”, with the latter more common. ---
**Author:** ![Peter\_Morris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/peter_morris/32/359_2.png) [@Peter\_Morris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peter_Morris)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2024, 4:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/290 "2024-12-03T16:10:47Z")
I’m from the UK. I always thought that “twot” was a minced oath. ---
**Author:** ![Dung\_Beetle](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dung_beetle/32/7945_2.png) [@Dung\_Beetle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dung_Beetle)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2024, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/291 "2024-12-03T16:14:09Z")
I’m from the US, and never heard anyone pronounce twat to rhyme with cat. If I did, I’d probably think I misunderstood them. ---
**Author:** ![Shalmanese](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shalmanese](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shalmanese)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 9:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/292 "2024-12-08T09:46:13Z")
One I learned just today: “Villain” originally meant “someone who resided in a village” and gradually assumed pejorative connotations from the landed aristocracy via classist underpinnings. > **[The History of the Word 'Villain'](https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/the-villain-in-the-history-of-the-word-villain-isnt-the-villain)** > > Villains are scarier than they used to be ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/293 "2024-12-08T10:17:06Z")
Reading the article about Villeins in Wikipedia, I found out that they sometimes had to pay a special tax or insurance that ensured that they were not beaten as a punishment (or possibly beaten less often). This was called ‘Filstingpound’. One wonders how this insurance policy worked in practice. > **[Filstingpound](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Filstingpound)** > > Filstingpound or fulstingpound was an occasional duty paid by villeins in medieval England to the manor. It is thought by historians to be an insurance against corporal punishment or excessive fines. Its etymology appears to be a compound of the obsolete English word "filsting", which means help or aid; and "pound", in the sense of being struck. > The duty was typically annual and received on All Hallows' Day. It was usually £1 paid by the vill or 1 s. by the individual villein. It was a relat Th... ---
**Author:** ![DemonTree](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/demontree/32/8646_2.png) [@DemonTree](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonTree)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/294 "2024-12-08T21:20:41Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Not really a pejorative, but when I was a young child my Dad would swear by saying ‘Jesus’ when he eg hit his thumb with a hammer. Knowing nothing about Christianity, I heard it as ‘cheesus’ and was very confused wondering what was so bad about cheese! I learned what it actually meant when I went to school and we were told stories from the Bible. Yesterday I swore by saying ‘Jesus’ and my 4 year old told me I shouldn’t say that! She just started school and it’s CoE affiliated. I didn’t realise they took religion so seriously, and I’m not sure I’m happy about it. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [December 8, 2024, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/295 "2024-12-08T21:48:04Z")
Heh, I was given detention by an idiot art teacher for exclaiming “Jesus” in public school when I was young. I didn’t bother attending that detention. ---
**Author:** ![PatrickLondon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/patricklondon/32/4422_2.png) [@PatrickLondon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PatrickLondon)\ **Post date:** [December 9, 2024, 11:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/296 "2024-12-09T11:01:52Z")
> [@DemonTree](#): > > Dad would swear by saying ‘Jesus’ when he eg hit his thumb with a hammer. Knowing nothing about Christianity, I heard it as ‘cheesus’ and was very confused [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/2aqr7Ykxc4Y/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AH-BIAC4AOKAgwIABABGHIgSyglMA8=&rs=AOn4CLCmfWoqlYTrGHE9Gu4AHr7T7ojnoQ "Kath and Kim: The Little Baby Cheeses") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2aqr7Ykxc4Y) ---
**Author:** ![What\_Exit](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/what_exit/32/10652_2.png) [@What\_Exit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/What_Exit)\ **Post date:** [December 24, 2024, 3:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/words-i-didnt-realize-were-pejorative-until-later-in-life/1004604/297 "2024-12-24T15:14:36Z")
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