Words that sound dirty but aren't

niggard(ly): I know it’s an obvious one, but it is the first one I thought of. I remember there being a big hoopla on Fark about how this word doesn’t mean what it sounds like it means.

Of course, I’m not sure it won’t be retroactively considered a dirty word by some. The word it is similar to has a pretty nasty history.

BigT: Except anybody who’s paid the least bit of attention to the etymology of *niggard *knows that it’s completely unrelated to nigger.

Horticulture.

You can lead a horticulture, but you can’t make her think.

BMalion, that’s exactly what I think of every time I hear the word. :smiley:

I just posted in a thread about a new pregnancy after previous loss, and we are all yelling, “Sticky vibes!” And I stopped and thought about that out of context, and decided that if you have sticky vibes, you probably need to keep some wipes in the toy drawer or something.

I always hand-wash mine. :smiley:

Thrum

Two pages and no one’s mentioned Semprini!

Oxalis

Floyd’s Knobs, Indiana isn’t far from…

French Lick.

Schlotzsky’s. (As in, “Ugh, I don’t know what I ate, but I’m gonna be stuck sitting on this toilet all night with the schlotzskies.”)

If we’re including place names, you can’t go wrong with Fucking, Austria and Condom, France.

Palm pilot.

Don’t tell me that isn’t a euphemism for wanker.

Animal Husbandry.

That’s cause kn*ckers is no longer posting!

Big O notation

Hardy-Littlewood theorem

I would hazard a guess that the average user of the English language doesn’t bother to learn the etymology of the words they use. Hence, why would anybody have ever thought any of these words were profane?

American football commentary sounds pretty dirty sometimes. “The tailback was looking to penetrate the hole, but the defense came and pounded him back behind the line.”

I know I’m not the only one who checked that cummingtonite was actually a real word.

In fact, I was putting my finger in my filtrum as I read it, so thoughtful was I.

What do numbers 1 and 2 mean? That is, when they’re not euphemistic, which I’d assume they were if I heard them.

Arsenal

Licketysplit

OUT!!!