One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs See Australian usage of "mate" ...
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@FourT4 "Your Mom is a last noun used!"
@afewbugs exactly this. "You're a dog brush", that sort of thing.
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@quixoticgeek @cassana @afewbugs you got wallpapered, didn't you
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs I should say this is, in fact, a strength of any language.
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@afewbugs New grammar module:
British english insultative vocative: “You (insert random creatively applicable noun).
Emphatic insultative vocative: “you absolute …”
This one is of course related and regularly combined with the common exclamatory vocative: "Oy!", e.g., "oy, you absolute disco light!" -
@afewbugs also nearly every alliterative “verbing the noun” construction sounds like an euphemism for masturbation.
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@jetlagjen @quixoticgeek @afewbugs The funny thing is that it only works with a solid British accent. I used to get mistaken for Canadian when talking English for a long time, but then I moved to the UK, and all that shifted to modern RP with hints of Essex and London. And suddenly this magical world of creative vocabulary and wordplay opened up to me.
@cassana @quixoticgeek @afewbugs that's delightful! I hope you're having fun with it.
Although it only works in British accents, it does work in *all* of them.
"Ahm bluddy loo rawlled, eh?" (Cumbria)
"Ye buzz seat!" (West Midlands)
"We'll gan get bridged" (Geordie)
"He is such a bookcase!" (RP) -
@afewbugs See Australian usage of "mate" ...
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@afewbugs also nearly every alliterative “verbing the noun” construction sounds like an euphemism for masturbation.
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RE: https://mstdn.social/@sodslawyer/116056688380387248
One of the greatest strengths of the English language is any noun can be an insult if delivered in the right tone.
@afewbugs
Haha, not only the English language. My mom freaked when I called my brother "een aangebrand stuk protoplasma" = a piece of burnt protoplasm in my teens.
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