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By Thorn Wilde
Attention! This post does contain some actual swearing. Posted this to Tumblr earlier, where it was well-received. Thought I'd share with the community as well.
There are a lot of comparatively mild curse words that we just accept as being family friendly without much thought as to where they come from. Some are just milder versions of a word we consider unacceptable, such as saying 'crap' instead of 'shit' or 'darn' instead of 'damn'. Others have so completely lost their original meanings that no one even considers them anymore. Here are some fairly common British ones, with pop-culture examples for your enjoyment:
tosser
n. One who masturbates; same as wanker.
'Who's Harry Potter?' 'Oh, no one. Bit of a tosser, really.'
—Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (seen by millions of children)
bugger, sod
v. To sodomise someone
n. One who sodomises
'Bludgers. Nasty little buggers.'
—Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone (Again, seen by millions of children)
'Sod this, you stay here if you want. On your own.'
—Sherlock, S02E03: The Reichenbach Fall (prime time TV)
berk
n. Short for ‘Berkley Hunt’ or ‘Berkshire Hunt’, which is Cockney rhyming slang for ‘cunt’.
'Then what the hell did you tackle me for, you berk?'
—Rupert Giles, Buffy the Vampire Slayer
And there are so many more. Like, how many people who use the word 'douchebag' actually think about what that originally entailed?
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By Juan Manuel Sandoval
Hi everyone! I’ve only recently joined the site, but it’s felt so warm and welcoming that I thought it’d be interesting to share something for discussion. I write poetry in both English and Spanish and only recently have begun to blend both my languages within poems. I was having in interesting exchange with a professor at my university this year where I confessed that sometimes I felt pressured to offer translated versions of my writing, while sacrificing the value of what a Spanish word or phrase was adding to my poem in order to please non-Spanish speaking readers. I mentioned I had begun blending the two languages without offering translations and he said I shouldn’t feel obliged to offer translations. He said readers shouldn’t force a type of language or culture censorship where the value of a piece is diminished because they can’t simply put the effort to translate words and phrases themselves or research the context of a piece. I’m curious if anyone else has thought about this dilemma of culture and language in your poetry and whether you share the professors opinion or have something else regarding it. It’ll be lovely to discuss!
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By northie
Emotion
No one enjoys dealing with the sad emotions. A breakup, a death, or even a serious illness can put a character through hell. Create a scene where your character is given some bad news and what happens when they are alone and process it. Remember to show and not tell. Bring the anguish alive for the reader.
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By William King
I was wondering whether the differences between American and British English pose any problems. It seems to me there are lots of different words and expressions, maybe even the same words that convey different meanings, I don't think spelling is an issue, but I thought it might occur that something gets 'lost in translation'.
Perhaps you would like some examples (just to make you smile). British boys don't jerk or beat off they wank and toss and no one would call you a "mother fucker", but they might call you a "prick".
What do you think?
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By Ashi
I wanted to write a blog about it, but instead, I think I'll just ask the question: What does love and infatuation mean to you? What's the difference? Have you ever been mistaken one for the other?
I want to discuss about romantic love and infatuation, as they're the most confused about. That is, no platonic love, parental love, friendships, or sexual (eros) type of love, please. It'll keep things more focused and manageable because they're really abstract and hard to grasp conceptual words.
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