Should we really STOP saying these words?!

[@radiak55]

Being misunderstood and thought of as intentionally trying to be offensive happens frequently in Spanish when trying to talk to other Spanish speakers in Latinamerica. My favorite example is "arrecho" which is slang for angry/upset in my country but to Colombians and Panamanians in the room I was proclaiming to be "horny" aloud because that's what the same word said the same way means to both cultures.

[@nikki-diary]

Ahhh you’re from Central America? Viví en Belice y mi mamá es de guatemala and she uses the word in the same way hahah

[@radiak55]

@@nikki-diary yeah, it gets really awkward among strangers but more often than not it's a laugh

[@marialuz7301]

I remember being a kid and laughing every single time they said "coger" as a synonym for "tomar/agarrar" in a movie or show with European Spanish dubs

[@alguien908]

​@@marialuz7301 As an European Spanish speaker coger sounds completely normal I always forget you all think its horny

[@francesgardner7070]

When I studied abroad in Spain I met someone named Concha. I hope she never goes to South America

[@curly75]

An issue I have with stuff like this is when the derogatory usage is super obscure and most people wouldn’t even know about it, you’re just calling attention to something that really doesn’t need to be uncovered. While it’s obviously good to be educated I don’t see a big use for knowing obscure outdated slurs you‘ll likely never encounter (and tbh you can usually tell by the context if a word is being used in an offensive way even if you’ve never heard the specific term). At best it brings to mind something negative whenever you hear a word you previously thought innocent and at worst gives bad actors more ammo. That said though if someone feels personally offended by a word, IMO it shouldn’t be a big deal to just not say it around them, even if you find their reasons a little dumb (given that it wouldn’t make communicating unreasonably hard). It’s not too different from a grandma not wanting to be called “meemaw” even though it’s not an offensive name and other people might like it. Though, in my experience usually people who get offended over obscure etymologies are looking for something to be mad about for whatever reason, or as you said the word isn’t actually the heart of the issue.

[@Santiago-in1xf]

"IMO it shouldn’t be a big deal to just not say it around them, even if you find their reasons a little dumb" -- Exactly this. I personally think the "anything rope related is off limits" is a bit out of pocket but working it into every conversation once you know the person doesn't like it crosses a line and bleeds into bullying.

[@Wreniffer]

yeah words are only slurs if they are used as one me personally ill only bring something up if i am not comfortable with someone using that word because of the connotations but it should be a case by case thing imo

[@LarsonLake]

Agreed, especially regarding giving bad actors more ammo! I have an example to trot out on this topic: the "ok" hand symbol. A white-power organization started using it a few years ago as a dog whistle. When other people caught on, some said that no one was "allowed" to use it anymore, aka canceled. Since I heard that message from the Anti-Defamation League, a Jewish civil rights organization, my mind immediately went to the Star of David. It made me wonder what would happen if that same white-power group started using the Star of David as a symbol of their own. Obviously, that is a very unlikely scenario, but it seems like a lot of power to give to the bad actors.

[@baltasaronedge]

Indeed. My portfolio of Black specific slurs has just increased by one.

[@Tome_Wyrm]

I'm with Dr Jones (And there goes the Aqua song. Drat) on this. If it's not widely understood to be offensive, don't force your conceptions onto others. Personally I find that intensely arrogant. You're expecting the world to change because you are offended by the word "grass" or something equally innocent like "tea" or "book". If rope makes you think of hanging, that's an extremely worrying association that you should get help for, not something you should expect everyone to not use in your presence. The same goes in the other direction though. The antiquated miserly synonym? Probably shouldn't use that one. It's amazingly close to an intensely potent racial slur, and there's a perfectly serviceable alternative that's multiple orders of magnitude more commonly used. It honestly reminds me of a symbol still used by Hinduism, Buddhism, and Jainism as well as the Akan, Hopi, Navajo, and Tlingit peoples. (Thanks Wikipedia for the list). A certain early-mid 20th century German political party decided to misappropriate that symbol and now there are entire religions and ethnic groups that get to explain to every under-educated white person that sees their culture "No, this has nothing to do with those jerks. It's millennia old. They stole it" Personally I wish people would work towards de-stigmatizing some taboos. By giving the opposite of a concept weight, you necessarily have to give weight to the other side. Can't have up without down, light without dark, anti-racism without racism. If you want to "defeat" a concept? Quit giving it any weight. No sexism isn't a state where you care about sex/gender, it's a state where those things cease to matter. Boosting women or people of color because they were harmed in the past is a wonderful first step but it should be transitory because by saying "I am going to give this class of people benefits" you are perpetuating the idea that those distinctions deserve different treatment.

[@ericherde1]

6:44 Queen Elizabeth can move in any direction, but the Archbishop of Canterbury can only move diagonally.

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

It wasn't even a Queen originally, it was more of an Advisor or Prime Minister.

[@NeonBeeCat]

​@@SmallSpoonBrigadeit's called the vizier is other countries still

[@joshuasims5421]

Well, he's an archbishop, so he can move diagonally or jump once like a knight.

[@elainebelzDetroit]

As Gene Robinson pointed out to Jon Stewart in 2009, sometimes a bishop can move in any direction...

[@unvergebeneid]

Calling someone a "spook" as a slur when you yourself are running around in ghost drag all year is a bold move.

[@languagejones6784]

@@unvergebeneid 🔥 🔥 🔥

[@Thefrogbread]

🦞lol

[@AllanTidgwell]

1. The KKK has between 3000 and 6000 active members in the entire world (for context at the most that's still less that 2 hundredths of a percent of the total us population... it's literally 0.0017%) I'd suggest you actually come into the 21st century instead of pretending it's still the 1930s. The KKK are an irrelevancy in the modern world 2. Secondly, the outfits they wear are religious robes. They are not dressed like "ghosts". The hood is a Catholic garment called a capirote. They are worn to show penance and are still used in many Spanish speaking countries today. Fun fact, this is also where the Dunce Cap originates. Saying they're dressed like ghosts is an insult to the religious sects the garment represent. And the irony of all this is that the KKK dressed like this while actively persecuting Catholics

[@jakeaurod]

Or you can call them a Casper, but white boys of a certain age might be enthused that they are compared to the lead from _Starship Troopers_

[@The4Headed_Dragon]

Well played.

[@ToastbackWhale]

“Turns out I forgot about Rule 34 and furries more broadly” HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

[@jmvr]

Using the transcript tab on videos, I have found this is said at 14:45, if anyone wished to know when it was said

[@eric7591]

A costly, and psychically damaging mistake.

[@coltynstone-lamontagne]

​@@jmvr You're a hero to comment etiquette

[@juliewoodcock4655]

Wifwolf is a nifty word.

[@hundvd_7]

​@@jmvrthanks, dude, I always hate when a comment on a long video is missing a timestamp

[@Clear_Night4]

petition to bring back wifwolf

[@revangerang]

But do you yiff with your wifwolf ? (i'm sorry)

[@Thefrogbread]

@@revangerangyo wtf

[@revangerang]

@@Thefrogbread I had to 😂

[@andyarken7906]

What if people understand it as whiffwolf?

[@otakuofmine]

i saw different creators mention it too and people being excited about it. and as language works, maybe we will be that lucky

[@stephenbetz2009]

Making a Ghostbusters reference while simultaneously making the quote peculiarly illustrative: *chef's kiss*

[@circejean]

Years ago I told a British person that I would, “be right back, just have to go potty real quick.” a somewhat cutsie way of saying that I was going to use the bathroom. He laughed and explained that to him I’d said I was just going to go off and go crazy, but that I’d be right back.

[@petrushka1611]

And the older you get, the more you do both.

[@madestmadhatter]

I mean, considering the condition of most public bathrooms, could go either way.

[@Hayden1969-ws4vy]

As an English person, this seems weird to me! Potty as a Euphemism for slight madness is not used that much any more. If you had said that to me, I'd have thought more that you were going to use a toddler's toilet & would have thought you very strange, laughed and mocked you! 🤣

[@Chaos-Clips]

​@@Hayden1969-ws4vy that's what I would've thought too

[@milanprolix2511]

4:50 Very easy if it is a room full of French sailors! Using the word "corde" (rope in French) is considered bad luck on a boat (and on a theater stage). They would use a name that specifies the function of the rope or if it is a generic rope, with no predefined function, the word "bout". I think there might be an exception for the bell rope.

[@Doct0rLekter]

Code monkey is a phrase commonly used to refer to programming interns and other low skill programmers. I once used it and it upset a person of color for the obvious reason (though I was not referring to them or anyone else in the room as such). It was as simple as apologizing, explaining that the meaning of the phrase has nothing to do with race, and assuring them I wouldn’t use the word around them since it was upsetting. ‘Tis easy to accommodate people’s emotional well being if one merely tries.

[@r.rodrigues9929]

In Brasil, referring to black people as monkey is probably the worst offense you can direct at a black person. This caused some funny confusion when I was chatting with some vietnamese friends, since they used monkey to refer to themselves acting in a playful and dumb way.

[@turbotreehouse9780]

​@@r.rodrigues9929it's crazy because all humans are monkeys

[@dragoon1090]

We're all stupid monkeys. People are way too sensitive nowadays.

[@Vates104]

Car mechanics were often called grease monkeys. Was not a racist term.

[@wotgrissom1671]

@@r.rodrigues9929 Whereas I've met Chinese people who were called monkey (in Mandarin) as an effective and hurtful slur. In fact, downright distressing slur in at least one case.

[@SeanSinclair821]

Speaking of words having very different meanings in different contexts, Bart Simpson once demanded that Principal Skinner teach him a swear word he didn't already know. Skinner whispers in Bart's ear, and Bart responds in surprise, "That's a bad word?!" Skinner replies, "As a noun it is." My friends and I were trying to figure out whether there's really a word like that, and I eventually came up with one... (apologies in advance to anyone offended by this)... "Snatch"

[@Birdie518]

I always thought it was “prick,” but I like your idea!

[@MCArt25]

@@Birdie518 you'e both right!

[@SeanSinclair821]

@@Birdie518 Thank you! I did think of "prick" at one point, but then later I drew a blank trying to remember it, and it was driving to me crazy. 😆

[@keouine]

The two suggestions aren't swear words. I figured swear words have to do with blasphemy. Scatological terms are something else.

[@SeanSinclair821]

@keouine They would qualify as bad words in Bart's estimation, I'm sure (esp with the thrill of making Skinner teach it to him). But if you have a better suggestion, I'm all ears!

[@ianchristian7949]

In the north of England we "call a spade a bloody shovel" which reduces the ambiguity.

[@harryburleigh8358]

We wouldn’t want to trigger anyone who might be primed to respond to any phrase which might be construed as a reminder that the afore mentioned ‘spade or bloody shovel’ had been the tool of a pair of your northern neighbours, Burke and Bloody Hare.

[@ianchristian7949]

@harryburleigh8358 why would anyone be triggered by an early example of recycling?

[@harryburleigh8358]

@@ianchristian7949 Aye. You’re right - It is not too soon to acknowledge that Burke and Hare earned the right to be numbered among the precociously innovative.

[@peabody1976]

What do you call an unbloodied shovel, though? 🤔

[@jeremyhawkins5278]

I think its interesting that the way we call people stupid or crazy keeps evolving where we have medical terms that get used as insults that stop being medical terms and the new medical terms then become insults. Like, the point is to be insulting and offensive so until people decide to stop calling people stupid or crazy, that will keep happening

[@vacri54]

This is a myth - "idiot" and "imbecile" were insults for centuries before a medico decided to use them in a diagnostic guideline.

[@saintsalieri]

You would never call an actually crazy person crazy as an insult. Same with the r-word or a lot of other cancelled words. Like we want to hurt someone's feelings, we'll always be using whatever achieves that result lol.

[@Wreniffer]

the main thing was that the medical terms didn’t start as medical terms, compared to autistic or something now where the og meaning was medical

[@mojrimibnharb4584]

Euphemism treadmill.

[@wayfaringspacepoet]

the use got extended to being synonymous with calling someone "foolish" i.e. acting like a clown

[@walterheukels]

"misuse the facilities" is now my favourite euphemism for that activity

[@frigginjerk]

There was that guy recently who had the police called on him for telling a fellow customer that he was going to "blow up" a Home Depot bathroom.

[@keithmyerscough697]

That sounds like you're going to knock one out to me.

[@mikeycham3643]

Mine too.

[@RilianSharp]

what activity??

[@YunxiaoChu]

@@RilianSharpsame

[@t_ylr]

I'm not speaking for anybody but myself here. I'm not the representative from the African American delegation lol, but being black and gay and someone who took linguistics, i have thoughts on reclaimed slurs and words with old offensive meanings. These are like Asimovs Laws of robotics for how fundamental they are. 1. Words mean what ppl use them to mean 2. Words =\= their etymologies. To use a less charged example I have seen people weaponize the idea that the word C00n is a racial slur. Of course it was a racial slur in the context that it was used by white people about black people at the turn of the 20th century. But it has a different meaning the way that's been used since the middle of the 20th century by black people exclusively about other black people. That's not really a racial slur and it requires a certain amount of cultural understanding to know that. The irony is that by sticking to the original meaning were attacking black ppl for calling out internalized racism, tokenism etc. That said be normal about it LMAO. Don't be a know it all. Don't try to debate someone into agreeing with you on the use of these words. Be kind. It's free lol. When I'm around older gay men i try to be considerate of the fact that the British word for a cigarette still has a lot of sting for some of them. If I know it bothers someone i don't use it even tho I have fully reclaimed that word for myself.

[@languagejones6784]

I worked on a project where the black linguists were unanimous that words like “coonhound” are innocuous and other people shouldn’t be offended on their behalf but should know when it’s not their turn to give a f*ck. And especially to your point, there’s idioms like what I assume you’re referencing - ABC - that aren’t for me to have an opinion on at all

[@t_ylr]

​@languagejones6784 that's cool. What was it called?

[@concerninghobbits5536]

As a certified representative of the Council of White Individuals (kidding god I do not want to be associated with half of them), it's that last bit that's really important. Know the context and don't try to use things like this as a way to say a slur and then call it okay on a technicality. Just be normal about your language. If someone is uncomfortable with a word, don't use it, it's not that difficult. And don't intentionally say controversial words just because "free speech". It should be common sense. My gay friend can call me the f slur because they've reclaimed it AND I'm not offended by it. I could use it with them despite being straight (mostly...) but I don't find a need to, and more importantly I'm not gonna use that like a pass to say it to random people.

[@ValQuinn]

I'm British and this reminds me of a different point, but the online world is international. I would never think twice about using the word fag (to mean cigarette) or spook (to mean spy). And it works both ways. Watching Avatar the Last Airbender was weird at first for me because 'bender' is a homophobic slur over here. I figured they didn't know that and got used to its new definition. Like, communication is about trying to understand what's in the other person's mind anyhow. Not override it with your own understanding of their words.

[@concerninghobbits5536]

@@ValQuinn I would've never guessed that about bender, we also use it as a word for like a wild night of partying and drugs, or at least drugs. I think the drugs are the main part though. Actually I think they're sometimes or often more than a day. That's a perfect example then of the words you listed where especially the first one (I'm comfortable enough saying or typing it except this is the internet so I'd rather avoid it and figure people on a language channel would understand this instead of just saying it's weird). Where if they said that on a show as an American I would've been and some would be surprised and confused. Or now I know what it means but it still stands out to my ears, despite not thinking of it as remotely offensive given the context. More like "oh there was that word. I probably should avoid quoting this part if convenient..." But yes it's literally just communication, I just saw a short about a piece in the Museum of Modern Art that's a painting of just text forming a bibliography, looks very scholarly and normal like a page from a book but the sources are all related to linguistics and communicating and stuff. Art, like language, is just a way of expressing or communicating things from our brain, it's just that a lot of art is less direct or harder to interpret like someone's random conlang, maybe they have a few words you can guess from context and tone and a few similar sounding ones to English, but you'll never understand exactly the thoughts behind the art. Which is why we don't really use art to communicate for practical reasons. So language is art and art is language (or are they not because people use them to describe separate things? I'd say it's both depending on context, so it's pointless to be pedantic about disagreeing with someone saying "um, actually... technically they're the same" because they aren't being used the same. It's just interesting to point out and discuss or think about with curious people)

[@yongyutang2453]

“I need to see a man about a horse” is what my Grandpa said when he wanted to go to the restroom. I heard it so often growing up that I say it as well and I’ve received some very strange looks because of it.

[@dansattah]

Thank you for that bit of linguistic history. Meanwhile in Germany, my mother and I just call the restrooms "whereto" when we're in public. E.g. it's intermission during a concert. One tells the other "I'm going whereto for a bit."

[@nineteenfortyeight]

Same 😆

[@beesinpyjamas9617]

That's interesting because I'm Australian and my grandpa used to use that idiom almost exactly but it was seeing a man about a dog instead of a horse, he was from specifically an island off the coast of South Australia called Kangaroo Island, and spent most of his life on farms, if you don't mind me asking, where is your grandpa from? I find it interesting that the idiom is widespread enough that Taylor used almost the same idiom from the other side of the pacific, but it's still obscure enough that most people seem to have never heard of it, must be some kind of farmer connection

[@dazartingstall6680]

@@beesinpyjamas9617 I'm English. It's "see a man about a dog" here, too. Not as common as it used to be, but still used often enough that most people would get what you mean.

[@Cmolloy8798]

It’s a phrase known by all older generations in Ireland, wouldn’t be used much. But is generally understood by everyone!

[@bobbyg1068]

A good and measured take, thank you! Like you said, it comes down to context. I would resist attempts to force words that are commonly used innocuously out of the language - coming from the UK, the idea that we should stop saying spook or spade, which as far as I know have never been derogatory over here, for example On the other hand the word you mentioned meaning miserly is markedly archaic, so while I'm not going to freak out any time I hear it, it's not something I would say myself, and unless the speaker seemed kinda socially oblivious, I would suspect a dog whistle

[@languagejones6784]

Good point on the dogwhistle. There was recently a scandal in the UK - more than one actually - where hobby groups and fandoms circulated lists of words to ban. They all ended up having a ton of Yiddish on them, most of which is neutral and not derogatory. It had the same energy as “the Vietnamese manicurists MUST be saying bad things about ME, because I don’t understand them”

[@concerninghobbits5536]

You being British makes me think of the fact that being rational and kind goes both ways. If you were one of the people who still uses a word for cigarettes that some might find offensive, and you casually said the word to me as an American while clearly talking about a cigarette and using the word in a natural way, I wouldn't feel hurt nor would I attack you for it. Of course if the word was sensitive to me despite your innocent intentions I could politely tell you and you could avoid using it around me. Should be simple but people love to be mean and weird so I just do my best.

[@0x2A_]

@@concerninghobbits5536 I was in London one weekend with a friend, and I still smoked back then, who I asked to borrow a cigarette but using the first 3 letters of the other word. An American women overheard and proceeded to lecture me about how rude and disrespectful it was, which was really confusing to me until she actually said the full word as I had never even considered the association until then. I played dumb, you can buy these meatball things that are disgusting in most supermarkets which are also called the full word, and acted confused about why calling someone a meatball was offensive which made her furious and stormed off. She seemed like the type that would pick up the box in the supermarket and take it to customer service to demand they stop selling them.

[@concerninghobbits5536]

@ this is so funny because I'm clearly hearing in my head a British voice calling someone a meatball for being dumb, it may just be my imagination but it feels like I've actually heard it as a lighthearted insult.

[@fruitshuit]

@@languagejones6784 For what it's worth, I heard the "issue" with Yiddish from the other direction, the idea that Yiddish is so intimately associated with a particular ethnicity that white brits using Yiddish would have similar problems to white brits using AAVE, i.e. that the use of those words is potentially appropriative and disrespectful to the culture from which it came, especially if someone is saying them over an alternative English word just because the Yiddish version sounds funnier. I'd note though that this is just how one person explained it to me so I can't vouch for if that was the main take on it or whatever, it very much could have been just dogwhistling and this guy got the wrong end of the stick.

[@SiriusMined]

I'm a black man, and spooky should NOT be cancelled. The derogatory term "spook" was old and passe when I was a kid, and I'm 56 now. I haven't heard anyone use it in the derogatory form in ages.

[@voradorhylden3410]

For sounds from your mouth hole to hurt someone is ridiculous. Blah. Boom. Did that hurt? No because its just sounds from your word hole. If someone is offits their fault. I got call3d every name in the book. Literally didnt do anything. People need to toughen up. I also got chased home by seniors in 4th grade. Ild rather be called names. It doesnt hurt!

[@SiriusMined]

@@voradorhylden3410 "Blah. Boom. Did that hurt?" Yeah, let's be coy, and ignore context. Scroll past.

[@voradorhylden3410]

@SiriusMined context doesnt matter its sounds from a hole. Thats it. It doesnt hurt.

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

The only time I've ever heard it that way was in Back to the Future and it was already outdated then since it happened in the 50s Hell the only time it gets revived to be used that way is in South Park and The Boondocks because of the professional racist characters Like does anyone actually use coon as a slur outside of hardcore KKK members? Like South Park was able to call Cartman the Coon and it wasn't censored at all

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

I've mostly only heard it movies like back to the future where it was presented as outdated Like does anyone call white boys Pecker woods?

[@nevreiha]

I honestly didn't know the offensive connotation of "spade" and knew it as a word for a shovel or that one card. I always thought it was strange that spade was so rarely used to mean shovel to where I imagined it must be a predominantly British usage. Knowing this, I won't avoid it like the plague but having that understanding I decidedly won't add "to call a spade a spade" to my idiolect. Great video as always! Edit: I hadn't personally much to do with them outside my own errands so the discussion on definitions below is very insightful and I will try to read all of them.

[@EnkiduShamesh]

In the US, a shovel has a rounded, deeper blade for moving dirt (like the playing card), while a spade has a square blade with a flat edge, but most people here will call a spade a shovel, or a "square shovel." If someone asks me for a spade, I have to stop and try to remember which kind of "shovel" they mean. Almost no one uses the word spade around where I live.

[@ToastbackWhale]

@@EnkiduShamesh To my a spade is a triangular, handheld shovel, like what you'd plant your garden flowers with.

[@quiestinliteris]

​@@ToastbackWhale Yeah, I kind of use it interchangeably with "trowel."

[@holaliceanos]

To be fair, the shovel “spade” doesn’t share the same origin as the other spade

[@NotSoCivilEngineer]

I unfortunately knew it because of how spade tattoos are sometimes used among some non-black people (mostly white people) to signal that they are into black men.

[@qlue7881]

As a tweetaalige South African, I can't imagine how we'd manage without spookie And when you mentioned queens, it conjured the lyrics, "and the queens we use would not excite you" Now I have that earworm stuck in my head

[@egg_bun_]

What does "spookie" mean? (I mean, I can guess, but you spelled it differently)

[@qlue7881]

@egg_bun_ it's Afrikaans for "little ghost" 👻

[@saintsalieri]

The Chinese example, or the cases of names like David Lynch or the given name Aryan, go to show how absurd it would be to have to avoid using words that sound like offensive things just because it can prime some people to think of painful things. We can't ask people to have different names or a billion people to say um differently.

[@twipameyer1210]

IIRC, Iran is cognate with Aryan because the Aryans were the people mention in the Vedas for coming from the north to India. These Aryans were Indo-Europeans and later scholars thought they were the ancestors of all Indo-Europeans while they were in fact the branch that headed south to modern day Iran and India and stuff. When the Nazis talked about Aryans, they meant all Europeans in contrast to the Semic Jews.

[@samanjj]

@@twipameyer1210Thank you but if I may, you are almost correct. the Aryan people (Iranians) or people of Iran, called themselves that before going to India, and it was Darius the great that referred to himself as of Aryan descent. Also the Nazis meant all Caucasians not just Europeans (excluding Slavs and Jews in Europe for whatever reason - Nazis were a very irrational bunch of very evil people)

[@paultapping9510]

I mean there hasn't been a single baby named Adolph Hitler in rather a long time.

[@zibbyg123]

⁠@@paultapping9510oh trust me man, Adolf and Hitler (although usually not combined or spelled differently) are at times used as part of names of people especially in South America. It absolutely has not died down and people name their children Adolf and/or Hitler

[@xwtek3505]

Arya is a common Javanese name. It would be funny when a White person hear the name

[@raptor4916]

One of my favourite is the korea word for I and you (내가/니가) I can see how that can cause confusion.

[@holgeronmalta1863]

oh, the irony... as I was watching this, it was interrupted by a commercial saying "Spooky deals on [SomeFoodDeliveryService[]"

[@languagejones6784]

The algorithms definitely make things weird. I bet everyone gets “spooky” ads

[@RyAnneFultz]

So, a semi common idiom in my area is "loaded for bear". It generally means to be heavily loaded in a way that's overly prepared, like you are going hunting bears. Typically, when I use it around people who have never heard it, they either ask or just go on like I didn't say it. One day, though, a friend of mine who is gay told me I really shouldn't say things if I don't know what they mean. I clearly know what it means, buuuut, I also know what bear means to him. I explained the idiom, and we both laughed pretty hard as I tried to make him fully and explicitly tell me what he thought it meant to be loaded for his definition of bear. I never did get that explanation.

[@egg_bun_]

LMAO that hilarious

[@NuncNuncNuncNunc]

Wait, where's the rest of the story?

[@RyAnneFultz]

@@NuncNuncNuncNunc that's the whole thing. Sorry to disappoint. He refuses to discuss it ever since, so I quit bugging him and moved on.

[@NuncNuncNuncNunc]

@@RyAnneFultz Guess I'll have to go out and find a bear. Funny, when asked the story cut off at "tell m..." with no show more. Cheers!

[@RyAnneFultz]

​@@NuncNuncNuncNuncOdd. I can see the whole thing. The rest is "what it meant to be loaded for his definition of bear. I never got that explanation."

[@raystaar]

On the subject of free speech and context, I've been triggered recently over the censorship of perfectly useful, everyday words; words like 'sex,' 'suicide and 'die.' Facebook is a particularly egregious offender, bleeping out those words, and others whenever they appear in audio and/or video posts. What's your take on this practice?

[@pip9533]

I get you so much. Basically, it started as a practice on certain social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, KZbin, etc.) as a means of preventing the post from getting shadowbanned/age restricted/straight up deleted. (I also see it in fandom spaces used to prevent certain names of characters/media/etc. from showing up in searches, but that's a separate issue). On that level, I get it. but it's also incredibly problematic because: 1. It makes it hard to mute those words on platforms/extensions that allow muting words, because you have so many variations of censorship patterns to take into consideration. 2. Especially with euphemisms, it lessens the weight those words carry, almost making a joke out of getting around saying these serious issues out loud. 3. It further stigmatizes issues like suicide and sex, like those are "dirty words", so to speak.

[@VEROTIKAA]

1984

[@SomePeopleCallMeWulfman]

Apparently, the Laurel and Hardy film "Sons of the Desert" was supposed to be named "Boobs in the woods". Since around that time the meaning of the word "boob" was changing, they went with the former name.

[@Channel9001]

Context: Boob used to mean a foolish person, an idiot. How it got associated with female breasts you'll have to ask a linguist.

[@izzybobizzyy]

i recently read Virginia Woolf’s to the lighthouse and she wrote a few times how much Mrs. Ramsey loved boobies

[@timseguine2]

I'm sure they had a "gay old time"

[@roiljelly6255]

One time I mentioned the little fairies called "brownies", and a Black coworker got offended. I have *still* never heard that word in a context where it refers to Black people, but I guess it's a thing...?

[@lotharbeck71]

I think it was a thing in the early 1900s, along with “darkies,” as a “cute” (not cute) infantilizing alternative to the N word.

[@amelialonelyfart8848]

I had a similar moment where I was telling my (white) dad about all the fairies I was studying and mentioned 'brownies' and 'knockers'. He had choice words about both...

[@MrOtistetrax]

What do they call the little squares of chocolatey goodness? And please don’t tell them about the British version of the Girl Scouts. Lots of the girls and women in my life were Brownies when they were young.

[@roiljelly6255]

@MrOtistetrax if you're being serious, then you're a fool. Context matters. The wee folk in question were doing household chores for the main character of the story I was referencing, so my coworker's issue was that it sounded like I was talking about slaves or servants with brown skin. She had simply never heard of the wee folk at all.

[@Tome_Wyrm]

@@roiljelly6255 The key there is what happened next. When you explained the confusion, did they stop acting offended? Because how one uses a word is just as important. You were referring to an old concept in folklore and mythology, if they insist on making it into a racial slur, personally I think that says more that they're looking to be offended than that you're actually saying something offensive.

[@viewingstuff2253]

This video is very interesting and touches on something I've been experiencing a little as someone who's recently moved from UK -> Japan to study. Tldr its the "f" word its a common word found on restaurant menus and shortened to refer to cigarettes. As you said, context matters a lot, but I've noticed other speakers of [international american] english take offence regardless of context (being an exchange its not uncommon to discuss one's favourite home country foods)

[@32OrtonEdge32dh]

The NDA vagueness is leaving me Scrabbling for answers

[@joe_z]

I was _wondering_ what 4 points meant!

[@ApolloStarfall]

Pretty sure that was the point

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

This reminds me of the scene from "Back to the Future" (made in 1985, but set mostly in 1955) when a minion of the main villain said to a black musician on a smoke break: "This don't concern you, spook!" To which the musician replied while his fellow musicians got out of their car: "Who are you calling spook, peckerwood!?" I only found out MUCH later that both spook and peckerwood were racial slurs. Anyway, I don't think most people nowadays associate the word "spooky" with anything racial anymore, even if they might sometimes remember "spook" being used that way.

[@SO-ym3zs]

I think "spook" and "spade" would only be recognized as derogatory terms by well-read or older people. Those are both quite dated and have afaik fallen out of the vernacular.

[@MatthewTheWanderer]

@@SO-ym3zs Yep, and I didn't even know "spade" was once used as a racial slur before I watched this video.

[@shakirashipslied9721]

​@@SO-ym3zsI think spade would also be recognised by people (of any age) into race play. I remember from Kat Blaque's video that the flag/symbol for it includes the playing card spade symbol.

[@SO-ym3zs]

@shakirashipslied9721 Fwiw, I've never seen/read it used in a contemporary context in the racial sense, only from sources decades back.

[@shakirashipslied9721]

@@SO-ym3zs yeah that checks out. I doubt it'd be commonly used (racially) in non-niche communities.

[@I3loom]

I used to work in a place that was bilingual with English and Chinese. Periodically someone not working there would visit and hear me or others use the verbal contraction for 哪一个 (like you mentioned) and would give me a shocked look that I would have to sort out.

[@samanjj]

It’s very disrespectful to Chinese people that the US is foisting their baggage on them relating to the awful treatment of Black slaves. I think it is cultural colonialism but i can take it down a notch if that is to hysterical. No other language should change nor a professor be fired because your countrymen are sensitive to real injustices by your country’s history unrelated to a 3rd party.

[@laceyt5623]

It sounds so different, I don't get it.

[@wherethehellismiguel]

​@@laceyt5623it doesnt when spoken casually. I'm in China atm and it's always a little funny

[@tygical]

"is beating around the bush starting to sound worse than usual given the current context? pause" LMAO 😭😭😭 i'd like you to know i got rid of my bush because i don't like wonder working power

[@mikeciul8599]

When my family moved from the USA to England there were two expressions we stopped using: "bolloxed up," to mean confused, and "fanny," to mean rear end.

[@carolinejames7257]

Hah! Yeah, fanny means the same thing here in Australia as in England. It causes considerable laughter here when Americans use it, or even worse 'fanny pack'.

[@miaow8670]

My standpoint is essentially your own, just even more empathic. Precisely as you said, words change meaning over time and words also change meaning depending on context and co-text. Pragmatics matters an enormous deal. With the phenomenon of _banter_ in particular, even curse words can be endearing; in contrast, just any word can be offensive in a proper context. 90% of the present-day censoring language, in my experience, is really based on unreasonable over-sensitivity and on the authorities behind it not getting (or refusing to admit) these basic facts. It is really getting out of hand and way beyond its original purpose. It is already happening that so very basic and essential concepts like death or the colour black are getting cancelled linguistically. It's both ridiculous and scary. Death exists. The colour black exists. Neither of them has been designed to be scary or offensive, they existed even before human language was created. Also eating disorders or abuse exist. The German dictator existed too. But cancelling talking about these won't solve the problem. On the contrary, it will only make things worse. People need to talk about these serious issues, and while doing so, they shouldn't be obstructed by thousands of words that must not be uttered. The only reasonable exception to me are terms specifically coined to be deeply offensive or derogatory from the very beginning and never developed any (stable) other meaning.

[@zak3744]

Just thinking out loud, I wonder how much this tracks or doesn't track the rise of the internet? In cyber-space, it's very simple and easy to implement a search for particular strings (see also the "Scunthorpe problem"!). It's very hard to automate something that filters for context. Where censoring of some type is desired, to implement a context-based censoring system would be hugely more resource-intensive than a context-free one. In meat-space, where an actual human would be in the similar place of assessing language use, it's trivial to filter for context. We instinctively process context anyway, so it'd be no great resource burden to design your censoring rules to be based on context/inferred intent.

[@matt92hun]

Reject English, return to Proto-Germanic.

[@cheeseitup1971]

​@@zak3744 I would believe that the internet, and how we use it, is an important factor here. At first, I wasn't sure what OP was talking about regarding death, but then I remembered how TikToks and similar styles of video often say "unalive". This seems more common in captions. Some videos that talk about death a lot may be "bad", i.e. objectionable to advertisers, and thus trip the simple word search filters. Given the amount of user-generated content online now, it would be expensive to always consider context. In the opposite direction, I've heard that on Tumblr, it is good etiquette to avoid censorship and euphemisms for sensitive topics. This empowers users to filter out what they don't want to see. Black humor can get posted, but I don't have to see it the day after my mom dies.

[@miaow8670]

@@zak3744 I'm all but an expert on the matter, but I would guess that context-ignoring censure is definitely associated with the rise of the internet. Precisely because it is so hard to design a censoring system capable of (correctly) evaluating the context and inferred intent. It is just hard for machines to truly understand pragmatics - hard, or too expensive, or both. Which then gives rise to precisely such desperate, ridiculous coinages as "unalive" instead of "kill". (Though, as we know from the many anectodal examples, even many people apparently have troubles correctly interpreting the context, which then leads to unfair accusations of racism, slurring, etc. where there very apparently has been no such intention.) However, in authoritative regimes (present or past), many words or ideas have also been censured mercilessly, regardless of the context, so even if this has become a particularly prevalent phenomenon in the present day, it is far from a new concept.

[@Avendesora]

@@zak3744I assumed that this was about the internet. The only reason I've seen people change their language around death is to avoid algorithmic censorship.

[@Zemaj]

I live in Australia and New Zealand, which adds yet another layer of complexity because words sometimes gain differing connotations Downunder to their American, British, etc usages. Example: the word ‘root’ (noun and, particularly, as a verb) is-or most certainly was post WW2-impolite slang for sexual intercourse. The word’s use by Americans, particularly in relation to sporting or political support, can still provoke snorts or guffaws of laughter to Aussie and Kiwi men(!) of baby boomer or older generations. However, I notice that American cultural imperialism has largely robbed the word among younger generations of those schoolyardish connotations. Such is the life of language.

[@aybiss]

You can get your kicks on route 66 🎵🎶

[@jozenthejozarian2564]

I think that you are confusing "root" and "rut" (which, as you say, is pronounced much the same in Aus). Admittedly, these both have multiple meanings. Funnily enough, the other more commonly used meanings of rut could be folded back in to make it sound a dull or unsatisfying shag.

[@Zemaj]

@@jozenthejozarian2564no. Root and rut are pronounced quite differently in Australian English. No confusion mate.

[@carolinejames7257]

​@jozenthejozarian2564 Also Aussie, and I can assure you that he's absolutely correct. Root is used that way here, eg 'get rooted' means precisely the same as 'get f***ed', and there are a number of related phrases and usages.

[@Axqu7227]

As an American I will happily have a wild night of unbridled passionate lovemaking with my husband and use sports as an excuse. It sounds a lot more fun than the alternative (having to watch and cheer for sports)

[@amydebuitleir]

My view on all this is that if I become aware that someone is likely to be hurt by something I say or do, then I want to stop doing that thing. It doesn't much matter whether I think they are right to feel offended; there's already more than enough hurt in the world. But by the same token, I think we should try not to take offence where none is intended.

[@languagejones6784]

Agreed

[@vacri54]

"there's already more than enough hurt in the world" - I would argue that complaining about terms like "goatrope" simply because "ropes are involved" is *adding* to the hurt. You're taking away people's joy for using language creatively just because you found a super-tenuous possible path to imagined offense.

[@ICLHStudio]

@@vacri54 But that, in my opinion, is where the difference between how you treat/respond-to an individual in a 1-on-1 situation vs a system or a broad application comes into play. If I personally choose to reduce my usage of a term or phrase because of how it affects another specific person; that's my own personal choice and it harms no one and adds no hurt to the world. And it's not like I'm "selling out" or anything either, I'll absolutely argue against the other person taking offense in the first place (maybe linguistically if I know enough about the specifics, but definitely at least on a philosophical level), but what I think a lot of people don't realize is that if I backup my argument with good faith actions that prioritize that other person and their feelings; it strengthens my case, not weakens it (so many people go with the "argue about why they shouldn't get offended and then immediately go out of their way to try and offend them as much as possible", which seems to me to imply that they care more about their own smugness than actually being against taking offense). It is, however, an entirely different thing when it's not an issue of human-to-human interaction. If an authority, organization, or mob-like collective tries to make a sweeping rule against words or phrases in ways that completely ignore context and demonize 'offenders' with no nuance, when there are actually real attempts to take away people's ability to use language creatively for nothing more than exercising control or scoring 'points' for themselves? That's something that I'll pretty much always openly stand against. Basically, "resist authority, but meet people half-way" seems to be a decent rule of thumb in my experience.

[@saintsalieri]

@@ICLHStudio This comment sounds nice and all, but really it has no relevance because no one is trying to force you to say goat rope. So the fact that you have some internal dialogue and decide not to is of no consequence unless you are making a normative claim, but you say you are not. Yet you seem to be claiming some superior empathy to those who don't honor absurd requests that limit our means of using our language freely. Like, cool story, don't say the word, but this entire conversation is exclusively about what we SHOULD do, not what you privately decide to do. If you want to make a normative claim that we should avoid using words that might cause offense even if the offense is unwarranted, because that makes things go smoothly, then make that case. But you seem reluctant to say that because you're worried about offending anyone. You're gonna have to have a conflict some day my guy.

[@ICLHStudio]

@@saintsalieri ...Okay, I'm honestly trying to understand how you managed to get... almost literally _any_ of that from my comment (did you reply to the wrong comment perhaps? Because very little of what you seem to be saying actually appeared in this chain as far as I can see). The original comment seemed to be saying something along the lines of: "I don't want to do something that would hurt someone, even if I think they shouldn't be hurt by it in the first place." The response seemed to be countering with something along the lines of: "By pushing responsibility and guilt for their own hurt onto others, that person is already causing more hurt to the world around them." And then my reply was aiming for something along the lines of: "But whether or not the offended person is causing hurt is irrelevant to whether we should try to avoid hurting them back; and also that by specifically treating them in good faith, we have a much stronger chance to actually change their mind and reduce the hurt they would be causing with that restrictive stance on language." So, yeah, not only was my comment quite reasonably relevant to the conversation; but you seem to be making a lot of assumptions and claims about things that "I said" or that the "conversation is about" which are very definitely _not_ the case here.

[@marcustulliuscicero3987]

I often find that people policing other people’s language have a total lack of self-awareness. I once had a monolingual British guy tell me that I should not use my ownname because it sounds like an ethnic slur in English. That was only the case because HE consistently mispronounced it. I mean, how culturally insensitive can you be while pretending that you are sensitive about people’s feelings!

[@adamdooley8977]

Oh my God. That’s absolutely hilarious. I for one have absolutely no idea how to pronounce your name. Let alone how to miss pronounce it. And who I might offend in the process.

[@MCArt25]

ngl that guy sounds like an asshole and a bully

[@battleb0ng420]

Cicero definitely sounds like "CISGENDER" which is a slur (this is an epic joke)

[@NuncNuncNuncNunc]

Check out a Japanese KZbinr who makes funny vids about Japanese speaking English. Seems he can make just about any phrase offensive. The power of knowing multiple languages.

[@cubonefan3]

What is your name that sounds like a slur??

[@neutrino109]

Definitely not nothing offensive, but a funny little example. Short background I'm American, he's British, a low-level celebrity, and a person idol for my career field. After emailing a bit back and forth I asked if I could drop in on him a bit. He and his wife ended up taking me out to dinner. Great night, talked about books, music, work, a bunch of things. Super smart guy. At the end of the night he turns to me and says, "Would you fancy a slug?" I was glad I am vegetarian and..."I don't think so...". When we realized it was the equivalent of having a shot we all had a laugh. And then we talked about the differences in UK/US English.

[@foogod4237]

I think, as with most things in life, things like this really shouldn't be treated as black-and-white (is that phrase still OK?) but need to be approached with understanding and nuance. I definitely think that there are cases where it is entirely legitimate to ask people to stop using a word, because some words can have a real and serious emotional toll on a significant number of people, and choosing to inflict harm on other people when you don't have to, just for your own convenience (or stubbornness) is, frankly, just being an asshole, and that's not OK. *However,* the problem in a lot of cases nowadays is that many of these complaints are actually completely disingenuous, and IMHO that's also not OK. They are _not_ made because anybody is _actually_ offended, they are made because people have decided to _pretend_ to be offended as a way for to get publicity, or exert power and control over other people's thoughts and lives. Even among people who knew that "spook" used to have racist connotations in some cases (which I'd bet there are even a fair number of black people who don't know), I would bet that there is almost nobody who actually genuinely was offended by the adjective "spooky", or using it for things like Halloween, without somebody else _telling_ them they should be offended first. The outrage is essentially entirely invented, and not actually genuine at all. And I think that sort of thing really should be called out for the manipulative bullshit it actually is.

[@Wreniffer]

prob most of the messages would come from trolls and people who are disingenuous for the purpose of undermining minorities rather then from inside imo

[@MrOtistetrax]

As an ally of the bovine community, I find your use of the term “bullshit” to be highly problematic. There’s nothing false or unreliable about cattle excrement.

[@DigitalAlmond]

One that I like (as a probably-should-be-replaced words) is the sewing term, faggotting. Now it’s a bit antiquated, since it’s a stitch done by hand. It allows you to connect two pieces of fabric without them touching each other. The thread that spans the pieces are then tightly bound by the thread before moving on to the next stitch. Again it’s a bit outdated stitch so there isn’t a commonly accepted term as a replacement. Obviously the term makes sense etymologically, but MAN is it an awkward term for historical sewing research. Either way I agree with your end point. Like if someone tells you that a thing hurts them, it feels easy enough to at least try and be respectful of that. It’s not them censoring you, it’s them making a request. It’s not like they’re duct taping your mouth shut. You gotta work with people, why antagonize them unnecessarily?

[@zak3744]

I think I'd put the line a step back from that. There's a difference between sharing your reaction to someone else's language use/discussing differences in language use and making a request that they change it. Demands are obviously even more impositional than requests, but even a request polite prioritises your own language use as a standard that other people should align with rather than vice versa.

[@jillp1840]

Brit here. We legitimately have a (for Americans: think of a golf-ball sized meat loaf or several of them; or maybe it could be meat-loaf shaped) a dish called 'faggots' (have it with pease pudding. Pretty tasty). I'm sorry; there is no way around calling it anything else, because it is not a meat loaf. It is what it is. Plus what we call a cigarette would get our faces slapped in the USA as it's a fag. There will always be cultural misunderstandings. But I guess, an American in the UK would have to put up with it; but maybe a Brit in the USA shouldn't use those words even if in an ordinary (to the Brit) context. Americans should leave their 'fanny bags' back home over here (female genitalia here) and talk about bum bags instead. Oh, but wait ...

[@LeaAddams]

​@@zak3744 Like, making requests is fine, though. I'm a grown adult who can say 'no' if she wants to. Also, "Please don't call me this," is a different request to "Please don't use this word when I'm around," is a different request to "Please never use this word." Just as an example, I've been asked by some usually-older GSM folks not to call them queer, and I'll instantly agree to that; but if they were to ask me to not use it for myself or others who actively prefer queer, I'm going to say no. (I realise this isn't exactly the point you were making; just adding thoughts.🤷‍♀)

[@wilhelmschmidt7240]

To a point I agree, but when being offended comes from a lack of education on the part of the listener I feel it is their problem to deal with. If we all edit ourselves to fit the lowest level of understanding we all lose the ability to communicate intelligently.

[@joeharris2659]

Idioms also vary from language to language, of course. The French for ‘to call a spade a spade‘ is ‘appeler un chat un chat’ - ‘to call a cat a cat’. Because my cat’s been neutered I have spent far too long trying to crowbar the phrase ‘to call a spayed a spayed’ into conversation. 10:12

[@andymodrovich9494]

"How's tricks?" is a phrase I love using, but can't anymore, because everyone under the age of 80 thinks I'm calling them a prostitute. It makes me sad.

[@revangerang]

What does it mean?

[@andymodrovich9494]

@revangerang It means "what's up" or "how's it going". You hear it in a lot of old movies.

[@revangerang]

@ cool cool

[@matteo-ciaramitaro]

weird, I'm only in my 20s and I only understand the meaning of "what's up". sounds a bit quirky to me but nothin wrong with that.

[@tightiefenbach3429]

Magician erasure

[@denimator05]

This is my first time hearing that "cleft" even has a sexual meaning. The only reason I could think of for someone too be offended about that word is maybe thinking that are making fun of a cleft palate

[@marycooch7075]

Same here

[@glensmith491]

How about sporting?

[@denimator05]

@glensmith491 Can't say I've heard that one either. I guess I have a lot of browsing urban dictionary to do huh

[@glensmith491]

@denimator05 don't know if the urban dictionary is the right place as this use of sport hasn't really been used as such for over a century.

[@Amanda-xb7cf]

"there is a level of individual responsibility for a modicum of mental fortitude that we should all at least strive to possess" 💯

[@katrichardsonwriter]

Thank you for the Cab Calloway clip and reference. I've always loved his version of St. James Infirmary Blues, but yeah... the ghost has a real "umm..." vibe these days.

[@egg_bun_]

I love Cab Calloway!

[@JohnDlugosz]

Rather than taboo words, I'm more concerned with words that mean different things to different people. Arguably, the meaning of "decimate" is shifting in actual use, but using it to mean "obliterate" will mis-communicate to those who understand it as "reduce by 10%". And "obliterate" is already a perfectly good word, and there are others to choose from too.

[@naomilawson2752]

Would love to see a future video on whether there are ever times you *shouldn't* learn a language - I feel like you would have a very interesting take. I've seen this mainly argued in regards to native languages, where it's a highly emotional ethical dillema of survival of the language vs. more aspects of a culture being stolen and watered down. Being Australian, the example I'm very familiar with is across the ditch in New Zealand/Aotearoa with the drastic rise in Te Reo Maori in the last 5 years from the very deliberate effort by the NZ government. My friend's NZ family spoke about how they've witnessed themselves, but especially their children start casually using Te Reo words in conversation. So by all means, it's been a hugely successful revival of a language that was at one point dying. And yet, there's a lot of mixed feelings about it. In particular, on a very personal level there was a comment I saw on reddit from a Maori person who spoke about how they weren't necessarily against the language being much more widely spoken, but also grieved the loss of immediate kinship and recognition they once had when hearing Te Reo Maori signified that they were speaking to another Maori person.

[@Axqu7227]

Buddy of mine is Cherokee and their take on it is basically summarized as “There aren’t many of our native speakers left and there are very few speakers in general. If you learn it, you help keep it alive.” I suspect it varies so much person to person, language to language, and culture to culture that there’s no real way to have a singular discussion that doesn’t leave somebody out.

[@sniffrat3646]

"To crack a book once in a while" - the phrase I never knew I needed

[@chrisbooker3349]

Thank you for this video, It was short enough to hole my attention and you spoke in an amusing manner which helped the fact. I don't leave the house so often so I don't have any funny stories to leave in the comments, nor do I want to give you money. But I'll take the 15 minutes of entertainment and keep moving on with meaninglessness. ❤

[@amydebuitleir]

I knew one man who used the phrase "shake hands with the Devil" as a euphemism for urination.

[@ocatwam5890]

I thought that was a euphemism for another thing that involves shaking...

[@ianchristian7949]

When you reach an advanced age it's called "Shaking hands with the unemployed".

[@spanishislandsquattingduck3175]

​@@ocatwam5890 that's how I'd understand it too.... Given there's no shaking during peeing (imagine how messy that would be)

[@twipameyer1210]

@@ocatwam5890 I guess OP now knows that the man was really doing at the toilet

[@mayayamato7351]

​@@ocatwam5890it is that other activity. And the other term for that but with the other set of parts I've seen people call "ringing the devil's doorbell".

[@adamdooley8977]

Just found the channel. Loved it at once. Liked and subscribed by the five minute mark. One suggestion… Phases, like “the last straw” or the “straw that broke the camel’s back” should not be used. They are offensive to turtles. (And in one case, camels.)

[@dirkmadison9126]

A lot of the time, I think these types of conversations result in the Streisand effect. I’m in my fifties and I grew up in Phoenix. When I was in my twenties, there was a controversy in Mesa (a neighboring town) because there was a place called “Spook Hill” that some community activists wanted to rename because it was offensive. In my mind, “spook” meant only 1 thing, and that was a ghost. I didn’t know about the spy denotation yet either. Now, I honestly have no idea why Spook Hill was called Spook Hill. Maybe there was a racist origin. But at the time I, along with all my friends, was surprised to find out that spook could be a racial slur. I had never heard it used that way … at least not that I realized. It was actually used in the movie Back to the Future. When Biff’s buddies toss Marty into the trunk, a band member jumps out of the car and one of Biff’s friends says “Hey, beat it spook, this don’t concern you.” I had seen that movie probably 50 times so I had heard the line, but I’d always assumed it was some kind of 50’s insult that you might say to anyone … if you lived in 1955. It never crossed my mind that it was a racial thing. So it wasn’t until I heard about the Spook Hill controversy that I even realized "spook" could be a racial slur. In other words, it was the activists whining about it all over TV and radio that taught me that particular meaning. And to be honest, I doubt I’ve heard it used that way in the 30 years since, other than an occasional watching of Back to the Future. I think we keep these kinds of things alive by obsessing over them. If you asked your average 15 year old what spook means, I’m guessing the only definition they could give you would be a ghost, and they would think of it as an archaic word at that. And the adjective “spooky” is even one step farther away from the noun, meaning eerie or creepy. Seriously, has anyone ever heard “spooky” used as a racial descriptor? So why should all English speakers stop using it in it's other contexts?

[@williamfawkes8379]

I am a person that enjoys language, and learning the origin of words. Discussions like this are always attractive and saddening to my ears. I wish that we could all take an extra moment in times like this to explore the perspective of the "offender," to see if we truly believe that they meant to offend, and if not, perhaps just quietly abide. Finally, I am struggling not to put a list of strange ways to say, "Go to the toilet," at the end.

[@kitsovereign4127]

It's pretty common for the phrase "turn into a pumpkin" to come up when I'm chatting online with European friends in different time zones. It also tends to leave them completely bewildered whenever I say it. It's happened to me with at least three different people and I never learn.

[@Axqu7227]

Oh my god, someone else who uses that phrase!! The only place I’ve ever heard it is from my grandma, and I use it because she does! Rural Midwest/ US I’m guessing?

[@egg_bun_]

This is a common phrase? Is it as common as daily?

[@intellectually_lazy]

damn! you had to call the ghostbusters on that point

[@hebozhe]

How am I supposed to talk about Max Stirner's work in English now?

[@twipameyer1210]

Fun fact: Stirner wasn't his real last name but he was bullied for his forehead (Stirn) as a kid and got that name back then

[@areit99]

I think I've heard "phantasm" used instead, though I might be confusing it with a different term.

[@SevillaLorenzo-kd2ef]

Love this channel. Makes my masters degree in linguistics feel useful. And since I’m listening to an entertaining guy with a PhD, no need to finish my thesis anymore, I quit :D

[@monolingual_beta]

In high-school, whenever me or my white friends would mention “salt and vinegar chips” one of our brown friends would sarcastically exclaim in feigned horror “omg you can’t say that, ur white!”

[@PopLadd]

Reminds me of the Bo Burnham bit where he had the audience finish his words and then offered "salt and vi...", to which the entire room unknowingly said the rest.

[@Didntwanttomakeauser]

I don't know how that's offensive. And I don't WANT to know. Because salt and vinegar is far too common a chip flavour to avoid saying.

[@zibbyg123]

⁠​⁠@@Didntwanttomakeauserprobably the "-negar" bit from vinegar, but it has been said by the original commenter that their friend was being sarcastic

[@shiser59]

"Golden era Simpsons quotes live in my head rent free" You probably would have enjoyed being a guest at our turn-of-the-century family dinners where my siblings and I _Darmok and Jalad'd_ our conversations in Simpson-reference idioglossia, much to the bafflement of everyone else present.

[@whoeverofhowevermany]

Oh no. That's giving racism more power than words. Let the words lose their racism, please.

[@choqlit]

The first time a British person asked me if I was "taking the piss" confused me so much

[@TesterAnimal1]

Did he ask you if you wanted a fag?

[@TheBadVideoMaker]

With a little tangential thinking, I am certain that we could taboo every word ever produced. At the extreme, language is akin to cultural appropriation.

[@languagejones6784]

What is language if not cultural appropriation perpetuated on a massive scale by children?

[@cogitoergosum9069]

13:27 To be fair, I've always thought the past tense of "cleave" was "clove" (with past participle "cloven")

[@carolinejames7257]

I believe both cleft and clove are considered correct, but there may be regional variation. I grew up using cleft (cleft palate, cleft chin) and cloven (cloven hoof).

[@luszczi]

I guessed that "spook" was offensive to the intelligence community. As in a slur used to describe a CIA agent or something.

[@anglaismoyen]

The British TV series Spooks (about spies obviously) was renamed to MI5 in the US, for obvious reasons.

[@flangille]

@@anglaismoyen It was renamed when shown in Canada as well (for not as obvious reasons?), but now it's back (on Amazon Prime) under the original name, "Spooks".

[@AmedeeVanGasse]

A spook is a ghost in Dutch. Ghosts are invisible. Spies are also supposed to be invisible, in a way of speaking. So it makes sense to name them after an older English word (borrowed from Dutch) for ghosts.

[@jordankay4754]

General ground rule: there’s almost *always* more to any “canceled for using the wrong words” story

[@saphna2095]

so true

[@ninjalectualx]

Not really. Usually it's just a MAGA saying slurs

[@Stevie-J]

You don't know the first thing about politics if you actually believe that. Making mountains out of molehills is the name of the game. It's absurd to believe that everyone is playing fair

[@ninjalectualx]

@stevie not really. Trump is literally a Hitler-loving fascist

[@wilhelmschmidt7240]

I've literally seen the scenario where a politician used a word in the proper way, but it rhymed with a slur so he was dragged through the mud and had to make a public apology for saying "niggardly", which is unrelated to the slur it sounds like and is a proper part of English. Nothing more to the story than easily offended and poorly educated people making a problem out of a word that rhymes with a slur.

[@drmadjdsadjadi]

Having empathy makes each of us a better huperson.

[@cultreader9751]

Please don't hug or touch me.

[@FreakinSweet1987]

No, we aren't going to stop using the word, "spooky." We're going to continue using all of these words as we always have and life will continue on as normal. There's only one type of person that gets offended by things like this, and it's the one that goes out of their way to find a reason to be. It's perfectly acceptable to offend people like that.

[@AllanTidgwell]

The dumbest example I can recall was a history teacher having us discuss naval history I was discussing sea shanties, and I was sent to the principal's office for saying FOLK music and SHIP songs because the teacher had a dirty mind and thought I was saying vulgarities

[@egg_bun_]

LMAOOOO

[@StardustAnlia]

Even though I never wrote about it in any of my public works, in my sci-fi universe, the words for races continued to evolve far into the future. For example in the late 2020s to around 2100, the politically correct term for Black people became “ earthtones”. A new band gave it associations of environmental stewardship while foundation colors anchored it to people with brown skin. When AI started to gain legal person status, AI became “ datans” for data and all races of humans were referred to as different types of soil by skin color such as “ humans” then meaning specifically anyone with skin the color of humus, “ silican” for people the color of sand, and “ claean” for people the color of red clay. By far the most offensive slur of the time was “ robot” which like now edgy internet people used often to mean unoriginal or sheep like. They also appealed to etymology despite its deep offensiveness to datans.

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

By the way, I amuse myself by looking at the beautifully diverse titles on the spines of books on your bookshelves and on your title slate.

[@languagejones6784]

I love it! There’s gonna be an entirely new bookcase in shots pretty soon

[@joe_z]

9:12 I'm bilingual in English and Chinese, and this happens to me all the time (being reminded of the n-slur due to saying "uhh" or "that"). It's _infuriating._

[@r.rodrigues9929]

I never knew that was a thing! What is the Chinese word for "uhh" and "that"?

[@joe_z]

@r.rodrigues9929 It's 那个, and you can look up the problems with it.

[@unvergebeneid]

Another word for "miserly"? What's so bad about "parsimonious"? ;p

[@vampyricon7026]

You'll confuse the philosophers

[@heneagedundas]

Why use three syllables when five will suffice.

[@beezany]

people can be really awful with stuff like that "rope" situation. one of my Native friends gets pretty upset about the use of "woo" to refer to New Age spirituality, and i think it's a perfect example of the difference between etymology and usage. that slang originates with the pop culture use of theremin noises to create an eerie atmosphere in horror & sci-fi movies. there's an unrelated use of "woo-woo" as an offensive caricature of Native tribal calls, often with a hand-to-mouth gesture. except, similar sounding things don't *stay* unrelated, and my friend has seen lots of people say "woo" in the New Age context *with the offensive hand gesture* and so now both usages bother her.

[@alexandriatempest]

At work one time a guy made sure to back up the action of another employee, who was a younger woman. He called out to her to let know that he had her back and used the term C.Y.A., which she hadn't heard before and thought that he was loudly proclaiming his intentions to molest her. It was cleared up later, but it was just a weird moment because it was such a common phrase in IT.

[@saintsalieri]

I don't follow.

[@mayayamato7351]

​@@saintsaliericya= cover your ass

[@dazartingstall6680]

@@saintsalieri C.Y.A. = cover your arse.

[@The4Headed_Dragon]

I have no idea what that means in either context.

[@egg_bun_]

And it stands for ...?

[@puppyeyeswithmaliciousintent]

Hello, I have a question. Should I use my native language or English for my flashcards? The language that I wanna learn is Portuguese. My English is intermediate, and my native language Cantonese is from another language family different from English or Portuguese. Which will be the best option for writing the definitions of a Portuguese word? I'm not sure what to do :'(

[@PhinClio]

I have never understood some people's fury about others' requesting to be called by a particular name or referred to by a particular set of pronouns...or about being asked to avoid a word that a person finds offensive. So long as such requests don't take the form of attacking people for honest mistakes made out of ignorance rather than requests regarding future speech acts (and in my personal experience, they are almost always the latter), simple human decency suggests that one ought to happily honor such requests.

[@Primalxbeast]

The pronoun thing seemed innocuous before gender ideology came along, and men started invading women's spaces.

[@Oceanwaves-d8l]

I think people just don't like change, and those reflect social changes. I also don't care, treating people as individuals is the way to go.

[@borstenpinsel]

​@@Oceanwaves-d8lpeople who complain are the same ones who call you a nickname even though you repeatedly told them to not use that name. It's got nothing to do with hating change, it's got all to do with them thinking they have the freedom to call people anything they want. They will call a young woman "darling" unsolicited they will call a Robert "bobby" just because they feel like they have to right and it's "no big deal"

[@AmbachtAle]

Growing up in the 1960’s near Fargo ND, one of my favorite shows had an intro with a Scandinavian vampire. He introduced the movie with the phrase “spooky movie” with the long O’s popular up there: Spooooky Mooovie” . Ah good fun.

[@jemiller226]

I saw a debate on Threads about whether "bullet point" should be eschewed in favor of "focus point" due to violent language despite the word "bullet" in that term has nothing to do with ammunition. There was a surprising amount of agreement, and someone who agreed added that "bloodshot" is another gun reference we should get rid of. THAT one sent me over the edge...

[@languagejones6784]

I was going to make an entirely separate video on that. The list I saw that on said we should all say “feed two birds with one scone,” which is so stupid. And also, you can feed way more birds than that

[@micheller3251]

​@@languagejones6784 you also probably shouldn't feed any bread/pastry to birds 😅

[@Batmans_Pet_Goldfish]

Im curious of your opinion on the word "validate" or "affirm" as it relates to emotions? I know it's being used to mean "acknowledge" and that people are quick to point out that it doesn't mean agreement, but given the fact that affirm is a synonym for agree, and valid means logically correct, (which usually also ends up being correct, though i do understand the nuance there,) do those words evoke the emotional weight of their other definitions? Do you think it could muddy the waters a bit when it comes to people misunderstanding someone acknowledging their feelings as agreement? I know this is partly psycholinguistic and very complex, but I'm just curious about how you feel about those usages and whether or not you think it might be harmful.

[@SidheKnight]

I heard someone say that you shouldn't use the word "idiot" because it was used as a derogatory term for people with mental disabilities like 60 years ago or so. My counterpoints? a) That word hasn't been used in that way for more than half a century, to the point that very few people remeber the original meaning, and.. b) If we're playing that game, the origins of the word "idiot" go back to Ancient Greece, when it was used to denote people who were uninterested and/or uninvolved in politics. To such a civically-minded people, indifference towards politics was a sign of utmost selfishness and/or foolishness. For what it's worth, I also believe that people who "don't care" about politics are idiots. In both the modern and Ancient Greek sense. No offense, I'm _(mostly)_ joking :P

[@snoflahke6575]

you could always tell people you work in IT and supply I dot 10T service interfacing

[@five-toedslothbear4051]

5:24 that’s not just Cab Calloway singing, and not just an animation of Cab Calloway, but those animations are rotoscope, in other words they are drawn over frames of a film of Cab Calloway

[@jm-um1tx]

I can't believe you got through the entire video without mentioning shibboleths. Most of this nonsense isn't coming from a place of hurt, it's a power trip on the part of the person who is almost always not part of the group they claim would be offended. Browbeating someone into using or not using words is a power trip.

[@JoshMaxPower]

This video was swell! I don't know why anyone would get sore over the word "spooky." If I'm feeling gay and I hear the word "spooky", it doesn't turn me into a pill or a wet blanket.

[@sarahrosen4985]

Made my day!

[@PumpkinMozie]

This is difficult. Genuinely, I would never want to use a word knowing it would hurt someone’s feelings. But it’s so hard to keep up!!!! There are so many racist words out there and bigots are creating more (and ruining perfectly good words) all the time. Like literally I had NO idea that spade could be racist until just now watching the video. How are we expected to know all this and then remember it?? I have been using the word spooky my whole life and there’s no alternative word that replaces it.

[@emilyrln]

Thanks for getting "Fugue for Tinhorns" stuck in my head 😂 _Epitaph, Valentine, Paul Revere…_ _I got the horse… right… heeeeerrreee!_ 🎵

[@amwolfmusic]

I think another thing is that some groups, as an example I show and do sports with dogs, have terminology that gets used by people outside that group. "Dog" could refer to those awesome canines we own or a male of that canine species which most people don't know but do know that "b*tch" means female dog (canine). In fact, a person who has absolutely no knowledge of the terms may be offended on behalf of the animals! I had someone get mad at ME for the AKC calling my female a "b*tch" on a public ranking list! The term was offensive to them but to me, I knew that they were labeling my female as a female. In fact the Dog/B*tch terminology is actually a bit outdated and is really only used in specific contexts in the dog world, mainly dog shows but even then a lot of places and people have moved to using male or female over that terminology. The thing is, all animals have a specific term for males and females, Toms and Queens for cats, Stallions (breeding males) or Geldings (neutered males) and Mares for adult horses, Buck and Doe for rabbits and deer, Boar or Sow in pigs and bears, and Bull (breeding male) or Steer (neutered male) and Heifer (virgin female) or Cow (given birth once) for cattle (which we all call cows!) Another interesting tidbit is that on vet paperwork a lot of places will refer to dogs as N (Neutered) or S (Spayed) for the gender of a dog that has be altered while male and female will be for dogs who are unaltered. Of course, sometimes my female is behaving exactly like the insult and she very much reminds me why we use it as an insult 😂

[@amwolfmusic]

Another thing I'd like to add is that it's kind of like culture. I'm half Mexican and grew up with Mexican culture and cuisine and to me, I already know when eating tamales to take the corn husks off and NOT eat them but to people who are not apart of that culture or do not interact with people from that culture they may try and nibble on the corn husk if no one tells them not to 😅

[@froobly]

The folksy phrase I like to bring out when the situation calls for it is "frog strangler," meaning a torrential downpour. I had no idea Werewolf Bar Mitzvah was sung by Donald Glover, but listening again I can totally hear it. I knew he wrote for the show but I never made that connection.

[@maggieb6636]

Thank you for explaining that THAT word I keep hearing in my C-Dramas means "Um". I kind of figured that out from context, but I really didn't want to ask the one person I know who speaks Chinese/Mandarin. I used to work in costumes, and we had a gentleman mishear the word "knickers" (aka breeches or short pants). He was very upset until we explained what the word actually was. And now we are more aware of the terms we use in fittings . . . just in case.

[@unvergebeneid]

Sheesh, that must make someone "uh, uh, uh..." stammering really awkward.

[@JacobRy]

I mean not if you speak Chinese? ​@@unvergebeneid

[@SmallSpoonBrigade]

I moved to the PRC years ago and that immediately stuck out. It took me a while to work out what it meant because it really doesn't quite sound like the n-word, but if you're not yet hearing the language properly it can be rather close depending on where you are in the country.

[@beresfordquimby]

My usual go-to for "Miserly" is "tight", frequentlly expressed as "tight as a gnat's chuff", though I once opined in front of an aged aunt that someone was "tight in every situation", and I later learned that she got the impression that the person was perpetually drunk...

[@battleb0ng420]

i think the word "tight" in that context usually refers to the money itself, not the person? idk its weird. i could be wrong

[@beresfordquimby]

@@battleb0ng420 So I'm speaking from a UK perspective, but yes, here indeed it can refer to lack of money (as in "money is a bit tight this month"); but also in the way I mentioned, as in parsimony. I think "tight" in that latter sense might be a contraction of "tightwad"... And yes, it is weird :) These things vary even in our tiny island. I mean, in Scotland, if you're miserly you might get called a "mingebag"!

[@ToastbackWhale]

@@battleb0ng420Money can be tight (scarce), but you can also be tight with your money (not liking to spend it). Related to being a tight-wad.

[@delsorou]

Context? Homophones? 내가 have no idea what you mean.

[@Avendesora]

I don't read hangul at all but I sure knew what you were saying there anyway lmao.

[@LauraDelColBrown]

Would you consider doing a video on the term "Gypsy"? Apologies if you've done one and I missed it

[@bgregz]

We are probably far enough removed from offensive connotations if my knee-jerk reaction to this revelation is "HUH?"

[@languagejones6784]

I travel in some ironically macho circles and I routinely get caught up because my initial reaction is either “good one” or “pause” and then “oh, you were serious? I’m sorry!” Not sure if you’ve seen it but there’s a clip of a marine receiving a medal from the president and he cracks the slightest smile when the president says “he and his buddies were getting pounded…”

[@wiiza4ever]

Thanks for making such a nuanced video.

[@davidlericain]

Dana Barrett, not Barnett. I have all of ghostbusters (just the 1st one) memorized due to growing up in the 80's with one VHS tape for the first 6 years of my life.

[@The4Headed_Dragon]

I think everyone in our generation has at least one movie they've basically memorized simply by virtue of being one of the few vhs tapes their family owned growing up.

[@BlueberryBricks]

Nothing offensive but once at a hardware store I asked the associate in the paint department if something I was buying was very caustic, and he replied somewhat confusedly with "no, it's not expensive really." I love that the human brain will just fill in as best as possible. I new immediately what he thought and why he replied the way he did, he had just never heard that word (or heard it in the proper context). So I moved on and just said, "ok, cool. So, will this burn or irritate my skin if I get it on me?" "Nope it's not gonna burn ya, or anything." And so it goes.

[@Wildspeck]

I didn’t even know realize that “spook” was a noun. I have only heard of it as a verb (to scare) or a adjetive (spooky)

[@ericab3919]

The fact that context matters is much more evident in Chinese, where the worst swear words use the same characters, and sound the same but in different contexts.

[@Daniel-bn2lm]

I'm American but the only time I've seen the word shag being used was in British slang. It was funny and confusing to hear its usage in Singlish where it means tired/exhausted.

[@willemslie]

"Man" is still used as a gender-neutral prefix and suffix in several words, including manslaughter, mankind, everyman and manhandle. In my opinion it's perfectly logical to call a female representative a spokesman or a CEO a chairman regardless of gender. I find that more in line with striving for equal opportunities than dreaming up new gender-neutral terms that just emphasise women's lack of influence in these spheres.

[@r.rodrigues9929]

So yeah, im brasillian and I was traveling in america with some friends. Back at the time the word "miga", a short form for "amiga" (the female word for friend in Portuguese) was popular here. I dont think i need to explain how that caused us some problems 😂

[@robgronotte1]

You need to explain it to me - I'm 55 years old and have lived in many different parts of the US, but I have never heard of the term "miga" at all. I can't even find a negative meaning for it with google.

[@r.rodrigues9929]

@robgronotte1 oh, it's because it really really sounds like the n word 😅

[@r.rodrigues9929]

@robgronotte1 it's because it really really sounds like the n word 😅