"Bill Baxter" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]... > > Unless of course you use those same words to express your dismay at > today's lunch options. Then you've robbed those words of any special > emphasis they might have been able to provide. >
Not necessarily. Just like the "normal everyday words that can be used maliciously", the difference is all in the delivery. I could say "Oh, fuck, broccoli again" in a way that suggests "I despise you, let's fight!" (loud, gruff and annunciated with a sneer or a big frown and glaring at the chef or server), or I could say it in a perfectly benign manner (subdued, prepended with a chuckle or soft laugh-like snort or a "heh", and glancing over to, nudging, and smiling at a tired-of-broccoli friend standing nearby). That latter still leaves plenty of room for "fuck" to be used coarsely, in just the same way that "Did you see that thing on TV last night?" leaves plenty of room for "that" to be used coarsely (as in my earlier example of telling an insecure acne-victim "I'm surprised you're willing to come out looking like THAT!")
