On 8 Jun 2013, at 19:49, John Francis <[email protected]> wrote: > On Sat, Jun 08, 2013 at 06:39:32PM +0100, Bob W wrote: >> On 8 Jun 2013, at 17:50, Larry Colen <[email protected]> wrote: >> >>> On Sat, Jun 08, 2013 at 11:06:41AM -0400, [email protected] wrote: >>>> I object to the use of twat as a pejorative. Or, at least, in mixed >>>> company. >>> >>> Yeah, don't be a dick. >> >> Twat is a very mild word in British English, one that I would readily use in >> the presence of my mother when she was alive. > > That depends, to a very great extent, on just where you grew up. > > In the part of Kent where I got the majority of my education on > epithets, twat was, perhaps, not quite as strong an obscenity as > the other four-letter word for the same anatomical feature, but > it was close. I probably wouldn't use it myself at any time > (and emphatically would never have done so in front of my mother). > > Mind you, that was some years ago. In those days, obscenities > were seldom heard, and even less frequently seen written down > (at least not until 1960, when Penguin Books tested the waters). > > My wife, though, (a Nottingham girl) regards it much as you do.
D H Lawrence was a Nottinghamshire lad, me duck. Perhaps it's a north/south thing. I grew up mostly abroad, but my parents were both from Northern families and my boarding school was in Derbyshire, not far at all from Nottingham. It wasn't until I was well into my adult years that I learned that for some people (i thought only Americans) it had an anatomical meaning. B -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
