On Thu, 22 Mar 2007, Allen Esterson went:
Nowadays neither "tosser" nor "wanker" is, strictly speaking, "a term of abuse for a masturbator", as the words have taken on a life of their own. As you can imagine it is incredibly difficult to catch the precise tone for someone who is not used to hearing (reading) the words in context. The nearest I can get to one common use of the words is that they describe someone whose opinion is really not worth having (something like that). Or someone whose behaviour is socially pitiful (in a non-tragic sense).
The American term "jerkoff" seems to have made a similar journey, though I think it connotes a more hostile individual than one who would be called a "tosser" or a "wanker" in the UK. There's a really bad dissertation project somewhere in all this. :) --David Epstein [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- To make changes to your subscription go to: http://acsun.frostburg.edu/cgi-bin/lyris.pl?enter=tips&text_mode=0&lang=english
