British swear words ranked

[mango_fandango]

This may be of interest to American FJers too.

Apparently "ginger" is on a par with "arse", "bugger" and "Jesus Christ". As a proud redhead this makes me sad. I hear Americans aren't so weird/rude to redheads as Brits are. 

https://www.indy100.com/article/british-swear-words-ranked-ofcom-7340446

[Grimalkin]

      My husband is Brittish so I am pretty familiar with most those.

     I honestly am baffled at how Brittish people view red heads. It makes no sense to me.

[HarryPotterFan]

Maybe the hatred of red heads stems from hatred of clowns, who often have bright red hair? At least that's what my dad says 

[catlady]

Apparently it goes/went into continental Europe too.  I used to work with a woman who was born in Germany in the late 1930s (not sure what region; her family moved to the US after WWII).  Shortly after she was born with very red hair, one of her mother's friends looked at her and said something like, "Oh, red hair.  Well, at least she's healthy."

[EmainMacha]

It doesn't include 'cockwomble' which is my new favourite insult.

I don't get the red head thing either and I live here. I thought the weird anti redhead thing was the same in North America.  But that's what I get for basing my knowledge of an entire nation on a couple of South Park episodes.

[HarryPotterFan]

6 hours ago, EmainMacha said:

It doesn't include 'cockwomble' which is my new favourite insult.

I don't get the red head thing either and I live here. I thought the weird anti redhead thing was the same in North America.  But that's what I get for basing my knowledge of an entire nation on a couple of South Park episodes.

There is some anti redhead stuff here, I haven't met many people who are serious when they say things like, "Ron Weasley doesn't have to worry about dementia because red heads have no souls!" 

[47of74]

Citizens of the United Kingdom have quite the ability to come up with insults, as they proved when that Useless Orange Jizztrumpet got stupid over there after Brexit.

http://www.dailydot.com/layer8/brexit-trump-scotland-golf-twitter-insult/

 

 

 

[PennySycamore]

@47of74,  I've seen "tiny-fingered, Cheetos-Faced, ferret-wearing shit gibbon" used on Daily Kos.  According to Grayson Carter, the editor of Vanity Fair, tiny-fingered dates at least from the 80s when he was editor of SPY magazine.  I love the "incompressible jizztrumpet" one too though.

ETA:  Patty Stanger on the show Millionaire Matchmaker  would not select gingers as potential dates for the millionaires even if they liked redheads.  Somebody ought to tell Grace Coddington  and Karen Elson they just aren't sexy.  Grace is still has glorious red hair at 70.

[FundieFarmer]

That list is really interesting...I have to admit to being a VERY prolific swear-er in certain situations (I've tried to stop many times, I promise, but I suppose old habits die hard and what can you do and all that, I don't drink much or smoke so I guess I'll let it be my vice?) and I think it's fascinating how some of these are so bad there that are hardly a thing here. Like dildo and skank.

[LadyCrow1313]

17 hours ago, catlady said:

Apparently it goes/went into continental Europe too.  I used to work with a woman who was born in Germany in the late 1930s (not sure what region; her family moved to the US after WWII).  Shortly after she was born with very red hair, one of her mother's friends looked at her and said something like, "Oh, red hair.  Well, at least she's healthy."

There's a saying that I've heard (not sure where it came from, to be honest): better dead than red in the head. Makes no sense to me; I love red hair & wish I was born with it.

Maybe it came from the Cold War?  :: shrugs ::

On a humorous note, there's a pic I've seen online of a red-haired man with loaves hanging from his shirt. He's wearing a sign that reads "Gingerbread Man"; I thought that was quite clever.

[LadyCrow1313]

Back in the day, I became obsessed w/The Monkees (during their revival in the 80's). One of their songs was "Randy scouse git" (translated from British slang into American slang: horny Liverpudlian scum).

I always love learning/reading swear words from other countries. I think it's fun. 

[Loveday]

3 minutes ago, LadyCrow1313 said:

Back in the day, I became obsessed w/The Monkees (during their revival in the 80's). One of their songs was "Randy scouse git" (translated from British slang into American slang: horny Liverpudlian scum).

I always love learning/reading swear words from other countries. I think it's fun. 

I was a huge Monkees fan in their original heyday, and I still have the album somewhere with that song on it. I have to say that until this very moment--thank you!  -- I had no idea what the name meant. Of course, I was only about ten at the time, so 'randy' would have gone right over my head even if I had known what a 'scouse' or a 'git' was back then. 

[smittykins]

From what I remember, Micky Dolenz heard the phrase on the U.K. TV show Til Death Do Us Part(which inspired All in the Family ), thought it sounded cool, and wrote the song, without having any idea what it meant.  When the song was released in England, it was given the alternate title...wait for it..."Alternate Title."

[Cleopatra7]

Can someone explain why "bloody" is considered a swear word? That's something I've never understood.

[Chocolatedefrauded]

I never heard about ginger hate in the U.K. until maybe 2 years ago. I don't think we hate redheads in the USA. More likely we're jealous. I was a redhead until 4 or 5 & wish my color never changed. Of course as the 5th kid in the family, there is only 2 photos of me as a small child, unless you count the group ones where I'm wrapped so tightly in a blanket that only my nose is visible. 

 

 

[PennySycamore]

@LadyCrow1313,  "Better dead than Red" dates at least from the Cold War.  Red, of course, means Communist. Has nothing to do with hair color at all.

[RosyDaisy]

Sorry, but throwing golf balls with swastikas on them is offensive. Even if they are being thrown at Trump.

[paganbaby]

9 hours ago, Cleopatra7 said:

Can someone explain why "bloody" is considered a swear word? That's something I've never understood.

I believe it's an abbreviation of "God's Blood," so it started out as blasphemy.

ETA: So I Googled a bit, and another possible source for the term is a deliberate mispronunciation of, "By Our Lady," the way people say "Jeez" instead of "Jesus."  Either way, it would have had a nasty connotation back in the day when blasphemous terms were the most shocking curses. In our more secular culture, the taboo terms are mostly centered around sexuality.

[paganbaby]

Re: Gingers

I remember being surprised when I encountered the phrase "red-headed stepchild" in a novel to mean a kid no one cared for or wanted. My sister had gorgeous red hair I have always envied. She was always being complemented on it.

Perhaps the prejudice was because red hair is associated with being Irish? Of course, my mother is half Irish, and most of the kids in my Catholic milieu also had Irish heritage, so we saw it as a matter of pride. The days of anti-Irish sentiment in the US were pretty much over by the time I was born. It was the Polish Americans who were taking all the heat--something that also seems to have run its course. 

On the other hand, the red hair in my family comes down from the German side as much as the Irish, so maybe nationality has nothing to do with it.

[WhatWouldJohnCrichtonDo?]

My experience as a middle aged red head is that dislike of gingers in my part of the USA has mostly faded. My kids don't seem to be experiencing any deep longings to switch to blonde hair, anyway. 

Back in my childhood in the 1970s, red hair got some compliments from older ladies, but all the rest of the culture considered us pretty undesirable. Red hair was a distant 4th place behind blonde, brunette, and black hair. For example, there was never a Charlie's Angel with red hair.  (In retrospect, maybe that wasn't such a bad thing.)

ETA Our red hair is mostly from our German and Scottish ancestry.

[LadyCrow1313]

12 hours ago, PennySycamore said:

@LadyCrow1313,  "Better dead than Red" dates at least from the Cold War.  Red, of course, means Communist. Has nothing to do with hair color at all.

Thank you for the clarification, @PennySycamore. I appreciate it.

[Playagirl]

On Tuesday, October 04, 2016 at 1:07 AM, paganbaby said:

I believe it's an abbreviation of "God's Blood," so it started out as blasphemy.

ETA: So I Googled a bit, and another possible source for the term is a deliberate mispronunciation of, "By Our Lady," the way people say "Jeez" instead of "Jesus."  Either way, it would have had a nasty connotation back in the day when blasphemous terms were the most shocking curses. In our more secular culture, the taboo terms are mostly centered around sexuality.

I really find it interesting to see the differences in what is considered swearing between cultures. In French Canadian culture,  all the really bad swear words are related to the church. I still find it weird that the French words for host, chalice and sacrament are used as very offensive swear words around here. To me they're just church words. And I didn't understand half of the words on that British list, though I do say bloody pretty-much every bloody day.

[alba]

On 04/10/2016 at 6:19 AM, paganbaby said:

Re: Gingers

I remember being surprised when I encountered the phrase "red-headed stepchild" in a novel to mean a kid no one cared for or wanted. My sister had gorgeous red hair I have always envied. She was always being complemented on it.

Perhaps the prejudice was because red hair is associated with being Irish? Of course, my mother is half Irish, and most of the kids in my Catholic milieu also had Irish heritage, so we saw it as a matter of pride. The days of anti-Irish sentiment in the US were pretty much over by the time I was born. It was the Polish Americans who were taking all the heat--something that also seems to have run its course. 

On the other hand, the red hair in my family comes down from the German side as much as the Irish, so maybe nationality has nothing to do with it.

That and Scottish, I think. Neither group was well-liked in England historically, which would explain why gingerism is more of an issue in the UK than the US.

MIL was disappointed when Mr Alba was born because he had red hair. I'm not sure what she expected, considering she's of Irish descent and she married a Scottish redhead, but sadly it all fell out and grew back in blonde within days of his birth.

[HarleyQuinn]

What, Chode isn't on there? (I don't know if it's technically British but Brit TV was the first place I heard it)