words that make you grit your teeth

[teigyr]

I should know not to involve myself in this Sometimes I'm not that bright.

I feel word usage is all about intent. Words are just words, they are meaningless on their own. My god isn't anybody else's god and it is a generic word (to me) for whatever spiritualism somebody believes in. If god holds the speaker accountable, wouldn't be up to the speaker to justify themselves if or when it comes time to?

The way I see it all is this. I *am* a Very White Girl. I make fun of that. I'm piebald (ok, freckled) and get THE silliest tan lines ever. Sometimes I'm a "typical female" in a stereotypical way and it's hilarious. I'm tall and yeah, people tend to feel the need to comment on it sometimes. People can say what they're going to say. It doesn't affect me because I know what I believe in and I know who I am as a person. It's kind of scary to think that no matter what you say, you might offend someone. It is never my intend to offend (rarely, that is) but I am who I am and if I am comfortable with someone and it's appropriate (ie non work situation or not with my parents), I WILL be somewhat colorful. I grew up Episcopalian and can never recall being told what I can say or can't say. I like that.

There are plenty of things that set me on edge and I almost started listing them. Then I realized that some of the main offenders are people I actually like and if we were all the same, society would be pretty boring. Nobody I think highly of intends to offend any one group and I think we are entitled to say things without judgment. I'm not a big fan of censorship. I think sometimes the use of a particular word (or group of words) can mean a lack of vocabulary but should we fault the person because of that? I mean beyond the fact that maybe they need a thesaurus?

I can never keep up with what's PC or what isn't and sometimes things change from one to the other and back again. I suppose I could go through it all and pare down words that I use and swap some to other words but that seems like an awful amount of work and I prefer my friends to just be who they are and I'd like to think they feel the same about me.

[SadieKate]

Nicely said.

[Geonz]

(snip)
I can never keep up with what's PC or what isn't and sometimes things change from one to the other and back again. I suppose I could go through it all and pare down words that I use and swap some to other words but that seems like an awful amount of work and I prefer my friends to just be who they are and I'd like to think they feel the same about me.

My junior high kiddos would play the "but I was just kidding" when they'd tease and try to get reactions from people. They'd use the "it's what it means to me" argument.
I would ask them how they felt when somebody called them ignorant. At least in that part of the planet, "Ignorant" was used for stupid, ugly and otherwise unpopular. Then I'd show 'em the dictionary definition and ask if they thought it was okay for me to call them ignorant, since "all it means" is you don't know about something.
They actually kinda sorta "got it" - that words from the giver can hurt even if it's not intended (and some of 'em that if you offered Miss Geonz your 'reasons,' she would bore you to *death* with her explanations, so don't bother...)

I *am* bothered at the sensory and intellectual when words are mispronounced ('expresso') in ways that mangle their meaning. If I wanted to start a flame war on educational discussions, I'd say "It's that whole language attitude" and get on my phonemic awareness soap box

[Crankin]

Please don't start that battle...

I also had several kids who would stop when we were doing any kind of read aloud and they came to a "bad word." Since the YA lit I chose rarely had anything worse than h*ll or da*n, I had to tell them it was really OK with me to say those words. And these were kids who would think nothing of saying the f word or others when not around an adult. I mean, I was happy that they sort of knew about the "context" of swearing, but it seemed to really make them fearful to say those words in front of me.

[NoNo]

Outside the South, I don't want to hear the "word" y'all. Especially if you're addressing a single person. Just bugs me.

"Clicks" when refering to kilometers. I think that was due to overuse on a trip to Canada I took a few years back.

I know there are more, they escape me at the moment...

[OakLeaf]

"Clicks" when refering to kilometers.

I hate that word too, but not as much as I hate using four syllables every time I'm trying to say how far away something is (outside the USA). I've started just saying "K," but I'm pretty sure that's non-standard and no one but DH would understand it automatically without having to think about it.

[SouthernBelle]

Y'all should never be addressed to a single person. It's plural.

[emily_in_nc]

Y'all should never be addressed to a single person. It's plural.

Exactly...