OMG

[Dead Cat]

Hmm...how about this:
"You are more boring than the driest part of Moby Dick."

[Laser Jock]

It wasn't personally offensive, but I still contend that it is a word with primarily offensive usage, especially in an American context. I don't deny there are words with innocuous meanings (as you supplied), but the dictionaries I've consulted list the vulgar use as primary (and as a majority of possible meanings) in this case. I think the main definition of the word carries most weight, and in this case, that's not a very nice word.

To other people, that is. I only very rarely care about the cussin'.

Edit: PS- those words with alternate meanings usually have a clear contextual basis to interpret the meaning (you demonstrated these uses clearly). In this case, where both are insults, it's hard to argue which one was meant. Thus, problems.

Okay, this makes sense to me. Thanks! I still don't find it personally offensive (unlike most words people use to swear), but I think you've made a strong case that (a) this one has a broad potential to be offensive, and (b) there's no good way to tell, from context, which sense is meant.

[Waldorf and Sauron]

You're a bloody murderer!

You're as ugly as your dog, which is a bitch.

I have more, but I don't want to get into TOO much trouble...

[thebigcheese]

You're as stubborn as an ass!

[NerdGirl]

You're as dishonest as Dick Nixon!

[Gimgimno]

I really wanted to submit a post that just had a random cuss word in it with no alternate "appropriate" meaning, but...it just didn't seem right.

But I really wanted to. Self-control won out.

[Marduk]

I hate to be a stickler, but none of these have the possible vulgarity as the active insult. I still maintain that if it is vulgar, and is used as an insult, it IS being used in its vulgar context.

[Tao]

dork.

dink.

ass.

Any vulgarity that the treadmill has taken down to a less-impactful word could fill your description as twat did.

[Marduk]

Just looked up dork and dink, and neither had definitions anywhere in the dictionary that refer to genitalia (I'm aware that that is supposedly the etymology of dork, but it has fallen SO much out of usage that it is no longer even considered.)

And I find calling someone an ass to still be swearing.

Try again.

[Tao]

That's what I'm getting at. You consider or not, just as some felt that twat is swearing and some not. When a word falls far enough down the treadmill, you are going to get a range of people who apply different eras of meaning. Example A) C is for's mother. As for ass, or arse, it is so common in Britian, I'd say that there are many who don't even connect anatomy to the phrase.

If you are looking for others to find that balance within yourself you will be waiting a long time.

[Marduk]

It doesn't really matter, as swearing doesn't bother me. But of course swearing is specific to the time and place it is done. You'd be hard pressed to show that for THIS place and THIS time that calling someone an ass doesn't count as swearing to almost everyone. That's what I'M getting at. It really doesn't matter the language specifics of Britain, as we are not in Britain. We must always speak to our specific audience, and in an audience where they generally believe a particular word to be a vulgarity, it is vulgar, whether the intent of the speaker was vulgar or not.

[ahem.]

This is a little bit random, but once upon a time at a Board party, we were playing My Uncle Mufasa which goes as follows: you pick a well known film and then tell the story as if the plot actually happened to you; and other players try to pick up on what movie you are describing and as time goes on, they kind of help you make it more obvious until everyone realizes what movie you are describing. Does that make sense? Anyway.

So someone (I think it was actually Katya... the first and only time I met her) was telling the story of Batman & Robin form the POV of Robin. I picked up on it much earlier than most, and was trying to come up with subtle clues I could give to help others figure it out. The best I could come up with was telling Katya she seemed like "kind of a Dick."

To those who knew she was "being" Dick Grayson, it was not vulgar... just a little bit tongue-in-cheek. But since very few people were in the know at that point, it kind of seemed like I was being unnecessarily vulgar and insulting.

The end.

[Whistler]

Speaking of British swears, I wonder if they find <i>Ender's Game</i> terribly offensive.

[krebscout]

Speaking of British swears, I wonder if they find <i>Ender's Game</i> terribly offensive.

In the screenplay they changed it to "formics."

[Dragon Lady]

This thread continues to make me feel very, very ignorant. And I think that's probably a good thing?

[Whistler]

It's useful for you to know: "bugger" is a bad word in British English.

[Dragon Lady]

It's useful for you to know: "bugger" is a bad word in British English.

Apparently in Canada, too. Once upon a time my brother married a Canadian. We were up in Canada for the wedding. During the luncheon, my dad gave a speech. In there he lovingly called my brother, "That little bugger." You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was staring at my dad like they couldn't believe that came out of his mouth. And then her dad started laughing and explained that that is a very, very bad word around those parts.

It's now a family favorite story. The day my dad said a very very bad word at an LDS wedding. It ranks right up there with the day that he drank vodka and didn't know it until decades later.

[Gimgimno]

I hope my dad calls me "that little sodomite" at my reception if I ever get married.

[Katya]

It's useful for you to know: "bugger" is a bad word in British English.

Apparently in Canada, too. Once upon a time my brother married a Canadian. We were up in Canada for the wedding. During the luncheon, my dad gave a speech. In there he lovingly called my brother, "That little bugger." You could have heard a pin drop. Everyone was staring at my dad like they couldn't believe that came out of his mouth. And then her dad started laughing and explained that that is a very, very bad word around those parts.

It's now a family favorite story. The day my dad said a very very bad word at an LDS wedding. It ranks right up there with the day that he drank vodka and didn't know it until decades later.

A friend of mine is Swedish and married a Norwegian girl. (Or maybe she was Danish. Or maybe he was. Anyway, they were both speakers of two Scandinavian languages which are generally considered close enough to be mutually intelligible dialects of each other.) They day they got married, he referred to her, while in the temple, as a "cute girl." Only, it turns out that, in her language, that word means "whore," and her family was somewhat shocked. Oops!

[Waldorf and Sauron]

We had a High Council speaker in church months ago whose family came to see him speak, and he referred to his wife and daughters as his "call girls." Turns out their last name is Call, but it was still pretty awkward.