My first post for Strong Language (“a sweary blog about swearing”) is up today. It’s not exactly about swearing per se but rather about the use of a vulgar idiom, a pot to piss in, in the headline of an ad for antique silver that appeared in the New Yorker earlier this month. I also do a quick survey of other piss idioms, a surprising number of which emerged in the 20th century. And I finish with a couple of brand names that incorporate piss, which was one of George Carlin’s famous “seven words you can’t say on television.”
Check out the post—and while you’re there, spend some time with my distinguished partners in profanity: Ben Zimmer on colorful fuck idioms found in the Dictionary of Regional English; James Harbeck on the the in “what the fuck”; Stephen Chrisomalis on “how many swears can we give?”; Mister Slang (Jonathon Green) on some wonderful 18th-century vulgarisms (you’ll never think of nonsense in the same way again); and much more.
I love the show Firefly for its clever dialogue. I'm not a fan of gratuitous cursing, but I am a big fan of a well-turned phrase. One of the things the show's writers do best is the swearing.
Posted by: janelle | December 28, 2014 at 07:43 PM