bad language

At least this isn't one of those sites where posts are censored before they're displayed - years ago I was one one where you couldn't even refer to chicken breasts without 'br**sts' being substituted.

I remember that thread well bags

Very early on in GN history there was a robust thread about the euphemistically called four-letter words (something tells me I've got that wrong and it's not a euphemism; never mind). I remain in touch (not on GN) with one of the people who objected the most strongly to strong language even though I argued like blazes against him at the time. So clearly our difference of attitude towards the use of certain words didn't make a jot of difference. [warmgransnetglow emoticon]

Well I thought it bloomin' was tegan

I'm relieved that bloody's OK...I think that's the only semi-swear word I've used on here.

A few posts up/down.... that should be irritation, not irritating. I guess people guessed.

Yes, it bloody was, tegan!

That said, I'd also get irritated if people cluttered their speech with unnecessary words. But that applies to things like "like" and "you know" as much as the f word.

Thought it was bloomin' appropriate at the time glass ....

It is not offensive to say FFS out of irritating at silliness.

Me too (don't really swear and wouldn't on here).

In the office where I work many of the women eff and blind from morning till night, but the men don't! QI.

Also, I'm fascinated to learn that the eff word "... at one time it was the standard word for the activity it described, used by everyone from royalty to nuns to ploughmen". I never knew that, and I grumble when they use it in the historical dramas on telly, saying 'People didn't speak like that back then'. But, come to think of it, it is still used incorrectly in those dramas then, because it is often used in the 'modern' sense rather than as described above.

I agree with you harri I mostly find it jarring.

Stop apologising when people TAKE offence at some silly little thing that they ought to be able to cope with!

jings, I enjoyed those comments you made earlier. You were bang on target. Keep up the good work.

It doesn't happen enough to make it an issue, surely?

I must admit to using FFS the day I found out Crimson had left I dont usually but I felt it was all that was left to say about the whole situation.... so my apologies if I offended anyone.

It's not really an issue on Gransnet is it? Mumsnet, on the other hand, is a different kettle of f***.

If you might be referring to: " j07 Tue 22-Jan-13 19:23:29

Stop bloody insulting me!

Totally fucked off now.

You are a LOAD OF STUFFED SHIRTS "

on re-reading it, I think it was a great post!

Sometimes, a good ole swearing blast is just what's needed to release tension. Read an article recently that maintained people who express their anger (shouting, swearing, but no untoward violence against others) are healthier than people who don't, or at least healthier than people who bottle things up rather than having a good ole shout.

Yes tegan me too - on both counts.

I'm afraid I swear like a trooper but I wouldn't swear on here apart from the occasional bloomin' [which Father Christmas says in the Raymond Briggs books so I sort of assume thats' ok].

It has been made so by being used as a swearword - in the middle ages it just meant copulate.

I think the "f" word is highly malevolent .

I once used the word in a post which was explaining its history, and how at one time it was the standard word for the activity it described, used by everyone from royalty to nuns to ploughmen.

Some people were offended by that, so my attempt to de-demonise the word when used seriously and not as a curse did not succeed.

Yes I have noticed and I do know who it was. I have never used THE rude word ever in any conversation with anyone but I have noticed DS use it and it makes me cringe. I know a lot of women who use it out of exasperation and to stress a point but I really do not think it is necessary, the dictionary is full of other words.

I have only seen the abbreviated version and then it has been used to express exasperation, which is fine with me, as long as it's not personally directed at a particular poster.