Is this counted as a swear word?

In the mid 1970s I remember being told off by a college lecturer for using the word knackered. I was completely shocked as I had never imagined that the word could be construed as being rude or swearing. Even now, more than 40 years later, I have never come across anybody else who does either.

I admit, freely, that my language is not the best, and B isn't even on my radar!

This reminds me of when my daughter , then aged about 12 was at a ''junior disco'' as they were then called. I went along about 10 minutes before the end to pick her and 2 friends up. They were doing the ''Birdie Song'', an on cue they all joined in shouting at ''and shake your arse''.
I was actually quite shocked as we'd never used that term in front of kids at home.
That was about 30 years ago so probably that word is in very common use among kids now, though probably not in front of their parents! So yes, bum not really a bad word to use in comparison.

Like Swanny, I was brought up with bottom, tummy & rude noises - my 3 year old grandson talks of bums, bellies, farts & poos with great aplomb! I have no problem at all with this & have easily converted to the word bum! I can't see what the problem is!

Ah dorsetpennt please watch any of the Minions films or short clips on YouTube. What the Minions say when they hear the word "bottom" had my 2 and a half year old in hysterics and just the right timing to complete potty training!

Perhaps we could all go posh and refer to it as our posterior! IMO absolutely nothing wrong with bum. What nonsense, amazing what gets us riled. Love the fart/Trump link!! How apt.

Whichever word it is you can be sure a table of small boys and girls will find them all hilarious.

I like bum ....and arse : very English !! What I really hate is American words creeping in . If anyone says " ass " I cringe .

My children said bum, I do not consider it a swear word.

My sister and I were brought up to say bottom - bum was used by those who didn't know better, according to our mother. Similarly it was always tummy or stomach, never belly; farts were 'rude noises' and poos were 'jutys' (presumably that came from doing your 'duty' each day ). The majority of children at our primary school came from farming families and used more basic language such as piss, shit, fart, fanny and arse. None of these were considered by others as swear words but I often had my mouth washed out with soap for saying something that was considered cheeky, rude or blasphemous

I wouldn't call bum swearing but my mother would definitely have considered it Common, on a par with lav in her mind.

Bluebell - I think there's another thread on here about different names for a female 'front bottom'. The polite ones.

Well described Jane10 our little DGS refuses to go swimming if the aqua isle lady is there because she's too 'shouty' !!

Must be what they all do!

Phew! I'm glad on your account. Our instructress is a bossy shouty besom.

No Jane and she's only 4!

Lona is your dgd an aquafit instructress?!

'Bum' I think of as a child's word we would always use bum When the kids were little we used to call the female front bit ' a minny' one day when my young grand daughter had on some new Minnie Mouse pants with a picture of Minnie on the bum bit my young grandson said ' Mum she's got her pants on back to front '

My dgd has always called it her bumbum.

Teaching in an awful school, I reached the end of my tether and told a child to 'shut up'. 'Oh Miss,' she said, 'you swore at me. I'll tell my mum of you.' The joke was that when mum came to parents' evening we had a pleasant conversation about how difficult her daughter was. 'Shut up' may be rude, but by no stretch of imagination is it swearing.

I don't think my parents were averse to using 'bum', though arse would be a step too far. My GS, now 12, made a rule that if he heard an adult using a naughty word, he should be allowed to repeat it. This did deter his parents from saying forbidden words in his hearing! However, I was not aware of this 'rule' and referred to something as a 'cock-up' at which he delightedly repeated, 'cock', 'cock', 'cock'.....ad nauseam. I think this 'rule' is now in abeyance.

Our Aquafit instructress always refers to our 'bumbums' as though repetition makes it somehow different and better! The class of mostly older ladies are as mystified as I am at her use of this word.

bum, buttocks, behind, rear, seat, rump, backside

are all perfectly acceptable and respectable words for the same part of our anatomy.

Calling someone a "bum" when you mean tramp, vagrant, dosser, no-good, hobo, vagabond could be regarded as rude, though not swearing.

But calling one's bum a bum is not rude or swearing or even slang.

Teetime -
When I was having my hip replacement I was given a pre-op injection, off to the op. theatre when I realised I needed to "go". I asked the nurse and he said avez-vous pété? I just said yes, so he said OK.

Have I moved, unknowingly, into a parallel universe? Grown women discussing whether it's ok to use the word bum. Words fail me, well they don't actually, but I wouldn't want to offend 'some' delicate little ears.

The French use DH's name for schh you know what Trcia F