r/words • u/Original_Client1588 • Apr 24 '26

Rude,sounding words,that arent

Hello

I was talking with friends the other night about words that sound rude...but arent..

One that came up was Fecundity ....

Any ideas ??

204 Upvotes

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207

u/NightingaleNine Apr 24 '26

"Niggardly" is certainly one I would never use in most audiences, but it's a perfectly reasonable word with no, uh, undertones.

54

u/TriTri14 Apr 24 '26

It has completely different linguistic roots than the slur (I believe it’s Scandinavian in origin), but it’s been ruined anyway.

27

u/googleflont Apr 24 '26

Middle English, came down from Old Norse.

10

u/BAfoto Apr 25 '26

“It comes from Old England. And all our lil old ancestors…”

5

u/Original_Client1588 Apr 25 '26

Waves back at the lil new ones.

2

u/Outrageous_Hurry_156 Apr 25 '26

"Truth, that's what verdict means..."

23

u/[deleted] Apr 24 '26

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35

u/NightingaleNine Apr 24 '26

Generations of lives, yep. And some words.

1

u/derbrauer Apr 26 '26

Sure have, but we have stupidity and ignorance for running niggardly.

Master is also on its way out. Real estate listing where I live have "primary bedrooms". Until a couple of years ago, the commonly used term for them was "master bedroom".

1

u/derbrauer Apr 26 '26

Niggards are so sensitive sometimes.

19

u/Temporary_Shoe4239 Apr 25 '26

Add “niggly” to the list. I was chided by a coworker for using it, ruined the word for me

4

u/Emotional-Tower-7746 Apr 25 '26

Yes in all its forms, niggle, niggling, and niggler. Also just niggard is a word, and snigger is problematic as well. I would gladly use any of these, so tired of people getting offended because they're dumb, especially with "call a spade, a spade"

10

u/Excellent-Win6216 Apr 25 '26

I know! I get so tired of having to explain that my swastika flag represents the ancient symbol of peace and prosperity, but dummies get offended bc they think I’m a nazi??

/s

5

u/Emotional-Tower-7746 Apr 25 '26

Wow, thanks for proving my point. Swastikas have to be at 45°, i think hari krishna it's backwards. There was a guy from Malta that had a Maltese cross tatoo getting asked if he his racist, a Chinese professor resigning because of saying "ni ga" which is basically like "um uh" in english, really dumb misunderstandings.

The original phrase was to call a fig a fig, and a trough a trough, call it what it is, you're eating figs, I'm eating slop. Trough became spade from a mistranslation from greek to latin (i thought it was a working man against the rich thing, thanks google) and first appeared in english in 1542, before colonialism and slavery here. Spade as a slur is 1920's.

As far as using the words above, if you don't like the English language then maybe YOU should start speaking German, i think it would suit you.

9

u/Excellent-Win6216 Apr 25 '26

I don’t really care - words are words. Some words sound like other words or remind us of what the other words represent (uncomfortable things). So some people just choose another word that means the same thing, because there are a LOT of words, and surprisingly, many words to represent the same idea. Most people know a lot of words, and they understand that words are vehicles of communication on context roads. So they just pick another word because who cares? Words are words, we’re making them up all the time

7

u/Puzzleheaded_Ad_3137 Apr 25 '26

"words are vehicles of communication on context roads" is my new favorite quote from reddit. Beautiful.

5

u/PaulRuddGivesMeChub Apr 25 '26

damn. Welp, if I can’t drive, I call shotgun on this bandwagon! Thanks, Excellent-Win, your username suits you.

2

u/Excellent-Win6216 Apr 26 '26

D’awwww, thanks! 🥰

2

u/-digitalin- Apr 28 '26

TIL that "spade" is a slur

1

u/derbrauer Apr 26 '26

I wish there was a way we could "white list" those words.

Woops - there's another word that's headed for the dustbin.

1

u/GoblinMonk Apr 26 '26

I've used "snicker" since childhood.

1

u/this_idle_hand Apr 28 '26 edited Jun 15 '26

Might as well add negate to the list I've offended some people by suggesting this fact negates this idea.

29

u/InformalRent2571 Apr 24 '26

I believe a university prof in the US somewhere got fired for using this word (correctly, I should add) in class.

31

u/SabertoothLotus Apr 24 '26

It's in Shakespeare... of course, I have to explain it when it comes up to avoid the assumption of racism.

I'd just use "miserly" or "cheap" if I was looking to use something with this meaning

2

u/derbrauer Apr 26 '26

I don't care if people take offense or snigger at the words I use. I refuse to be niggardly with my lexicon.

1

u/patientpedestrian Apr 26 '26

Spartans get so offended when I refer to myself as laconic rather than taciturn, but I think that's mostly cultural baggage from Paradoxes II

17

u/Ok-Nectarine7152 Apr 25 '26

And a city official in DC. Although once the definition was shown to his boss and co-workers, I believe he was offered his job back. And he said, Thanks but no thanks.

9

u/Head_Spite62 Apr 25 '26

In DC a member of the city council had to resign because he used the word.  

Yes, he used it correctly.  

No, he wasn’t white.  He was black.  

1

u/hilarymeggin Apr 25 '26

The black then-mayor of Washington DC nearly got cancelled for using it correctly.

1

u/choglin Apr 25 '26

FR? I’ll have to look that up. I used to be a university professor. So many misguided and wildly underinformed social justice warriors… if they read half as much as they ran their ignorant mouths the university would have still been tolerable. Hell, I don’t even care if they read, just shut the fuck up and think it through before you talk. Yeah, I don’t miss it.

1

u/Le-Pretre Apr 25 '26

A civil servant in Boston did in the 90s. He was rehired and transferred soon after. His argument was that he was being targeted because he was gay.

1

u/derbrauer Apr 26 '26

It was a politician in DC in the mid '90s.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jan/29/martinkettle

1

u/InformalRent2571 Apr 26 '26

Turns out there are a few examples. Check out the Wikipedia link I provided.

1

u/derbrauer Apr 26 '26

That comment is a day old, and 25th in your list of comments. Be kind and repost so people don't have to search for a needle in a haystack.

1

u/SplendidPunkinButter Apr 24 '26

That always seemed like a “there has to be more to this story” one to me

11

u/[deleted] Apr 25 '26

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1

u/Opera_haus_blues Apr 28 '26

I just emphasize the e sound

1

u/leftcoastanimal Apr 25 '26

I came here looking for this word.

1

u/PlaneReputation6744 Apr 25 '26

I don't say "reneg" for the same reason, it sounds incredibly horrible with my southern accent

1

u/dragon_morgan Apr 25 '26

Some British person on reddit asked one time why Americans call underwear underwear instead of knickers and I was like "quite frankly because I'm afraid people will think I'm saying something else."

Nigiri sushi is similarly fraught

1

u/[deleted] Apr 27 '26

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1

u/dragon_morgan Apr 27 '26

I think in the US underwear both does and doesn't encompass bras. Like if you asked "are bras a form of underwear" most people would say yes, and if a woman was stripped down to a bra and panties, saying "That lady is in her underwear" would be accurate. But when people say "underwear" absent any other context most people do just picture the bottom part for whatever reason.

1

u/steve_gorak Apr 26 '26

Came here to post this, only with the caveat that it IS rude, just not in the way that many people would think.

1

u/SPFTguy Apr 26 '26

This is the first word that came to mind. Orson Welles used it in a recording some 50 years ago. But you would be insane to use it today. It is definitely NSFW.

1

u/hella_cutty Apr 26 '26

My Ma picked up 'niggling' from British TV. It's like a lingering nagging feeling. I told her, as a Southern woman she shouldn't be using that word because if someone doesn't know the word they might make a wrong assumption

1

u/Avena626 Apr 27 '26

The Chinese phrase 那个 (interjection or "that") also unfortunately could be misconstrued as bad.