[Discuss] Status ?

[Rick Cronan]

On 7/3/06, Alex Davies <the1exile at hotmail.co.uk> wrote:

> >Funny you should think that way.  Of your choices, only idiot is known
> >to have been in use in the English language before the f-word; both
> >imbecile and moron came later.
>
> By the nobles?

By writers.  The only way to know which words were used is to examine
the written evidence that remains.  Clearly we can't know what
language people used to talk to each other, unless it was written down
and has survived.

> Last time someone got offended by the use of the word moron towards his
> character, thinking it was amied at the player. He suggested I pretty much
> learn Old English for the linguistically correct insults.

Surely that's up to him to suggest and up to you to act on or not.
That choice is yours, isn't it?

Personally, I wasn't making a criticism so much as a passing observation.

> Does it matter which order the words came into being?

Does it matter to whom?

To me, no.  Like I say, it was a passing observation.  I found it
interesting that someone would think of the f-word as being a modern
swearword.  It's certainly known to have been used as long ago as the
early 16th century.

- rick