Five favorite words

[Kumquatqueen]

Skin
Hold
Grip
Scratch
Strip

In the story I'm writing, the protagonist realises over an interesting weekend that she's turning into the kind of girl who says words like 'cunt'.

It's a big transatlantic divide here - in the UK there's a big split between those still shocked by it and would never say it and those who are fairly casual with it and can use it as a friendly greeting - "y'right, cunt?" - but it's never used as a generic insult for a woman. When intended as a dire insult its meaning is more like 'motherfucking sonofabitch' and is rarely applied to women!

 

[Zeb_Carter]

You've won a Million Dollars.

 

[ElectricBlue]

EEEWWWWee I find it disgusting in the extreme. Yes, I have used it, get the visceral reaction. When women use it, they aren't refering to a body part, they are calling a woman a walking, diseased, festering CUNT! Just EEWWWeee!

Not all women. You shouldn't speak on behalf of all women, Millie, because some women I know own the word, know its power, and know how to use it. They are claiming back the power of the cunt. And were doing so long before you were born.

 

[lovecraft68]

Not all women. You shouldn't speak on behalf of all women, Millie, because some women I know own the word, know its power, and know how to use it. They are claiming back the power of the cunt. And were doing so long before you were born.

And by the same token, not all women want to own it, they want it to go away, especially when its men calling women by that word.

It has a different connotation here in the US than in the UK or down where you are. Where you live matters when it comes to language and how its perceived.

In closing, a sexist old man who pervs into women's PMs (They talk, you know that, right?) shouldn't be telling women what they should and shouldn't say or think.

Notice my comment on the word was how I feel about it, not telling women how they should feel. Why? Because I'm not a woman and aren't going to assume what the effect the word has on them is. I know its effect on me, the only person I can safely speak for.

How about trying that some time?

 

[TadOverdon]

Too many to be definitive, so a few I've used in the last two days:

tantalize
precipice
surge
consumed
susurrus

 

[Comshaw]

Simple enough. Post five words you enjoy using or reading, the ones that for whatever reason give you a little tingle.

1-Gutteral
2-Succulent
3-Luscious.
4-Dissoulte-fancier version of calling someone trashy.
5-Malevolent-

I assume you're talking about words that invoke an image, a visceral feeling, a deep-seated memory (pleasant or not), that "tingle" you mentioned. Most of mine tend to fall on the more basic simpler side of things:

1) Slippery

2) musky

3) stoic

4) gaze

5) eviscerate

A good story reaches down and grabs your guts to let you know what it is. Like a flood that is made from single drops of rain, that kind of tale is made from single words, words that singularly carry the same infinitesimal power of a raindrop, but combined fill you with the power of the story.


Comshaw

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Word-mining for future writing has commenced:

• Abstemious
• Arch – used it
• Barbican – great word, but sadly cannot think where I would use it
• Dissolute – I am not!
• Erudite
• Facile
• Gaze – used it
• Glisten – used it
• Guttural – used it
• Graph – interesting. Would not have thought of it, but, yes.
• Incorrigible
• Lambent - lovely! One of my favourite words
• Lascivious
• Lickerish
• Luscious – used it
• Luminous
• Lustrous
• Malevolent
• Musky – used it
• Nulliparous – why?
• Precipice (as opposed to prepuce )
• Salacious
• Scallop
• Sensual – used it
• Stoic
• Succulent
• Sumptuous
• Surge
• Susurrus – have used ‘susurration’
• Tantalize – outstanding! Why haven’t I used this yet?
• Throat – used it
• Ubiquitous
• Wendigo – there’s been bunny plot in my files involving the Wendigo for some time
• Whore – used it
• Writhe – used it
• Wry – used it

My contribution:

• Jejune
• Panache
• Recumbent
• Symmetry
• and, used as a word as I once did, ♪

 

[SimonDoom]

It has a different connotation here in the US than in the UK or down where you are. Where you live matters when it comes to language and how its perceived.

?

I live in the US. I've known women in the US who like the word cunt. I've known women who've enjoyed having their cunts referred to as cunts. Or the word slut, which has similar issues. I've known women who don't like either of those words, too. It can be tricky.

The fact that those words are perceived as negative is itself evidence of misogyny. Why would a word describing a woman's genitals be perceived as an insult? Some people like the use of the word as a way of fighting back against that misogyny and reclaiming its use as something positive. Same thing with the word slut. Some women like being called sluts because it is a way of affirming that being a woman who wants to have sex is not a bad thing.

I also think that in an erotic story words like that have erotic value precisely because they have a transgressive and taboo quality.

Where one lives has some importance, but it's not determinative. In a place as big as the USA there is an almost infinite range of opinion on just about any subject.

 

[KeithD]

I have one favorite erotic usage word that stands out over the rest: mounted

 

[LilyWaters]

I'm with Simon. I like cunt as a word. (Well, actually I like it as a part of the anatomy too.)

I hate that politically correctness has banished it from the USA and I think that is a shame. It has started to become "the C-word" next to the "N-word."

There are times when it is the best word describing sex and also sometimes the best word describing a person. Elizabeth Holmes the so-called inventor of Theranos, the fake instant blood test company is a cunt. Not only did she defrauded folks out of millions, her fake blood test machine killed and maimed people. She is a massive villain, and a cunt!

BTW: If you want to watch something riveting and informative everybody, watch the HBO documentary. "The Inventor." You can stream it online if you don't have HBO. Everyone here like a well told story. Check this one out. An amazing documentary telling a mesmerizing story:

https://www.hbomax.com/feature/urn:...VWcvICh3XHAh0EAAYASAAEgLhNPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

You do not have to buy the service, you can just stream the doc.

I love it in a hot sex scene. I loathe it as an insult. Its use in one of Ed's first lines in Shaun of the Dead is absolutely sublime and pitch perfect. I would never use it to denigrate to another woman.

Context is all.

 

[LilyWaters]

I love so many words; I'll have to give my top five some serious thought. But the first one that popped into my mind is "languid." It looks and sounds just like it should.

And apropos of the "cunt" conversation; I remember when i was little and I could NOT understand why my mom got so angry when I used the word "sucks", as in "that sucks." After all, all of my friends used it. It wasn't until I was in university that I suddenly realized that it's a fellatio reference. I find the evolution of language endlessly fascinating.

 

[JuanaSalsa]

The fact that those words are perceived as negative is itself evidence of misogyny. Why would a word describing a woman's genitals be perceived as an insult?

Women's genitals are not special in doubling as an insult. Dick is a pretty common pejorative.

Out of curiousity, I did some googling and found a ranking of the offensiveness of English swearwords. I was surprised to see that Cunt topped the list, along with Fuck and Motherfucker.

Image of List:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtnQaVcW8AAK34j?format=jpg&name=large

Tweet with List:
https://twitter.com/hackneylad/status/781886348663848960/photo/1

If I were going to cuss someone out (in a story), "cunt" wouldn't be part of my selection because it does not seem terribly hurtful to me. According to the internet, cunt is supposed to be worse for Americans. But I'm an American woman, so I must not be from the right subculture.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

I love so many words; I'll have to give my top five some serious thought. But the first one that popped into my mind is "languid." It looks and sounds just like it should.

And apropos of the "cunt" conversation; I remember when i was little and I could NOT understand why my mom got so angry when I used the word "sucks", as in "that sucks." After all, all of my friends used it. It wasn't until I was in university that I suddenly realized that it's a fellatio reference. I find the evolution of language endlessly fascinating.

Languid. Definitely delightful.

 

[TarnishedPenny]

Women's genitals are not special in doubling as an insult. Dick is a pretty common pejorative.

Out of curiousity, I did some googling and found a ranking of the offensiveness of English swearwords. I was surprised to see that Cunt topped the list, along with Fuck and Motherfucker.

Image of List:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/CtnQaVcW8AAK34j?format=jpg&name=large

Tweet with List:
https://twitter.com/hackneylad/status/781886348663848960/photo/1

If I were going to cuss someone out (in a story), "cunt" wouldn't be part of my selection because it does not seem terribly hurtful to me. According to the internet, cunt is supposed to be worse for Americans. But I'm an American woman, so I must not be from the right subculture.

'Munter'? "Bellend'? Really? I must have had a sheltered childhood.

And then there's another on the list - 'fanny'. In North America, that's a toddler-safe word for one's bum.

As somebody once commented, two cultures separated by a common language.