On 3/18/2014 9:05 AM, Nick Sabalausky wrote:
On 3/18/2014 2:59 AM, "Ola Fosheim Grøstad"
<ola.fosheim.grostad+dl...@gmail.com>" wrote:
I was once told in game chat by a US player that I could not use the
term "shit" because it was such an offensive word. I was surprised. In
scandinavia the word is so mild it basically means "ouch", it can even
have positive connotations "skitbra" == "shit good" (really good).
That mildness of "shit" is true of probably around half of americans,
too. Especially among the "Gen X" generation and younger (and of course
there's varying regional tendencies, too). For a LOT of us it's just
seen as a more normal and less Disney-ish way to say "ouch", "oops" or
"stuff". But then, the US was also home to Puritanism way back when, so
there's still a lot of those intolerance-disguised-as-ethics attitudes too.
Oh, yea, and "shit" can have positive connotations here in the US, too,
particularly in informal speech: "Oh, MAN that burger was some good shit!"
It's very much a wildcard word, really. Like "smurf" ;)
