More like St. Smellmo

Miko — Mon, 17 Dec 2007 07:39:17 -0800

Do you know a derogatory nickname for a town or city? I'm interested in renaming as a form of unofficial culture, folk culture. Sometimes the new name carries a weight of opinion - one type of renaming is to give a locality an insulting version of its real name. I've seen this most prevalently in teenagers and in service personnel stationed somewhere away from home. For instance, my hometown of Red Bank was called "Dead Bank" by its disaffected teens. It's been studied a little bit by folklorists, but I'd love to assemble some more recent name versions. I understand that some of these ("Jew York") might not always be PC and certainly can accept that in this context as I hope others can.

This Onion piece was not my inspiration, but turned up in a search - you get the idea. So please share your town's insulting nickname!

Pretty harsh words

LobsterMitten — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 21:45:25 -0800

Seeking a word: Is there a term other than "euphemism" for couching an insult in fancy-sounding words, so your insult sounds less harsh to the inattentive ear? A student of mine is confused about what "euphemisms" are. The example we're looking at is "Mr. Jones is a notorious zealot". To my student, those words are unfamiliar, so he feels like they are cloaking the speaker's true insult in $10 words. Now, "notorious zealot" isn't a euphemism. In fact it's a harsh thing to say. But is there a word for what my student is getting at -- dressing up one's insults?

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More like St. Smellmo

Pretty harsh words