Dean S. Messing wrote:
Even worse in international fora such as this, where we come from many
different cultures. I offended an American once by describing him as
penurious, but an Australian in the same financial position would most
certainly have agreed with me.
Well, at least you had the good sense to not call him "niggardly". He
might have thought you bigoted against black people. Is "penurious"
not a pejorative in Aussie?
Primary meaning is synonymous with skint. Not a (brass
razoo|shekel|penny) to one's name.
I don't have a Macquarrie to hand, but I think it doesn't even list
miserly, at least in its first edition.
You reminded me of a chap over east who wants Coon cheese renamed.
Reckons it's offensive. Ditto the E. S. Nigger Brown Stand.
And all this monkey business in cricket has me completely flummoxed.
Of course, sometimes people _are_ deliberately offensive but even then
it might be no more than an expression of frustration.
And sometimes (many times!) people are deliberately offended!
Professional offendees, I call them.
And the use of "you" to mean "you the individual" and "the group of
people you represent," with no necessary clue as to which is meant does
not help.
Having no singular and plural forms for "you" is, indeed, a genuine
shortcoming of Standard English, though regional dialects have found
solutions: "y'all" in Texas, and "yoos guys" in Noo Yawk, for example.
On these lists, I try to remember to use "one" in its place.
--
Cheers
John
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