Do you class knackered as swearing?

He does actually! OMG, he is full of it! He does it because he does like to hear his MIL LOL!

My mum always told me it was a bit rude. Not sure why though. I don’t think it is.

Swear words usually relate to something rude. I can’t think of any swear word examples where their main meaning is some like being tired.

I only learnt of the origin of the word a few weeks ago so it’s interesting that it came up here as I’d never heard of a Knacker’s yard before. It was a podcast about Jack the Ripper. There was a knacker’s yard near the murder sites and one theory is he worked there.

Also a lot of patients say ‘I’m ready for the knackers yard’

its got nothing to do with sex here in Gateshead/Newcastle. Thats a brand new thing I’ve just learned 1 min ago……and think ‘hadaway and shite to that!’ 🤣

I was told of for using it at a child (ie 50 years ago) but I think now that it was because it was considered vulgar/lower class, rather than because it was crude or swearing. It’s commonly used now.

Yeah, it's a slur against Irish travellers in Ireland, or Dublin at least.

Was a hugely common slur when I was growing up in dublin in the 90s, don't hear it used much in that context anymore. Perhaps as Irish people have become ever so slightly less bigoted against the travelling community.

But I would still use it often just to mean I'm tired.

Vulgar, sexual connotations, either castration, specifically agricultural, or post coital fatigue.

Along with bollocks absolutely on the forbidden list in my northern rural 1960s childhood.

Not ‘swearing’ but vulgar. Not what PLU say.

I now use both. A bit. But try to judge situation, maybe not to my grandchildren or the vicar

Yes and I think this is where the "tired after sex" meaning/variation came in. I'm from Kent though and definitely in the 80s that meaning was banded about. More explicitly referred to a man emptying his knackers i.e. ejaculating, hence tired after sex.

That seems to have died out now and my kids think of that word as mild slang for tired. We did explain the 80s meaning to our eldest once and he just looked appalled.

Yes, you would... but I'm pretty sure its the sort of thing Ronnie Barker used to say in sitcoms and pronounced it Berk.

just googled and apparently it could be the Berkeley Hunt, the oldest hunt in England. 😂

Berkeley Hunt, I thought... not sure if that's pronounced Berk-ley or Bark-ley, though, so your point may still stand...

What!! I have never ever heard of it being even mildly offensive!

I know I say it at work all of the time and I said it in a recent interview and probably other interviews, doctors appointments etc.

I would never think anything of children saying it.

Turd and bugger I wouldn’t say in professional settings/want kids to say it.

I don't class it as swearing but my gran certainly did!

Where abouts are you from??
As a Geordie knackered is part of my daily vocabulary. Patients often come to me and say ‘Eeee I’m knackered!’ 🤣

If that were true wouldn't it be pronounced differently? Bark as in Berkshire, rather than berk?

Half a dozen people on here have proven you wrong on this thread

It’s got bugger all to do with sex. A lame/ old horse is knackered/ sent to the knackers yard and that’s where it came from.

We got told off for saying it for the same reason we got told off for saying ‘naw’ or ‘wit’ instead of ‘no’ or ‘what’ as kids - it’s just not proper English. I think that generally isn’t considered to be such an issue by so many people now

I used to think the word Berk just meant the same as silly idiot but not as offensive, until I was told that it's the short form of Berkshire Hunt.

It specifically came from taking worn out horses to the knackers, so your meaning is only one that’s arisen and not the main one. Thats like saying smoking a cigarette means you just had sex. Knackered isn’t a swear word.

If he were using proper CRS (where you drop the rhyming bit eg "have a butcher's" for butchers hook/look) he might say "I'm creamed" but... I can see why he doesn't😂

It has nothing to do with sex, I have no clue where that weird idea must have come from.

Etymology is one way of exploring language, but so is usage.

If a number of people tell you that they use/have used/have heard the use of knackered to mean "tired after sex", then the fact you don't know the origin of that meaning is irrelevant.

It does mean "tired after sex" if some people understand that meaning. That's all language is

I was told off at uni for using knackered, due to the apparent sex connotations. My husband also told me off for saying crud (as a noun), don't know why.

I still use both words.

I worked alongside a nun who frequently used it . I’m sure she’d never heard that it meant tired after sex and I’d never heard of that connotation till this thread 🤷‍♀️

No it's not it's slang but not a swear word. Swear words are offensive I would say I'm knackered around DC than I'm fucked.

Wow ive been using this my whole life and never knew this 😬

This was a primary school rumour!

No it's not a swear word and I wouldn't care about a child saying it.