What’s an inappropriate word?!

[Leftrightatthelights]

I was just reading a review of a children’s dictionary and someone commented that they couldn’t let their 8 year old ‘loose’ on an adult dictionary due to the fact there were ‘too many inappropriate words they could look up.’ This has got me puzzled. What’s an inappropriate word?!

Bastard. Is in the dictionary I remember looking it up as a kid I think it's. A right of passage to find naughty words in a. Dictionary

You are either being disingenuous or you've never used a dictionary before.

Mrsjavy is right of course

All variety of swear and derogatory words are in dictionaries. Just because people find certain words offensive or explicit, doesn’t mean the dictionary is exempt from publishing them and their meaning.

In this context it is a word that the parent deems inappropriate for a child of that age. Off the top of my head I'd say, incest, rape, suicide, lynching, fuck, buggery, beheading, kidnapping would all be words that if they read the entry without any further conversation might scare a child.

Do children even use dictionaries these days ?

If they're looking a word up in an adult dictionary, chances are they know the word already. I've never come across any children who learned new "rude" or "inappropriate" words by reading the dictionary and accidentally stumbling across them. They usually have a good idea what they're looking for.

Most common looked up words in the junior dictionary in my yr6 classroom (that weren't to do with the lesson at the time)

• sex
• lesbian
• gay

Can't remember if bastard is actually in the Collins or Scholastic primary dictionaries but if it is I'll add it to the list!

When I was at school in the 1960s we used dictionaries for the purpose of looking up rude words. There was a big dictionary in the library at secondary school that contained the word Fuck, we used to look it up for the thrill of seeing it in print. The Bible also contains lots of rude bits.

But a swear word isn’t an ‘inappropriate’ word. And how would looking up fuck or bastard be detrimental to a child!

As someone else said, if they can look a word up they already know it. It is probably a good thing to know the proper meaning.

My daughter asked me if ‘the other word for silly’ was a swear (we don’t let them say it) and I said yes it was but it wasn’t the worst one and she said maybe it would be good for your first one then as if there’s a swear ladder you work up once you get to a certain age

I remember looking for every swear word I could think of. I found out anal sex was a thing by looking up 'bugger'.

@Lovinglavidaloca the other word for silly?

Daft?
Stupid?
Frivolous?

Struggling to think of a profanity meaning silly!

Yes stupid! No kids in my family have been allowed to use it

Theres no such thing as an inappropriate word. There are assigned meanings to words and then developed meanings to words, words that have negative connotations due to the meanings imposed on them according to the culture of it's time.

My lovely daughter came home from school (aged 12) she is far from innocent or sheltered.

Anyway she came home from school saying she learned a naughty phrase in french using the dictionary.
It's a right of passage so I said go on tell me. She was so giggly and nervous. She said her phrase in French. I asked her what it was and she whispered 'you are a cow'

I wasn't sure if I was proud or disappointed!

I remember working out 'you are a fucking shit headed bitch' in Spanish!

I think kids will always look for naughty words in a dictionary. If not dictionary they will be googling it. You have to know the word to search it in either. So many words in a standard dictionary they will most likely come across a mundane word!

Words to do with suicide. My 8yo overheard them and wanted to know what they meant. A discussion is better than a dictionary for that stuff.

That said, I give mine a lot of freedom online and have discussions with them instead. Different parenting styles I guess.

Silly = Twat?

My DAunt was a secondary school English teacher. If a child swore in her lesson she made them read out the definition of the word to the class from a dictionary. She said it was a remarkably effective deterrent!

@DelurkingAJ

My DAunt was a secondary school English teacher. If a child swore in her lesson she made them read out the definition of the word to the class from a dictionary. She said it was a remarkably effective deterrent!

Yep! Being factual about the meaning of words quickly takes the wind out of the sails of a child who was hoping for a shocked reaction.

When children in my class (primary) would try and claim they didn't know what a "rude" word they'd used meant, I would say that you should always know the meaning of a word if you're going to use it and either get them to look it up or I'd tell them the definition. Being factual and not acting shocked or offended usually meant the word became infinitely less interesting to them and the behaviour was not often repeated!

They’ll be the ones the dictionary falls open at (since time immemorial)

"If you're looking for sympathy, it's in the dictionary between shit and syphilis is a quote" I heard once. Very profound.