to think there is nothing wrong wrong with the word "b@stard"

[nancydrewrocked]

and that my friends who got het up at my using the word need to stop being so bloody PC....

I used the word when describing the [insert expletive] who kindly keyed two large scratches down the entire wing of my car. Apparently I am a dreadful person for describing the bastards as such and should be ashamed of myself.

I think my friends should get a grip - AIBU?!

Well... Are they mums of a fatherless child?
If yes then yabu
if not then yanbu
IMO

yanbu!!
this is a common term i use for dh

I think you are being remarkably restrained

Nothing wrong with it!!!! yanbu

Especially when describing xh

You can't win, can you? I've heard people told off for describing illegitimate children as 'bastards' (in a history discussion, no less), but you can't describe, well, bastards as 'bastards', in case you offend bastards illegitimate offspring of Ye Olden Times.

Perhaps the word should just fall into disuse, ensuring the English language becomes even more impoverished.

maryz I take your point - I suppose I just didn't imagine anyone could possibly be sensitive about the idea of a mother not being married. Although TBH that certainly wasn't at the forefront my my mind when I used the word.

Approx half my friends are not married to their partners...(the ones that got 'offended' today are)

It just strikes the right balance of offensiveness to me: more so than scumbag less so than fucker.

Will have to rethink the issue!

I do a recoil a bit, because it did mean something to me when I was a child. But I wouldn't say anything.

I am quite PC though...

No swear word derrives from a nice phrase, so I think if you use any swear word you might incur the wrath of one tiny percentage of people - but IMO as swear words go, bastard is less offensive than others. but can see where maryz comes from.

Nothing wrong with "bastard". Or "bollocks", or "twat".

If it's really an issue when around your pious cunting friend, you can use "muppet" instead.

Jusy tell them bollocks, they are being tosspots!

YANBU.

"No swear word derrives from a nice phrase"

"cunt" is originally straightforward anatomy (c1400 Lanfranc's Cirurg. 172/12 In wymmen (th)e necke of (th)e bladdre is schort, & is maad fast to the cunte) unless we want to argue all words for genitals are inherently not nice phrases.

It's hardely even a swearword any more; even my mum says it.

So why words thar describe the same thing always as equally offensive?

Poo = not rude

Shit = rude

Both meaning the same thing.

Just as a sideline, I had a long and complicated series of discussions with my Aspie, because he described a child in his class as a bastard. Because his parents weren't married.
He liked the boy in question, but it took a while to explain why the word was inappropriate, because it was in the dictionary, so it must be correct. We've had fun with few other dictionary definitions since then.

I don't have a problem with it, I see it as a mild expletive and a lot of people I know use it.

stealthpony, I think euphemism covers whet you are describing.

I used to be a bit sensitive about it (being born out of wedlock was a big deal when I was a child) but I use it happily these days.

I could be wrong (often am) but isn't bastard more about being an interloper than being illegitimate (which is a vile term)? Doesn't it have something to do with philandering aristos getting scullery maids knocked up and worrying about inheritance?

So it's less a moral judgement than one of (in)convenience. Maybe.

to save upsetting your friend, just refer to them as 'cunts' instead

But how would a cunt scratch a car? Unless there was some kind of genital piercing, I suppose, but even then you'd need to be pretty limber to do the whole wing of the car...

Bastard is used as term of endearment in some countries. "You bloody bastard, great score"

I don't recognise that word as having that meaning.

It is disgusting to have a particular word to describe a child whose father did not stick around for whatever reason and the mother was left to deal with everything.

Therefore I do not recognise it.

One of the ways that my son coped with being sworn at in secondary school by his peers was to look up the words in the dictionary.

As for bastard, he came across it whilst finding out about the Normans when he was 8, William the Conqueror is referred to as William the Bastard in several sources.

Children whose parents are not married no longer face many of the social stigmatism that they did when I was a child, and I agree that it's no longer used in that sense. And now my son understands why some words shouldn't be used with their true meaning, however accurate.