To say the word knackered around children?

[Kayano]

I'm at my mums for Sunday dinner. Big family event this week as extended family ill so have a house full of kids and mothers and fathers etc.

I'm 8 months pregnant and watching Cats with DNeice who is 6. She yawned then I did and I informed her I was knackered.

Cue my mother literally running in the room and saying that is inappropriate to use the word knackered around children and I need to speak properly before the baby is born!

Now if I had said I was bloody knackered I would understand but I didn't and when I asked she clarified that it was the word knackered she objected to!

We are Geordies and we say this word all the time so I am actually now very confused!

Who is BU?!

Ive always sworn in front of my kids, its adults speach, not one person ever heard my children swear when they were youngsters, in fact at 23 and 18 I have never heard them swear either. It is what you teach them, not what you do.

I thought bloody was from 'by our Lady' as in swearing by Mary, but I'm prepared to be told that's a folk myth!

I usually say cream crackered when I am knackered, but that is only because I caught it off my Dad!

I have never heard of knackered being a swear word.

My gran (mums mum) has just rolled her eyes at my mum and agrees with me so I feel a bit better now!

My mum is a bit hyacinth though

I use it and had never heard the whole 'tired from having sex' thing until I said it in front of my bf (now DH). He was slightly shocked and bemused; he used to see it as a 'mild swear word' but has got over that now.

I never knew it was remotely sweary - just another word for tired

I'm a geordie and use it in front of children (I'm a nanny)

I'd rather they heard you say "I'm knackered" than "I'm fucked"!

Its just a word!

In Ireland a "knacker" is a derogatory term for traveller, like "Pikey" in England. The Knacker's Yard was where you sent all your old broken stuff and so when something was knackered it was worn out and useless. My friends and I used to call each other "knackers" as a friendly insult but it's not really PC. I don't have any problem with saying "knackered" though.

I think the link with sex came about because some people refer to testicles as knackers.

I wouldnt say it was a swear word, but then I grew up in the North West were it is commonplace to say you are buggered too if you are tired... and that isnt considered a swear word, and certainly doesnt mean in the literal sense either.

i remember it started to be used frequently when i was a kid in the 80s..and was told by an honest adult, it meant 'sexually deprived of energy'. Would have been a slapped wrist to say it in my parents household!

I don't like it

I have learned so much today

Stick to "cream-crackered" like wot I do.

My parents still don't like that word being used around kids, and it has had a lasting impression on me so I try to say shattered instead! Tbh I don't like to hear small children say it.

It weird isn't it. I've been saying it just meaning I was a bit tired but have inadvertently referencing dead horses, being sexually exhausted and using a derogatory Irish word!

My god

Language... Who knew

When I was young it was not a polite word to use, I think because it is rather a coarse expression.

Round here it was about horses being sent to the Knackers Yard as well.

I always thought you took horses to the knackers yard when there time came. :( i never thought it was a bad word. Maybe stop using knackered and say shattered and then no one can moan at you, unless thats banned to? x

Am also Irish, and while I agree that these days 'knacker' primarily a pejorative term for Travellers here (the link is via what many Travellers used to do for a living, dealing in scrap metal, house clearances etc - 'knacker' used to be used for someone who took away unwanted things other than elderly horses), 'knacker' and 'knackered' seem to have a lot of different connotations to do with deceitfulness, getting rid of unwanted stuff and old horses, harness-making, and tiredness/castratedness/weakness.

The OED has

Knacker (noun)

1. A harness-maker; a saddler. dial.
2. a. One whose trade it is to buy worn out, diseased, or useless horses, and slaughter them for their hides and hoofs, and for making dog's-meat, etc.; a horse-slaughterer. knacker's yard: b. One who buys old houses, ships, etc., for the sake of their materials, or what can be made of them.
3. transf. An old worn-out horse. dial.

Obs. A trickster, deceiver.
One who sings in a lively manner. Obs.

Knacker (verb)

To kill; to castrate; usu. in weakened sense, to exhaust, to wear out.

I certainly don't find 'knackered' obscene or impolite.

I use it, DS 10 uses it.... because in no way shape or form do I consider it a "bad" word. What is it with people and words? Almost any word can be used badly if you really want it to be...

Has 'knacker' replaced 'tinker' in Ireland then?

It hasn't replaced it Percy they're both common phrases

I'm sure most blokes would find a kick to the knackers quite offensive to say the least!

Someone did explain this seemingly double-life the word has, I can't remember it completely, but I'm sure it had something to do with prostitute slang for really not wanting any more customers that evening.