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?!

Another here who grew up with knackered meaning 'tired after sex'. Impolite to use it around family for me as a kid. As teens we'd use the word 'shagged' to mean tired when we were in the mood to be foul mouthed ''God i'm shagged, i must sit down''.

'Buggered' to mean tired in the dictionary excerpt above made me laugh. I think my nan used to say it.

I got told off for it as a kid.
I think it's on a par with bugger.
Bugger is a pretty rude word but has lost its rudeness and is now instead of swearing. So is knackered.

It used to be like saying 'I'm fucked' now it's 'I'm tired'

Wow I never knew. My almost 3 yo asks on many a night. "I knackered mummy" Whoops...

I had no idea that anybody thought the word 'knackered' was at all taboo or offensive. Didn't realise it came from 'knackers.'

This thread has been quite enlightening.

I would still be happy to use it around my DD though.

I literally never associated the phrase "shagged out" with sex until just now.
Luckily, it's not a phrase I usually ever use.

I'm fairly sure that my grandmother used to say 'knackered'.

I've always used it to mean extremely tired, and will continue to do so.

I'm from the north west and knackered isn't a swear word but buggered definitely is (a mild one but still won't say it around kids).

How odd. Knackered is totally inoffensive in my (very proper) family!

Absolutely nothing wrong with 'knackered' to mean tired or worn out, it's not a swearword and it's nothing to do with too much sex.

The reason 'knackers' is used to mean testicles is that before vets took over the job, the knackermen who disposed of dead animals sometimes also used to carry out horse castrations.

pourquoi, I am from the NW too and stand by what I said upthread.

Good Gracious! Even my very proper Mum would say 'knackered' sometimes. I have never used any of the common 4 letter words but would happily say 'knackered' in front of a child. I'd say,"You little tinker!" too if they were being mischievous.

It's not appropriate to say directly to 6 year old. If you said it to an adut within a child's hearing that wouldn't be quite as bad. But I don't say it near DC. It's just a bit coarse.

Definitely about killing elderly horses.

I say it all the time but I thought the original meaning was tired from sex too!!

I had this said to me by my RE teacher in school - I have never heard it being offensive otherwise.

In this day and age it means something different.

Just like we don't use gay now to mean happy as that's quite out of date and often means bad or rubbish by the youth of today so we don't say it - the reverse should be true. If a word is no longer meant with a bad intention it shouldn't be forbidden.

My Mum and Dad said it whilst I was growing up and Dad is very anti-swearing.

I had this said to me by my RE teacher in school - I have never heard it being offensive otherwise.

In this day and age it means something different.

Just like we don't use gay now to mean happy as that's quite out of date and often means bad or rubbish by the youth of today so we don't say it - the reverse should be true. If a word is no longer meant with a bad intention it shouldn't be forbidden.

My Mum and Dad said it whilst I was growing up and Dad is very anti-swearing.

So when you say something is knackered (as in broken) it's been shagged to death?

Ridiculous!

I agree it's out of date as a swear word

Old thread.

Jiggered probably is a euphemism, but I don't know anyone who'd think it was offensive.