Do you class knackered as swearing?

[DisappointedD]

I have always thought of it as a mild swear word. A word I wouldn’t want my younger children using but wouldn’t be too bothered by a teen (but not to their grandparents) type word.

There is a current radio ad using the word which made me think about it earlier. I was surprised when I heard it and didn’t think it was a word I’d heard used in ad’s before.

I was told off for saying it as a child and I don't think I've ever used it since! I understand its origin is the knackers yard where old unfit work horses went to be killed.

I remember being told off by my DF for using the word as a child, and being confused. I think it’s because it relates to genitalia in some tenuous way

It’s slang rather than a swear word. I wouldn’t want to hear young children using slang. There’s time enough for that

I find it bizarre that people are being so authoritative in their responses here as if they had drafted the dictionary definition. Language isn’t a science where theres a definitive yes or no.

I have heard both connotations (the knackers yard one and the post sex exhaustion one): my mum used to warn me to be careful with its usage when I was younger. I can well believe that it had that association although its old now.

But the whole point with language is that its meaning changes all the time and is defined by the people who use it. Just because you, Jane Bloggs, have not heard the association with being tired after sex doesn’t mean it can’t be correct.

It’s not a swear word. Do you think horses that get sent to the knacker’s yard to end up in a yard full of testicles? It just means exhausted and clapped out. (Clapped out as in worn out, not as in suffering from the clap).

We can be weird yes, but also language use varies between English speaking countries. eg the different use of ‘fag’ between USA and UK? Also a certain ‘r’ word (referring to learning disability) was acceptable in the US for a long time but not here. (Not sure if that is now changing now in the US.)

when I was young knackered was slang for tiredness after sex so if an adult said this it was either hilarious especially to young teenagers or 🤢

yes crap was a swear word too I wouldn’t have said it in front of an adult

As weird as Australians who pronounce router incorrectly simply to avoid it sounding the same as a local slang word for sexual intercourse.

But the reverse is also true, right? — just because Jane’s cousin Jackie Bloggs has heard the tired-after-sex meaning does not mean the word is objectively rude when Jane says it. Or that it simply “is” offensive or rude and shouldn’t be used by children or in polite company.

Yes this. This is what my dad told me it meant.

It's not a swear word by any means and it derives from the knackers yard where horses are slaughtered. But it is slang and ideally not a word you'd use at the Royal Garden Party or a job interview.

Of course. But the dismissive and self-important tone of some of the "that's nonsense" responses is just stupid.

Makes me look at the nursery song 'Knick knack paddywhack' in a new light.