four year old name calling

[xmasadsboohiss]

my four year old ds son has a tendency to latch on to inappropriate words. we're very careful not to swear in front of him so not that but he still used words like 'idiot', 'fool', 'stupid' etc. it makes me see red to be honest. he's always been a good talker and people say he's bright so i don't want to temper any of that. so we've tried ignoring it, punishing it, shouting, talking calmly but nothing seems to work. one unpleasant word just gets replaced by another. can't imagine it can be that uncommon so and advice would be great!

xmas, my 3.5 year old also does this. Calls DS2 'stupid' and 'silly'.. What we're not doing is being extra careful with even the milder 'bad' words. So we pretty much say 'naughty' for most things, even when DH and I are talking to each other, in front of the children. The worst thing is to tell him not to say bad words, cos he pretty much says it non-stop.

yeah our instinct was to ignore but it just upsets us all, and i don't feel happy about him thinking it's okay to call people name. we don't use the words he comes up with, although he does mimic other stuff we say.