In the light of the Carol Thatcher issue....

[DumbledoresGirl]

....is the exclamation "golly!" offensive?

Just heard on Radio 4, the word derives from the Negro word god. So I suppose it has always been blasphemous, but that aside, is it now offensive?

Re-reading your post Spokette, it makes me so sad that you were so painfully aware of those words and me in my innocence wasn't. I also grew up in a very white area, we had a Nigerian girl join our school when I was about 7 or 8 and until then I think she was the only black person I knew. Thinking back, my school were brilliant, she'd come from a war torn country and it must have been so hard for her, but we were fascinated with the stories she used to tell us about Nigeria. She in turn was amazed by snow, I've never forgotten her sheer delight when it started snowing one day.

My point about the "nice little badge" was to illustrate that the racist connotation was a learned one. I would no more have associated golliwogs with black people than I did teddy bears or other stuffed animals.

The existence of golliwogs in the past is one thing. Whether we should continue to perpetuate these crass caricatures of black people - now that we have 'allowed' them to point out that such caricatures or 'nicknames' are humiliating and hurtful - is quite another.

Calling or comparing a black person to a golliwog is pretty much the same as calling them a wog. I very very very much doubt that anyone would defend that. Carole Thatcher, in defending her abusive expression, now sounds bigoted and stupid.

WRT to golliwogs themselves, I do wish that people who persist in defending these embarrassing instances of past racism would ask themselves why. Why is it so important that we should not have our freedom to be 'accidentally' offensive curbed in any way?

It's similar to people decrying political correctness - do they not understand that there is something far bigger and more important at stake than their 'freedom' to express themselves, uncurtailed by the need to consider the feelings of others?

Actually, strike that - of course they understand what's really at stake, and it is precisely that project which sticks in their craw.

But wrt the OP - Golly/Gosh/bleeding/Crikey/Jeepers afaik are ways of avoiding blashphemy (bloody from 'Christ's Blood' I think)

Some might have originated from the expressions of black slaves but they do not refer to black people or their purported 'characteristics' and so could not, I don't think, be considered offensive.

I wonder if it is the case (getting back to the point of this thread) if all swear words have their origin in religion and sex? Can anyone think of any that do not?

"
spokette - there's no need to be rude. I'm not here to apologise for having grown up in a predominantly white middle-class neighbourhood. "

UQD - I'm shocked. I don't think Spokette was being rude at all - just honest. And though you might not be here with the specific intention of apologizing for your middle-class childhood, it would nevertheless be courteous to apologize for having offended Spokette with your rather self-consciously neutral' pondering.. You must be aware that for many this is not an issue on which neutrality is possible, and that in fact, neutrality could quite reasonably be perceived as reactionary.

Bitch?

Bitch = sex surely? Well, it means a female dog so that is referring to an aspect of sexuality.

Blooming?

Crikey?

I'm sitting in my office mouthing every swear word I can think of and getting very odd looks

Also, I think that those who say they did not associate golliwogs with black people either didn't know any black people (in which case they have nothing upon which to congratulate themselves) or are in denial. Sorry.

I grew up in a socially-mixed urban area in the 70s, knowing some (not many) black children and by the age of 7 I was well aware of the word WOG which was graffiti'd everywhere, and the etymological connection with 'golliwog'. More importantly, I was well aware that a golliwog doll was a caricature of the physical characteristics of the black children that I knew.

Hey look what I found when I googled:

Crikey: Used euphemistically for Christ as a mild expression of surprise

And apparently, blooming, bally and bliming are all derived from bloody which I know is short for by our lady.

Interesting.

So we're still searching.............

Yes! A prize for anyone who can find a swear word or slightly dodgy word that is not connected to religion or sex.

I need to go and get a cake out of the oven.

I grew up in a pocket of suburbia that was white lower middle class and there were NO black children at my primary in the 1960s/early 70s. Even so, I knew that "wog" was a racist abusive term because I too saw it written on a wall and asked my parents about it. My dad said it was "wily oriental gentleman" btw and said it was WW2 code for untrustworthy foreigner - so nothing worthy or worshipful about it , or retro, come to that.
They wouldn't have gollywogs in the house either.
The term "golliwogg" was first used in a children's story. here.

Actually, according to Steven Pinker (I think) bloody isn't actually short for "by our lady" at all -- that's one of those things that "everyone knows" that's actually not the case. There's a long chapter on swearing in The Stuff Of Thought (which also goes into the whole religion/sex thing).

I have a gollywog that my elderly grandmother (deceased) gave my ds1 when he was a baby.
Hes sat at the back of the cupboard because I don't dare even think about what to do with him.

I also remember the niggardly thing. I thinki t has the same origins as niggling (as in a niggling feeling)

PortandLemon - nooooooooo! don't destroy a lovely idea.

Actually, you must be right as bloody is an adjective and "by our lady" is not. If by our lady was to be present in any modern word, it would have to be an exclamation, wouldn't it?

So is bloody not related to sex or religion or does it refer to the blood shed by Christ?