Thursday 14 September 2006

Fewtril #122

In the great scramble to be offended, it is essential that one might find any innocuous thing utterly vile and offensive, lest one be outdone by more inventive souls.

8 comments:

dearieme said...

We need a name for the organ that takes offence - in the spirit of "heart" to mean the seat of love. Then we could say of someone "He wears his @@@@ on his sleeve".

Deogolwulf said...

A good suggestion. - A made-up organ or a real one?

dearieme said...

I suppose a real one might be best, but "spleen" is taken and, anyway, in these literal days, some dozy berk will say "ah, no, but it doesn't do that". Or should we just say "he wears his socialism on his sleeve"? No, because it could refer to envy or resentment, not necessarily vicariously-claiming-to-take-offence-on-behalf-of-someone-else-you've-not-even-consulted-about-it. In fact, perhaps all we need is a new verb, not a mythological organ. Anyway, why isn't there a Greek word for it?

Anonymous said...

Perhaps there's a German word for it? That language is a rich source of useful nouns and verbs that meet unlikely needs.

Anonymous said...

May I ask what the word "fewtril" means?

Deogolwulf said...

"Fewtril" means "trifle" or "little matter", and is a Lancashire dialect word found usually only in the plural.

dearieme said...

VFTS, I've got the translation - "Taking offence on behalf of other people who purportedly would do so if only their social antennae were more finely tuned". Now, who's got the German? Or, how about Welsh?

Deogolwulf said...

I should have trouble fitting all that into one word. I humbly submit, therefore, the following German word:

Fremdanstoßnehmensübernehmer.

("Adopter of another's offence-taking.")