OFFAL

[Dr. Goodword]

• offal •

Pronunciation: o-fêl • Hear it!

Part of Speech: Noun, mass

Meaning: 1. Entrails, viscera, the innards of animals. 2. Waste product from any process, leftover waste, garbage, rubbish.

Notes: Today's Good Word pushes the definition of good about as far as it will go—maybe farther. My first encounter with this word occurred during research on Shakespeare as an undergraduate. I discovered that his father, John, had been fined eight years before the Bard's birth for keeping an offensive pile of offal in front of his meat and hide shop. Thank heavens the output of his son's shop was much, much more appealing to the senses.

In Play: Offal isn't anything we like to talk about, though you may still have brief encounters with chicken or fish offal in your kitchen. Offal does sound better than guts: "Take the fish offal directly to the garbage can; don't put it in the kitchen trash." But since it also means "garbage" and "rubbish", it is a very useful weapon in alphaDictionary's on-going crusade against profanity. The next time you lose your temper and hear yourself beginning, "Sh-h-h . . . ," say something more creative like, "Skunk offal! Not a word you said is true!"

Word History: In the English of Shakespeare's father's time, offal was a compound of of- "off" + fal "fall", clearly related to Modern German Abfall "trash, rubbish". In fact, these two words devolved from the same ancestor. We find evidence of the root, fall, throughout the Germanic languages: Swedish falla, Danish falde, Dutch vallen, German fallen. However, outside the Germanic languages there seems to be no clear evidence of it. (I guess Eric Vellend, himself a chef, thought that if he has to deal with offal, we should, too. It is a good word, though, so we thank him for it. Thank Dr. Goodword for not including a picture today.)

[gailr]

it is a very useful weapon in alphaDictionary's on-going crusade against profanity. The next time you lose your temper and hear yourself beginning, "Sh-h-h . . . ," say something more creative like, "Skunk offal! Not a word you said is true!"

Good luck in the crusade.

I have to pose the question: does the substitution of 'clean' words for 'dirty' words sanctify the original intention―cursing?

Or is it like putting ornamental paper frillies on the truncated limbs of a chicken carcass once the offal has been discarded? Still a carcass, yet suddenly fit for the family dinner table?

What say you, fellow agorans?
-gailr

who has a weakness for well-turned Shakespearean insults...

[Perry]

As I so often mention to my wife (using only the cleanest of words!), context is everything.

[Bailey]

words are powerful, if you are actually using words that are accepted as intending to wound or debase those words will hit their mark; if you tone-down a mounting rage and use silly words you can defuse the situation, oops, sorry I try never to be serious, it makes a chimp look weird.

mark can-a-chimp-wear-black-rimmed-glasses? Bailey

[Stargzer]

... But since it also means "garbage" and "rubbish", it is a very useful weapon in alphaDictionary's on-going crusade against profanity. ...

Gail's forte is Egyptian, so she may not have thought this to be a Sisyphean task.

Stargzer doesn't believe in calling a spade a spade. He calls it a f@#$%&* shovel.

[gailr]

Stargzer doesn't believe in calling a spade a spade. He calls it a f@#$%&* shovel.

Thanks, Gzer; this is exactly the sort of thing to which I was refering [Sisyphean task or not.] I had a coworker who always piously simpered, "dad burn it!" because "it wasn't swearing".

-gailr
*facepalm*

p.s. Nice use of Sisyphean, but I think that in this context, Augean might be more accurate...

[Stargzer]

Well, the latter was really a Herculean task. A Herculean task requires great effort (and perhaps some ingenuity or divergent thinking), but one of Hercules' ilk should be able to accomplish it. A Sisyphean task, in contrast, is doomed from the start. It's like trying to guess what color and of what ilk Gail's next headress will be.

[skinem]

Well, dadgum, I don't like the common, seemingly increasing use in everyday language of so-called profanity. Not because my ears are too delicate, I just find it boorish. I also think increased use REALLY diminishes the power of those words--the power to convey exceptionally strong feelings or the power when shock is intended.
I still remember to this day the first "cuss" word I heard on network TV, about 35 years ago. I remember the show, the actor who said it and the word he used. A number of us were even talking about it at school the next day. Now, the same word is mild, and generally washes over me unnoted. That word has lost much of it's power.
I've seen in my lifetime how our language morphs from meaning to meaning and words that were considered, at the least, crude when I was young are considered socially acceptable today.
There are some situations that to me seem so appropriate for a well-placed curse, but that just may be bovine scatology.
Anyway, shoot-fire, that's my take on it.

[Perry]

I still remember to this day the first "cuss" word I heard on network TV, about 35 years ago. I remember the show, the actor who said it and the word he used.

For the love of Mike, won't you share the actual details with us?

[Bailey]

Gee I remember Audie Murphy had a movie called "To Hell and back", and if course our hero couldn't possibly use such an awful word so we were just sure the movie was really: "To Helen Back".

mark Gunfight-at-Comanche-Creek Bailey

[gailr]

skinem has a point about the crass and desensitizing effect of a barrage of profanity. (OK, so that's not exactly what he said, geez.) At the same time, I find some surrogate swears to be just pitiful, especially the ones intended to be "child friendly" by new parents trying to wean themselves off the cussing habit.

Nice example, Bailey! I've mentioned before my favorite childhood swear "where in the sand hills!", based on what I thought I heard GrandmaR saying.

Hereis a handy resource for colorful language that doesnt require bleeping or time-outs in HR.

[Bailey]

you son of a motherless goat, and your father smells of elderberries, I think Monty Python had some dillies. I faht in your gen'-ah-ral-direction you silly English kan-ig'-it.

mark mother-was-a-hamstah Bailey
no, gail I wasn't talking about you.

[Stargzer]

Maybe it's partly genetic. My father, who was in the Marines during WWII and in the reserves for the rest of his 20 years, never talked in is sleep; he swore.

In his autobiography, Mark Twain tells how, as a young printer's apprentice, he and a fellow apprentice had to typeset a tract for a preacher who wanted the maximum type on the minimum amount of paper. When the preacher reviewed the galley proofs, he pointed out the they had left out the words "Jesus Christ" in an early portion of the text. Since they had squeezed the words together as much as possible, they couldn't find space for those two words without having to reset several pages of type. They did manage to squeeze in "J.C." as an abbreviation, which he said was what Europeans often did. When the preacher reviewed the proofs again, he thundered: "Thou shalt not abbreviate the Lord's Name! Thou shalt use His entire Name!" Twain then says, "There is a way of swearing in which the Lord's name is elongated," so when the preacher got the proofs for the third time, "J.C." had been replaced with "Jesus H. Christ." I believe he reported that he and the other apprentice were soundly thrashed.

Here's some more on the origin of this usage.

[skinem]

I still remember to this day the first "cuss" word I heard on network TV, about 35 years ago. I remember the show, the actor who said it and the word he used.

For the love of Mike, won't you share the actual details with us?

Gunsmoke, Anthony Zerbe, and the horrible word "d@mn". We all gasped in amazement!
Of course, the show was known for being on the cutting edge...

And, Gailr, thank you for putting so succinctly what I was trying to say!