Lexigame Community
General Category => Words => Topic started by: pat on December 21, 2020, 03:28:04 AM
-
I'd like to suggest sweary for inclusion as a rare word (rejected by the seaworthy puzzle). Pretty obvious what it means!
-
re: sweary
Yes, please...
-
I don't think I've ever seen/heard that word, though I gather that it might mean either blasphemous or vulgar/obscene/offensive.
I did Google it and found that there is a whole range of sweary candles for sale, and further found that it's British English, which is probably why I didn't know it.
I see that it made it into the Collins English Dictionary, the Oxford Dictionary on Lexico, Free Dictionary, Urban Dictionary, and Wiktionary, as well as the AZdictionary.
-
I'd like to suggest sweary for inclusion as a rare word
... and so would I!
-
I'm prompted to respond so speedily to this suggestion by seeing the word in a headline today in the Guardian (Australian edition) (https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/dec/22/the-breakout-stars-of-2020-from-the-rise-of-the-swans-to-a-very-sweary-man): "The breakout stars of 2020: from the rise of the Swans to a very sweary man". The sweary man in question is an Australian comedian called Nat who has released a series of cooking videos on Youtube:
Sweary, direct and oddly helpful, Nat’s What I Reckon became a uniquely Australian cult hit.
The word is used fairly often in Australia, but not nearly as often as in Britain. The OED gives its earliest citation from 1842, but I suspect its use has grown a lot in recent decades.
As birdy notes, it's found in a few dictionaries. Both Collins and Wiktionary give swearier and sweariest as the comparative and superlative forms. An example is from NME in a 2011 listing of 150 Best Tracks Of The Past 15 Years (https://www.nme.com/list/150-best-tracks-of-the-past-15-years-1257), talking about a song released by Super Furry Animals:
Steely Dan’s Donald Fagen initially refused permission for the Welsh band to use the sweary sample from ‘Showbiz Kids’, which gives this deliriously catchy protest anthem its title. But when Fagen relented, it came out on its own and promptly became the sweariest UK chart hit ever.
Sweary, swearier and sweariest will be accepted in future. Given that these words are seldom seen in North America, they will be classed as rare.
-
Thanks, Alan.