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I had always thought that ‘Tosspot’ was a masturbatory term of abuse, when suddenly I came across the word in The Mayor of Casterbridge. Thomas Hardy’s novels were liberal in matters of sex, but I couldn’t see that word getting past the obscenity laws.
A little thought, and reference to that fount of all knowledge, Google, confirmed that the term refers to a habitual drinker. I shall now have to come up with another description adequately to describe the First Lord of the Treasury …
3 Comments
Paul Robertson
10/9/2019 08:51:56 am
Well, I have a few suggestions but would not wish to lower the tone of your most worthy and educative blog.
Clive
11/9/2019 04:18:43 pm
Peter, thank you for this important, revelatory research. My insult lexicon will need revision. I would say, however, that the section on masturbation does offer up excellent substitutes, and perfectly up to the task of describing the talentless, failing idiot that the Conservative Party elected as its leader. In the days when I was still fit to employ, we had a mantra -'Promise low, deliver high'. Corporate BS, of course, but our chum in no.10 really messed up. He promised the world, no ifs, no buts, but after barely a week, it became clear that his strategy and tactics were so feeble, and so ably circumvented by his opponents, that he will deliver nothing at all. Shame about the national chaos and embarrassment, but watching him fail will bring its own pleasures.
Peter Maggs
11/9/2019 04:34:11 pm
As for watching him fail, I recall some time ago the German Ambassador on the Today programme saying something like: "Well, you British have a word for that - Shadenfreude ..." Leave a Reply. |
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