This song and video makes me giggle a lot with great glee so I must share it with the world!

In other news, apparently the use of the word “douche” as a negative descriptor is coming back in vogue.

Apparently I’m on a language kick this week. No real surprise there.

I know we constantly recycle fashion and movies in this culture but you’d think we’d at least be able to come up with some new insults. “Douche” in particular reminds me of grade school and apparently is mapped to that age in my mind. Every time I hear or read someone using it I think they’re 12 years old. Then I start watching out for spit balls and nose-picking, because that’s bound to come next. I realize this is mostly in my head but it’s highlyamusing when the Fop uses the word and I do a double take and exclaim, “What are you? 12?” Seriously, folks, let’s come up with some better insults and descriptors rather than the old standbys and recycling ridiculousness from years past.

If you must recycle, reach into the deep past, please select your insults from the ages, eons past (instead of the 1980s please… we don’t need to recycle anything else from that decade). Here are some suggestions that aren’t too archaic (at least to me, and I know that’s a special perspective) that you can start using in place of more mundane, over-used insults and negative adjectives. As an added bonus, you’ll be able to use these words in polite company and even in meetings because they sound more context-appropriate.

Miscreant: a person who behaves badly or in a way that breaks the law (noun or adjective)
example: We have some miscreant users who keep changing their login scripts and breaking the server.

Mountebank: a person who deceives others, especially in order to trick them out of their money; a charlatan. See: quack. (noun)
example: He’s a total mountebank - don’t believe a word he says, his estimates are fabrications.

There you go! 2 words to work into your conversations this week! They’re not too far off the beaten trail, linguistically speaking, I think. But perhaps you should practice the follow-up phrase, “Go look it up in a dictionary” if it becomes necessary. Or if you’re feeling nice, define them as required by your audience.

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