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I would guess that it's because it doesn't have any special meaning in American English primarily, most Americans have never even heard of its meaning in Britis
by connicpu 2y ago
I would guess that it's because it doesn't have any special meaning in American English primarily, most Americans have never even heard of its meaning in British slang
- QuesnayJr 2y agoI in fact only learned the slang meaning five seconds ago when this discussion made me google it.
- noodlesUK 2y agoAgree, most of the Brits I know think it's hilarious that it's ended up as a term of art, and Americans are generally completely oblivious to its meaning. I am in no great hurry to change the word though. It's not something that comes up much outside of extremely technical contexts, and whilst it's a bad word, its regional character and multiple meanings kinda make it fine. It's not like it is being used for the meaning that's offensive, the meanings have unrelated histories (and the offensive one is much newer). I don't think it would be right to change an ordinary English word because it sounded similar to an offensive word in a foreign language, and I think that's essentially what's happened here.