Decorum needs to be raised.

[John Summerfield]

Dean S. Messing wrote:

>> Even worse in international fora such as this, where we come from many 
>> different cultures. I offended an American once by describing him as 
>> penurious, but an Australian in the same financial position would most 
>> certainly have agreed with me.
> 
> Well, at least you had the good sense to not call him "niggardly".  He
> might have thought you bigoted against black people.  Is "penurious"
> not a pejorative in Aussie?

Primary meaning is synonymous with skint. Not a (brass 
razoo|shekel|penny) to one's name.

I don't have a Macquarrie to hand, but I think it doesn't even list 
miserly, at least in its first edition.

You reminded me of a chap over east who wants Coon cheese renamed. 
Reckons it's offensive. Ditto the E. S. Nigger Brown Stand.

> 
>> And all this monkey business in cricket has me completely flummoxed.
>>
>> Of course, sometimes people _are_ deliberately offensive but even then 
>> it might be no more than an expression of frustration.
> 
> And sometimes (many times!) people are deliberately offended!
> Professional offendees, I call them.
> 
>> And the use of "you" to mean "you the individual" and "the group of 
>> people you represent," with no necessary clue as to which is meant does 
>> not help.
> 
> Having no singular and plural forms for "you" is, indeed, a genuine
> shortcoming of Standard English, though regional dialects have found
> solutions: "y'all" in Texas, and "yoos guys" in Noo Yawk, for example.

On these lists, I try to remember to use "one" in its place.

-- 

Cheers
John

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