American, though saying the word “herb” aloud strangely hasn’t come up much in my 37 years.
It feels like the insulting variety of “herb” demands a hard h at the front though. (Partially to avoid saying someone is “an herb,” which takes the edge off somehow.)
herb is good…except that I also like herbs! 🌼 🫖 What about sucker? 🌿
(Like the pesky Tree-of-Heaven suckers that pop up in alleys & adjacent yards and disrupt the local community ecology, release toxins, inflict infrastructure damage, typical f-boy behavior...)
I've never heard of this one--always happy to learn of new (to me) language usage. Does it come from the name (like Karen) or is a basically implying someone is as smart as a plant?
Is "dumb" ableist? There must be some etymology there I'm not familiar with. I guess it and synonym "stupid" were used for specific groups back in the day then? We use dum and teit all the time in Norway and I've never known them to be ableist so very interested to learn.
Yeah, dumb was historically used to denote a deaf person who did not use speech.
The BBC feature below references this 1885 publication discussing the potential negative and othering impact of the term: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44468186
Alright, thanks! I've heard "deaf and dumb" as an expression but never made that connection. Will be more mindful when calling less smart people less smart.
Yes, we can all do language more better! Language itself is always evolving and so are we who use it. "Insane/crazy" will be hard to cut out for me, but I have my own mental issues so maybe it'll be allowed 🤔
Fair ball. Perhaps the brilliance of a herb based put down is the personalization and variability of herb-specific digs. For me, I’d lean towards “okay, cilantro” as we know that’s a love or hate baby.
"You plant" is a British English put down of sorts, though not really an insult as such .. something you might say to a friend who has done something daft. Is herb similar, or more hardcore?
i vividly recall being on a cooks’ line the first time a guy called me a herb and i had to ask him to explain it to me, which he did, and i loved it so much i’m pretty sure the guy later tagged a portrait of me on an overpass next to the definition.
Comments
It feels like the insulting variety of “herb” demands a hard h at the front though. (Partially to avoid saying someone is “an herb,” which takes the edge off somehow.)
you want to call someone lame? dumb?
herb carries the same emotional weight with a side benefit of not being ableist.
(Like the pesky Tree-of-Heaven suckers that pop up in alleys & adjacent yards and disrupt the local community ecology, release toxins, inflict infrastructure damage, typical f-boy behavior...)
Like you'd be like "what a fucking herb" or "he's an herb"
https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2019/11/jim-spanfeller-is-a-herb-rise-fall-blog-post-deadspin.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5oE5dkTanms
The BBC feature below references this 1885 publication discussing the potential negative and othering impact of the term: https://www.jstor.org/stable/44468186
Source: https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20210330-the-harmful-ableist-language-you-unknowingly-use
“You utter salad!”
Always been something to cook with or The Herb
hmm sometimes both lol
If I really didn't like someone I'd think of them as more of a parsley or celery
Celery can just go fuck itself
"You plant."
As in, you are a plant.
I've looked up herb. They are similar.
"You're such a plant."
"You are an absolutely total fucking plant."
"He's okay, but he's a bit of a plant."
But,
"You plant."
With a sideways glance,
Is the correct form when responding immediately to the silliness of something a friend just told you they did.
If you called me a dillweed I'd assume you meant I was feral, unrestrained and had great taste
Which may sound odd, until you've grown dill, and saved seed, and grown dill again
Dill is sensitive