Are Words Offensive?
Nowadays, everyone seems to be taken aback with mentions of specific words seen as taboo such as 'gay', or 'bitch' or whatever. But why does everyone automatically associate those words with the offensive meanings rather than the innocent, normally used meanings which have existed far before and still do?
Gay
This is often seen as some offensive word used to compare someone to a homosexual. But it is not actually meant to be an offensive word because it has two very valid meanings. One is how those which are this actually call themselves by this term, and the second is used to describe the feeling of happiness. Read an older book like 'The Coral Island' if you want evidence of this, it is seriously apparent.
Bitch/bastard
Often seen as offensive words, these do actually have legitimate meanings for which there are few other words that can be used to describe it. For one, bitch is commonly used to refer to females of the canine species in general, such as female dogs. And bastard is a perfectly normal word to describe illegitimate children. Regardless of what some political correctness extremists think, such words are not meant to be used as insult words or for swearing.
Sod
Although sometimes used as a swear word, this has a perfectly legitimate meaning to a patch of soild/earth, a country or even a human body or animal carcass. In fact, it is very rare that this is used, from my experiences as an insult. It is also used in the famous axiom 'Sods Law'. And as Wikipedia shows, there are a whole list of possible uses for it referring to anything from Secretary of Defense to Superoxide dismutase which is an enzyme.
Hell
Not really used as an insult, but seems to be held as an offensive word by some cultures. Jeeze, are they that offended by a word that is often used to describe a place of unimaginable evil or torture especially that referred to in the Bible?
There you have it. Just clearing up why quite a few words used for somewhat offensive reasons by the few are NOT evil words by any mean, or inherantly offensive. In my opinion though, it is a right pity that many choose to refer to the offensive meaning when using them rather than the good one (and in the case of hell, are slightly offended by even the most minor, totally innocent word). I have not even really started on the vast list of words often seen as offensive which have fair, nice meanings though, but if I had, this page would be like infinite times longer than it needs to be.