Talk:Son of a bitch

I don't think I agree with the portion of this entry that says " usually used to refer to an individual who is nasty, rude or otherwise offensive "

This , IMHO, is the generic reason for most profanity directed at an individual.

Son of a Bitch , taken literally is a multi level insult designed to insult both the person and their mother. One could just as easily say " Your mother is a bitch " taking the literal meaning of female dog, and therefore the person targeted is teh offspring of a female dog.

I.e. a son of a bitch is a male dog. Either that or a hybrid with a name ending in "og":-) .... -- Smjg 10:42, 2 September 2005 (UTC)[reply]

The idea as I see it is to seperate the intent of the insult from the actual insult. You have decided to insult a person for whatever reason. From there you start to generate an insult and then deliver it. The actual insult you choose may or may not be directly chosen based on the reason you want to insult that person.

In the case of son of a bitch, this is fairly generic and can be used without any direct reflection of the reason why you are insulting someone.

This also does not take into account the phrase " You poor son of a bitch " , which is more sympathetic than insulting to the target, and could be seen as a insult directed at teh mother of the target without insulting the target intentionally.

Discussion ?

-- What is the history of this phrase? I know that Shakespeare used it in King Lear (II,ii), "the Sonne and Heir of a Mungrell Bitch," but are there any uses of the phrase before then?

"sumbitch"?

I am a native South Carolinian, I have lived in this state my entire life, and I have never, ever heard anyone ever say 'sumbitch' outside of a film or television show.