LettersWhy suck is a dirty word
If I may assist the Rev Neil Richardson (Letters, September 12), the derisive or negative use of the verb "to suck", espcially in the phrase "this sucks", is a 1950s coinage - predating the Simpsons, although originating, like them, in America. The sucking in question refers to the act of fellatio, for which "suck" has been a synonym since at least the 1920s. Like the consumption of lollies, most people experience this as a "pleasant experience", but its use in slang is based on the negative depiction of the fellator as subservient and, in a mixture of misogyny and homophobia, in some way dirty.
Jonathon Green
London
Is the Greenford, Middx where the Rev Richardson lives the Greenford, Middx to be found on planet Earth?
Bruce Marshall
Bath, Somerset
The Reverend Richardson (Letters, today), is either very young or needs to get out more. The word "sucks", as a derogatory expression, derives from "sucks ass", an Americanism, nothing to do with donkeys, which pre-dates the Simpsons by at least thirty years, and maybe more.
Ron Graves
Birkenhead
Rev Neil Richardson is very innocent indeed (letters September 12). The perjorative Americanism 'suck', which predates The Simpsons, derives from dental oneupmanship. The Americans are universally proud of their pearly whites and loudly scorn anyone (ie the rest of the world) who cannot match this orthodontic pulchritude. Sucking on popsicles, lollies, candy etc threatens global oral domination and leads to the venemous insult: "You suck!" One American friend pithly translated this for me as: 'You're gonna get English teeth!'
S Louth
London
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