I'm curious, what part of speech are insults? When you say "that guy Steve is such a dick." What is "dick"?
And yes, I can picture all the dumb joke answers... so stay on topic. You dicks.
Insults are not a part of speech, they are a tone of speech. The specific phase could be declarative, interrogatory or even an interjection. (e.g. -"You're stupid" or "Are you stupid?")
An derogatory epithet is usually a noun or a noun with an adjective or some other modifier.
It is usually better to characterize what a person says or does, rather than name calling when you need to critique their actions. (e.g.- "That was a foolish thing to say", rather than "You are a fool.")
(I assume this was a legit question, and not just a setup for the joke at the end of your toot.)
@Pat , not a setup for a joke, legitimate question. You say insults are nouns... I am resistant to that because they can't be touched... which is how I learned what a noun was back when Eisenhower was just a butter bar. You can touch a buffoon, for example.
But, I'm a math guy, not English. And I know it.
@JonKramer @Pat It's just anything that's derogatory. If it's intended to offend or denigrate the listener, it's an insult.
In other words, I don't think the concept of "insult" is limited to one part of speech. "dick" would be a noun, but "stupid" would be an adjective or a noun, and "shitting the bed" would be dominated by the verb. Yet all are insults.
@Pat @LouisIngenthron I'm not sure what a "tone" is, when discussing parts of speech. I'll look it up in the morning.
A tone is not a part of speech. That's the point.
I'm not sure intent is required for something to be an insult. I (apparently) insult people all the time without even knowing it.
@Pat @LouisIngenthron ah, my question is what part of speech "dick" would be when insulting someone.
There are tangible and intangible nouns. And some words can be used as nouns or verbs.
If you said, "You are a dick.", then it's a noun. If you said, "The woman at the car dealership was trying to sell me the car and asked me to come into the office to dicker." That's just a verb, not a noun.
(It's also a very old joke.)
Also, just to further confuse things...
The word "insult" can be a noun or a verb.
@LouisIngenthron @JonKramer
I did not say that an insult is a noun. I said an insult is tone.
A specific type of insult, known as an epithet (the word epithet has different meanings - I'm referring to a derogatory epithet for this context), is usually a noun or a phrase with a noun. But an epithet is not the only type of insult.
There are lots of different types of insults. A gesture or even just silence could be an insult in some contexts.