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.
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.
@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.
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.
@Pat @LouisIngenthron ah, my question is what part of speech "dick" would be when insulting someone.