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Currently we have tags for all of the following:

, , , , , , , , and

This is a bit... excessive. So I'm now accepting suggestions for a word to bundle all of these together and avoid so much duplication. Also mention any other tags that need to go in the same bucket.

(HT to both RebeccaChernoff and RegDwight for bringing this to my attention.)

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  • I thought 'euphemism' didn't necessarily belong but we have used it only on questions that could easily be grouped in, except one (Profs & Students) where it would make sense to remove the tag I think.
    – aedia λ
    Jul 13, 2011 at 3:08
  • Possibly related tags: profanity, perjorative, homophobia, chinglish. Related on the euphemism end: slang, vernacular, buzzword.
    – aedia λ
    Jul 13, 2011 at 3:35
  • philosophically speaking, you might ask how we got in this situation in the first place...
    – Jeff Atwood
    Jul 13, 2011 at 8:33
  • 1
    @Jeff We could ask that, but I'm pretty sure it would be a different question then. Of course, it would still be a good question for Meta, so feel free to ask it.
    – Kit Z. Fox Mod
    Jul 13, 2011 at 13:10
  • 6
    Dirty words? There appears to be some sort of Moral Majority panic going on on this site.
    – jaybee
    Jul 15, 2011 at 13:39

5 Answers 5

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18

I would keep and , as there is a difference between an euphemism and an offensive word. for example, downsizing can be a euphemism for cuts, but cuts is not an offensive word; it's just a word that in that context is avoided.

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  • I go for this. If we later decide we want to move euphemism into the other, we can.
    – MrHen
    Jul 13, 2011 at 20:04
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My personal preference would be for either or as the root tag, with all of the above as synonyms.

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  • 6
    I like offensive-language more than vulgarity since it seems to me a more generic grouping - vulgar always makes me think of common.
    – aedia λ
    Jul 13, 2011 at 3:00
4

I think a single tag could rule them all: . Vulgarity is covered in that, and euphemism is really not relevant as euphemisms in this context are avoidances of offensive language.

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I renamed [offensive] to .

Then I merged the following into and created synonyms mapping them to :

  • [taboo]
  • [vulgar]
  • [expletives]
  • [obscenity]
  • [pejorative]
  • [swearing]
  • [profanity]

Many of these questions had several of these tags already, which further speaks to the fact that having all of these tags was unnecessary.

I did not touch:

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  • 2
    This is great. If you add a rule to exclude questions tagged with offensive-language from the supercollider, will Jeff leave us alone?
    – nohat Mod
    Jul 15, 2011 at 23:43
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I would also support as a root tag for most of this. However, I would say to keep separate; insults are not necessarily offensive to listeners, just the subject. "Dumber than a box of rocks" is an insult, but no censor would consider it "offensive". And yes, keep separate, as the the word for which another word is euphemistic does not have to be offensive.

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