Tough guys with Mullets that blasted Metallica said "Mint" (term of approval) every sentence back in 1980's Long Island. I just learned it also meant "a trace of homosexual tendencies" a few decades prior.
I don't understand how people can keep their angst for this long to make it all the way to a HN comment in 2026.
Stuff like this is precisely why it's accused of being/becoming a reddit clone. We don't need the constant barrage of these cultural and identity comments. For several years now it feels like we've been taking on the people displaced from the twitter buyout.
With all due respect, genuinely, what are you talking about?
I don't read any angst in that comment, just an interesting observation about local slang and the history of similar words.
Also if you're not supposed to comment about culture or identity in a thread about slang, a very cultural and identity specific concept, what's the point of the article?
Your comment reeks of elitism and condescension. If you're this upset over a public comment on a public forum, perhaps you should take your needless pedantry to a private forum where you can moderate out anyone with differing perspectives.
I did a lot of text cleaning a while ago and we tried to normalize curse word spelling as part of that. That was, by far, the most interesting text cleaning I have ever done. It is really clear how much innovation in the English language is happening there.
Tough guys with Mullets that blasted Metallica said "Mint" (term of approval) every sentence back in 1980's Long Island. I just learned it also meant "a trace of homosexual tendencies" a few decades prior.
I don't understand how people can keep their angst for this long to make it all the way to a HN comment in 2026.
Stuff like this is precisely why it's accused of being/becoming a reddit clone. We don't need the constant barrage of these cultural and identity comments. For several years now it feels like we've been taking on the people displaced from the twitter buyout.
With all due respect, genuinely, what are you talking about?
I don't read any angst in that comment, just an interesting observation about local slang and the history of similar words.
Also if you're not supposed to comment about culture or identity in a thread about slang, a very cultural and identity specific concept, what's the point of the article?
Your comment reeks of elitism and condescension. If you're this upset over a public comment on a public forum, perhaps you should take your needless pedantry to a private forum where you can moderate out anyone with differing perspectives.
I did a lot of text cleaning a while ago and we tried to normalize curse word spelling as part of that. That was, by far, the most interesting text cleaning I have ever done. It is really clear how much innovation in the English language is happening there.
I can also recommend Roger's Profanisaurus for a British view of swearwords and vulgar euphemisms: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger%27s_Profanisaurus
Nice! Brings back memories how we made a list of expressions for "fucking" in Czech. Got to 344 before moving on. It's still online even!
https://www.pismak.cz/dilo/41683/
There is an English dictionary of fuck called The F Word
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_F-Word_(book)
Translating this page to English is quite funny