16 Mar

scumbag

Who taught: Andrew

scumbag (source: http://www.sodahead.com/)

A few days ago, I stumbled upon this blog post about being super-rich. The sentence that caught my eyes was this one.

Nobody has the excuse of ‘lack of money’ for not being at peace and living in integrity. If they choose to live otherwise, that’s their business.

This is one of the responses from a millionnaire who was interviewed with regard to “why the poor should be happy.” If I meet him/her personally, I would like to ask one more question, “If you were one of the poor, would you be able to say the same thing?” If the answer were yes, then I would not be able to say anything further. I guess we can all agree that it is easier said than done. Regardless of whether he/she can do what he/she said or not, what he/she said itself is correct. At least to me! These days, people are getting more and more materialistic. And, sometimes, there are people who are so disgusting and hard to be accepted. Or, probably, it is not sometimes but rather many times which makes me kind of sad.

To make yourself be prepared for the situation that you meet those people, you need to learn today’s expression. This is perfect. So, yesterday, Andrew and I had a chat using IM in which he taught me the expression. The reason why he thought of teaching me that one was that he just found out its etymology that he had no idea before even though he’s been using the expression all the time. So, are you ready? When you see someone who is so disgusting or an asshole, you can say, “That guy is a scumbag!” Etymology of this expression is so perfect that, once you know it, you will not forget this expression.

Scum is equal to cum. Do you know what cum is? It is another word for semen. Now, a bag that holds semen or cum is…… ? That is right it is condom. Even worse, scumbag means “a used condom.” Nobody want a used condom. I do not even want to see or touch it, would you? Now, do I need to ask your feeling about this expression? I guess not. Having that feeling, you can connect this expression with a person who is so contemptible and disgusting. To make even more obvious, let me give you a very specific example. How about Tiger Woods? I can totally say that he is a scumbag. As you know, he is super-rich.

Then, my final thought or more like question is, “Is it really hard to be super-rich and, at the same time, not a scumbag?” If the answer were yes, I would rather stay poor or hungry just like Steve Jobs said.

There is another expression that is very similar to scumbag. It is “scum of the earth.” Search for it! That is today’s homework for ya.

7 thoughts on “scumbag

    • I was surprised as both of you, but the origin seems to be pretty solid. I learned it from this Tim Ferriss article.

      Here’s a pretty good explanation from The Slate:

      The original meaning of scumbag is “condom.” The Oxford English Dictionary dates the term to 1967, with 1971 as the first example of the “despicable person” sense, but current research has pushed the dates back to 1935 (based on the still earlier scum, “semen,” and bag, “a condom”) and 1950 respectively.

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