Talk:snarl word

Based on my reading of S.I. Hayakawa's _Language in Thought and Action_, Fifth Edition, I would like to append the phrase "...within a specific subculture or community." to this definition. He cites the words and phrases "leftist" and "Wall Street" as snarl words, which are slurs in one subculture, compliments in another, and neutral in neutral reporting.

Thoughts? — This unsigned comment was added by Mark10002 (talk • contribs) at 21:30, 15 February 2020‎.

Strange. To me those are neutral terms (what else are you gonna call Wall Street): certainly there are some groups that dislike the things those terms refer to, but they don't seem like charged terms in themselves. Equinox ◑ 21:33, 15 February 2020 (UTC)

Ignoring the issue of whether leftist or Wall Street are snarl words, I certainly see how something can be a snarl word in one community but not another. (I don't know if it's a snarl word per se, but spaz is a word that differs markedly in how offensive it is between the UK and US.) I think our definition, "a derogatory term that cannot be used in a neutral or positive way", is simply wrong. David Crystal's 2007 Words, Words, Words talks about how something that's a purr word to him might be a snarl word to you, "and what was yesterday [a purr word] might be a snarl word today", and Jay Cline's Voices in literature, language, and composition (1969) uses spinach (which clearly can also be used neutrally!) as an example of a snarl word for people who hate the taste of spinach. More generally, the results for google books:"snarl word" seem to support the view that snarl words can have neutral meanings. Although RationalWiki (I know...) offers a wordy definition and a questionable list of examples, I think they are onto something when they say it's a derogatory label (attached to something to dismiss it) which could (elsewhere) have an actual/neutral meaning, but when used as a snarl word may be basically meaningless / semantically bleached. (Leftists calling anything and everything "neoliberal" is a good example.) - -sche (discuss) 02:44, 13 March 2020 (UTC)

I think the crux is that it's not that a snarl word cannot ever be used in a neutral way, but that, when it's being used as a snarl word, it's not being used in a neutral way / with its neutral meaning, but is instead an insult.