Wanker is slang for "one who wanks (masturbates)", but is most often used as a general insult. It is a pejorative term of English origin common in Britain and other parts of the English-speaking world (mainly Commonwealth of nations), including Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. It is synonymous with the insult tosser . [1]
The terms wank and wanker originated in British slang during the late 19th and early 20th century. [2] [3] In modern usage, it is usually a general term of contempt rather than a commentary on sexual habits. Wanker has similar meanings and overtones to American pejoratives like jerk or jerk-off. [4] More generally, wanker can carry suggestions of egotistical and self-indulgent behaviour and this is the dominant meaning in Australia and New Zealand. [5]
Wanker may be indicated by a one-handed gesture, [6] usually to an audience out of hearing range. [4] It is performed by curling the fingers of the hand into a loose fist and moving the hand back and forth to mime male masturbation, which is equivalent to saying, "that person is a wanker". [7]
In the United States, the term is understood but rarely used.
Related are terms such as "wanker's colic", for an undiagnosed visceral pain, and "wanker's doom", for excessive masturbation, from slang used in the RAF and British prisons since the 1920s. [2]
In December 2000, the Advertising Standards Authority published research on attitudes of the British public to pejoratives. It ranked wanker as the fourth most severe pejorative in English. [8] The BBC describes it as "moderately offensive" and "almost certain" to generate complaints if used before the watershed. [9]
In Australia, it is considered mildly offensive but is widely accepted and used in the media. [10]
Mary Cresswell, an American etymologist, describes "wanker" as "somewhat more offensive in British use than Americans typically realize". [11] The word was used twice to comic effect in The Simpsons episode "Trash of the Titans", which caused no offence to American audiences, but prompted complaints on occasions when the episode was broadcast unedited in the United Kingdom. [12]
"The Winker's Song (Misprint)" by Ivor Biggun is one of many songs about masturbation. It describes the singer: "I'm a wanker, I'm a wanker. And it does me good like it bloody well should", and it reached number 22 in the 1978 UK charts. It was banned by BBC Radio 1 and every national radio and television service. [13]
Phil Collins used the word in his 1984 cameo appearance on Miami Vice and has sometimes been credited with introducing the word to America. [14]
In the film This Is Spinal Tap , David St. Hubbins and Nigel Tufnel both use the word out of earshot to describe fellow rock star Duke Fame after a chance encounter. [15]
On the American television show Married... with Children , Peggy Bundy's maiden name is Wanker and her family is from the fictional Wanker County.
On the British television quiz show Countdown , contestants have to form the longest word possible from nine randomly selected letters. On one occasion, the letters permitted the spelling of "wanker" (or "wankers") and both contestants replied with the word, leading one to quip "we've got a pair of wankers". The sequence was edited out of the show (as is common with risqué words), but has been shown as an outtake on other shows. [16] However, on a later occasion, "wanker" was offered, and this instance was left in and broadcast unedited.
During the New Zealand national cricket team's tours of Australia in the mid-1980s, Australian crowds extensively chanted "Hadlee's a wanker" while New Zealand fast bowler Richard Hadlee was bowling, supported by hand-written banners. The reference even continued after Hadlee had retired, including a "Hadlee's a wanker" banner appearing at an Australia v Croatia soccer game during the 2006 World Cup finals. [17]
The comedy show Mork & Mindy featured a character named Mr. Wanker who was Mindy's landlord. [18] This was broadcast on American TV and later British TV.
Australian band TISM released an album in 1998 entitled www.tism.wanker.com (which was an active website for a few months after its release). One of the themes in its lyrics is breaking down male society into two distinct cultures: Yobs (the subject of the first single released from the album) and wankers. Its third single, "Whatareya?", offers examples of differences between the types and tells the listener to decide which one he is.
Hard rock (formerly glam metal) band Vixen's 1998 album Tangerine contains a hidden instrumental track titled "Swatting Flies in Wanker County", [19] written by then-member Gina Stile.
In February 2009, U2 member Bono called Chris Martin a wanker live on air during Jo Whiley's Radio 1 show. [20]
During a live radio debate on 28 May 2010, the future President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins, urged conservative American radio host Michael Graham to "be proud to be a decent American rather than being just a wanker whipping up fear." [21] [22]
When acting as the ombudsman on Red Eye w/Greg Gutfeld in 2011, Mike Baker presented a graph of the "wanker gap" for the first half of the program. [23] Baker has never given an explanation of the meaning of the "wanker gap."
Jack Vance wrote a science fiction book entitled Servants of the Wankh in 1969. The title was changed to The Wannek due to its sounding like wanker. [24]
Iron Maiden's song "El Dorado" contains a veiled reference to the term in the line "I'm a clever banker's face, with just a letter out of place." In live performances, singer Bruce Dickinson would change to an explicit mention: "I'm a clever wanker's face, just a banker out of place." [25]
In January 2015 the then Mayor of London Boris Johnson described British-born jihadists as "pornography-obsessed inadequates who only turn to radical Islam when they fail to make it with girls...They are literally wankers". [26]
Cockney Wanker is a long running character in Viz , based on a stereotypical male Cockney.
Inspired by controversy about The White Stripes' 2003 song "Seven Nation Army" connected to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, the British composer Ben Comeau wrote, in the style of J. S. Bach, a four-part fugue on the riff of that song to the words "Donald Trump is a wanker." [27] [28]
Rhyming slang is a form of slang word construction in the English language. It is especially prevalent among Cockneys in England, and was first used in the early 19th century in the East End of London; hence its alternative name, Cockney rhyming slang. In the US, especially the criminal underworld of the West Coast between 1880 and 1920, rhyming slang has sometimes been known as Australian slang.
Profanity involves the use of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion, as a grammatical intensifier or emphasis, or to express informality or conversational intimacy. In many formal or polite social situations, it is considered impolite, and in some religious groups it is considered a sin. Profanity includes slurs, but there are many insults that do not use swear words.
Cunt is a vulgar word for the vulva. It is used in a variety of ways, including as a term of disparagement. "Cunt" is often used as a disparaging and obscene term for a woman in the United States, an unpleasant or objectionable man or woman in the United Kingdom and Ireland, or a contemptible man in Australia and New Zealand. In Australia and New Zealand, it can also be a neutral or positive term when used with a positive qualifier. The term has various derivative senses, including adjective and verb uses.
The term four-letter word serves as a euphemism for words that are often considered profane or offensive.
This glossary of names for the British include nicknames and terms, including affectionate ones, neutral ones, and derogatory ones to describe British people, Irish People and more specifically English, Welsh, Scottish and Northern Irish people. Many of these terms may vary between offensive, derogatory, neutral and affectionate depending on a complex combination of tone, facial expression, context, usage, speaker and shared past history.
Pickaninny is a pidgin word for a small child, possibly derived from the Portuguese pequenino. It has been used as a racial slur for African American children and a pejorative term for Aboriginal children of the Americas, Australia, and New Zealand. It can also refer to a derogatory caricature of a dark-skinned child of African descent.
Bugger or buggar can at times be considered as a mild swear word. In the United Kingdom the term has been used commonly to imply dissatisfaction, refer to someone or something whose behaviour is in some way inconvenient or perhaps as an expression of surprise. In the United States, particularly in the Midwest and South, it is an inoffensive slang term meaning "small animal".
Faggot, often shortened to fag in American usage, is a term, usually considered a slur, used to refer to gay men. In American youth culture around the turn of the 21st century, its meaning extended as a broader reaching insult more related to masculinity and group power structure.
"Chav", also "charver", "scally" and "roadman" in parts of England, is a British term, usually used in a pejorative way. The term is used to describe an anti-social lower-class youth dressed in sportswear. The use of the word has been described as a form of "social racism". "Chavette" is a related term referring to female chavs, and the adjectives "chavvy", "chavvish", and "chavtastic" are used to describe things associated with chavs, such as fashion, slang, etc. In other countries like Ireland, "skanger" is used in a similar manner. In Ontario, the term is "hoodman", an equivalent of the term "roadman" used in England. In Newfoundland, "skeet" is used in a similar way, while in Australia, "eshay" or "adlay" is used.
Malakas is a commonly used profane Greek slang word, with a variety of different meanings, but literally meaning "man who masturbates". While it is typically used as an insult, with its literal equivalent in Commonwealth English being "wanker” and “jerk off” in American English, the meaning varies depending on the tone and context used. It can be an exclamation of pleasure, an expression of dark horror, a cry of anger, a declaration of affection, and other different things. Common alternative meanings include "asshole", "motherfucker" "jerk" or "idiot", and the contrasting "dude", or "mate", depending on the context. It has been described as "the most used Greek slang word".
Profanity in Finnish is used in the form of intensifiers, adjectives, adverbs and particles. There is also an aggressive mood that involves omission of the negative verb ei while implying its meaning with a swear word.
In linguistics, reappropriation, reclamation, or resignification is the cultural process by which a group reclaims words or artifacts that were previously used in a way disparaging of that group. It is a specific form of a semantic change. Linguistic reclamation can have wider implications in the fields of discourse and has been described in terms of personal or sociopolitical empowerment.
A taunt is a battle cry, sarcastic remark, gesture, or insult intended to demoralize the recipient, or to anger them and encourage reactionary behaviors without thinking. Taunting can exist as a form of social competition to gain control of the target's cultural capital. In sociological theory, the control of the three social capitals is used to produce an advantage in the social hierarchy, so as to enforce one's own position in relation to others. Taunting is committed by either directly or indirectly encouraging others to taunt the target. The target may give a response in kind to maintain status, as in fighting words and trash-talk.
Fuck is an English-language profanity which often refers to the act of sexual intercourse, but is also commonly used as an intensifier or to convey disdain. While its origin is obscure, it is usually considered to be first attested to around 1475. In modern usage, the term fuck and its derivatives are used as a noun, a verb, an adjective, an interjection or an adverb. There are many common phrases that employ the word as well as compounds that incorporate it, such as motherfucker and fuck off.
Servants of the Wankh is a 1969 science fiction adventure novel by American writer Jack Vance, the second in the tetralogy Tschai, Planet of Adventure. It tells of the efforts of the sole survivor of a human starship destroyed by an unknown enemy to return to Earth from the distant planet Tschai.
Git is a term of insult denoting an unpleasant, silly, incompetent, annoying, senile, elderly or childish person. As a mild oath it is roughly on a par with prat and marginally less pejorative than berk. Typically a good-natured admonition with a strong implication of familiarity, git is more severe than twit or idiot but less severe than wanker, arsehole or twat when offence is intended.
British slang is English-language slang originating from and used in the United Kingdom and also used to a limited extent in Anglophone countries such as India, Malaysia, Ireland, South Africa, Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, especially by British expatriates. It is also used in the United States to a limited extent. Slang is informal language sometimes peculiar to a particular social class or group and its use in Britain dates back to before the 15th century. The language of slang, in common with the English language, is changing all the time; new words and phrases are being added and some are used so frequently by so many, they almost become mainstream.
Sexual slang is a set of linguistic terms and phrases used to refer to sexual organs, processes, and activities; they are generally considered colloquial rather than formal or medical, and some may be seen as impolite or improper.
The following is a list of words and formulations commonly used as profanity throughout Romania.
Wog is a racial slur used to refer, in British English, to black and South Asian people, and, in Australian English, to people from the Mediterranean region. Whilst it is extremely derogatory in British English, in Australian English it may be considered non-offensive depending on how the word is used, due to reclamation and changing connotations.
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