Slate.com recently explored the derivation of the popular term “douche”. Douche (short for douchebag) is such a useful term, one that we use often on this blog. For that reason, we were so excited to learn the history. When did the term become an insult? Here are some highlights from their research…
“The Historical Dictionary of American Slang traces the epithet douche to a 1968 collection of college slang compiled at Brown University, which defined the word as “a person who always does the wrong thing.” The insult douchebag is somewhat older. The 1939 novel Ninety Times Guilty includes a pimp named Jimmy Douchebag, and the Historical Dictionary of American Slang traces the epithetical usage to a 1946 journal article about military slang, which offered the definition “a military misfit.”
“There’s some support for douche as simply a nonspecific term of disparagement, much like its fellow d-words dick, dillweed, and dipshit. In a 2009 New York Times article about the surging popularity of douche in sitcoms, a writer for the show Community said, “You’re always reaching for a more potent way to call somebody a jerk.”
Why yes, in fact we are. And that’s exactly why the term is so useful!
UrbanDictionary.com has an excellent modern definition which we have excerpted here:
“The term “douchebag” generally refers to a male with a certain combination of obnoxious characteristics related to attitude, social ineptitude, public behavior, or outward presentation.
Though the common douchebag thinks he is accepted by the people around him, most of his peers dislike him. He has an inflated sense of self-worth, compounded by a lack of social grace and self-awareness. He behaves inappropriately in public, yet is completely ignorant to how pathetic he appears to others.”
Isn’t that a useful summary? We think so!
To read the full article via Slate: click here
To read the full definition from UrbanDictionary.com: click here
