So, you think reading the dictionary is boring...

...or, Now I have new names to call politicians.

The Scotsman provides grist for my mill while managing to take a couple of shots at those unimaginative English folks.

Dictionary shows why it's easier to be nasty than nice

WHEN it comes to being nasty we are rarely lost for words, according to a new dictionary that shows there are almost ten times as many insulting expressions as there are complimentary ones.

The revised second edition of the Oxford Dictionary of English, published today, provides 350 ways of insulting people - but only 40 compliments.
Examples of insults include old-time favourites such as clot, chump, and herbert - dating more from the time of Blackadder than Big Brother - but for the more exotic you could try chucklehead, fribble or even gink and ning-nong.

There are more than 30 ways to call someone mad, but only half a dozen ways to compliment a person on their sanity.

A number of Scottish words also feature on the list of creative ways to put someone down, such as bawheid, gilly-gawpus, ned, numpty, nyaff and tumphy.

Catherine Soanes, co-editor of the dictionary, said: "Sad to say, it seems to be part of human nature to focus on people's negative qualities rather than to praise them. Our research shows that there are nearly ten times as many rude and insulting words than complimentary ones."

On a happier note, there are more names for God than the devil.

There are some 50 words in the dictionary for good-looking women, but only about 20 for hunky men. Where eye candy is concerned, you can try babe, cutie, enchantress, patootie, peach, temptress, or Venus.

But Dr Chris Robinson, a director at the Scottish National Dictionaries, said she was disappointed with the low number of insulting phrases in the English dictionary despite a cultural tradition among poets north of the Border.

She said: "I'm very surprised they could only manage 350. I'm sure we could do much better than that in Scotland. This is because of a tradition among poets at the royal court around the start of the 16th century of something called flyteing.

"This involved such poets as Dunbar, Kennedy and Henderson practising intricate insults at home and then putting them on as entertainment.
"I don't think it is especially surprising as it is human nature to be creative with insults and there is nothing wrong with that. It's no different from the way that bad news travels fast.

"A good Scottish insult might be to call someone a 'shilpit wee nyaff' which means 'a misshapen little good-for-nothing'," Dr Robinson added.

This is now my favorite Phrase That Pays.

Otherwise for a choice insult try: blockhead, dork, lamebrain, lummox, wazzock, mooncalf, fribble or dandiprat.

You could also call someone a gowk, gobdaw, bosthoon, mompara, drongo, muttonhead, palooka, chowderhead, chump, chucklehead, muppet or plank.

If you meet an Australian try: bludger, galah, boofhead, drongo and droob.
Insults that might be more at home over the pond in America include:
apple-knocker, blowhard, dingbat, dirtbag, doofus, dweeb, fink, flapdoodle, gink, gomer, goof, Grinch, lug, momo, mook, mouth breather, pisher, punk, schmuck, skank and yellow dog.

YES!!! FLAPDOODLE!

Many further "lively" words are included in a booklet of Curious Words and Quirky Expressions free with the dictionary.

Dictionary researchers scour databases of hundreds of millions of words including extracts from the works of writers such as Dan Brown and Alexander McCall Smith, and children's authors such as Jacqueline Wilson. (Thanks to WorldNetDaily for the heads up.)