New answers tagged word-choice
2
You might do well by digesting relevant English-language media. You can choose the national origin if you want to insult like a particular country's native speaker and you can also somewhat dial in on class, race, time-period etc by the particular films/TV/books you choose.
7
Insults are a tricky part of vernacular to manage since they often vary widely not just by country but by region, the age of the people using them and time period. There's often some overlap but assuming the setting of the story is Earth as we know you'd have to research the specific sort of insults common to the setting.
And err… when the setting is not ...
5
One place to look is an etymology site. (etymology is word origin): Here is one for "twit". It says, as a noun,
"foolish, stupid and ineffectual person," 1934, British slang, popular 1950s-60s, crossed over to U.S. with British sitcoms. It probably developed from twit (v.) in the sense of "reproach," but it may be influenced by nitwit.
If I am writing a ...
4
Twit is not unfamiliar to Americans and usually is a childish insult. A Dunce is a person who is incapable of learning (not necessarily because he/she is stupid, as will be discussed in a moment) and is usually used to refer to a child of primary/elementary school age (5-10). The term doesn't ordinarily reflect intelligence, as the term entered into ...
4
You seem to be going about this in a writer-centric fashion - which is probably not the best way forward.
The majority of characterisation is achieved through language and behaviour. "What kind of person would have used that language?"
English Language usage is dependent on exposure and experience as opposed to locale. I can assure you 'Dunce' is not ...
1
Puns are synonyms for plays on words, and neither need to be humorous, though the former almost always denotes a joke, it's hard to find a serious use of a play on words due to the fact that the double meaning of the word when used in context.
Your quote is not a play on words because the spelling of the word doesn't change it's meaning. "Gray" is a ...
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