See, I didn’t like that. When I saw that, I immediately thought her parents ought to be ashamed of themselves, teaching a child to react like that. Although I have to say that was an appropriate use of the word if there ever was one!
I’d like to think my children can carry themselves in any social situation, because (hopefully) they are capable of expressing themselves without instinctual reliance on words that have lost their meanings and become little more than self consciously lowbrow shibboleths. I’d like them to be equally able to communicate with people from all races, creeds and upbringings, in a courtroom or on the streets, and part of that will be because they don’t instinctively use words that are not necessarily appropriate to the setting or audience.
