Lately, I've been thinking about kennings

[conuly]

A kenning, to put this very simply, is a poetic substitution for a common word. They're quite popular in Norse poetry - instead of saying "gold" you might say "Sif's hair" (which was replaced with a magical wig of gold), instead of saying "sun" you might say "sky's jewel".

If you look at it right, kennings exist in Modern English as well - we refer to Superman as "the Man of Steel", and small children as "rugrats", and there's a whole host of highly offensive slurs that fit the bill as well. (If you don't look at it right, they don't exist in Modern English really, because we don't do much with them. But I like to think they do, so... yeah.)

I have spent a considerable amount of time amusing myself by writing out lists of kennings in Modern English (four eyes, skyscraper, Caped Crusader, pencil pusher...), but I will refrain from inflicting the entire list on you all. These lists are much more interesting to compose than to read anyway. Also, I'm hoping that if I don't pretend to be comprehensive, somebody will suggest a term that I've completely overlooked.

Comments

[miss_s_b]

"orange-faced s**tgibbon" for the POTUS is one I hear a lot recently...

[conuly]

That'd be a slur. Kennings are particularly common in that category, though unlike slurs against individuals, most of them are the awful sort that you're not supposed to repeat in polite company.

[miss_s_b]

the awful sort that you're not supposed to repeat in polite company

Hence the asterisks (I'm not usually an asterisking kind of person).

So Kennings are less specific then?

[conuly]

No, they're not. I mean, there's a zillion for "Odin" alone. Not in English, though. I meant that the slurs I was thinking of were mostly racist or sexist or homophobic epithets. I'm interested in them on a listing level, but I don't care to repeat them in a public forum because I don't want people thinking I say things like that :)

(I don't mind people thinking I say "shit", or insult Donald Trump.)

[miss_s_b]

Ah, OK, fairy nuff :)

[conuly]

(Sorry so pedantic there. It's, like, 4am here and I am still awake, so... yeah.)

[miss_s_b]

No no, pedantry is GOOD. I LIKE pedantry :)