Same in Blighty no way is the term sexual. Might be used to some one who voted for Hillary(English Sarcasm)
Agreed...scumbag doesn't mean anything sexual at all... as Tom rightly says it means the same as wherever you are @Neville Telen an objectionable person...a lowlife, basically...
@Holly Saunders We have made a game of coming up with synonyms for your term; lets see if I can recall some...... vagabond rascal rapscallion hoodlum hooligan half-wit mendicant miscreant rogue scoundrel blackguard foot-pad Think you of any others? scrounger
a lot of those probably haven't been used since Edwardian or even Victorian times ...some like Vagabond came into common usage from India during the Raj period... We have literally thousands of adjectives we use that aren't common in other western Countries... I've never heard of foot-pad.. Those still in most common use from your list.. Hooligan Rogue Half-wit Hoodlum Blackguard ( pronounced Blaggard ) is// was most commonly used by the upper class to describe a rogue Miscreant most often used by the legal system
@Holly Saunders Why, thank you for taking the time! It slips my mind always that we (you and I) are talking the same language but at the same time, different ones. I have a bit of difficulty with reference to a "lowlife"; that was why I wrote, basically. For example, someone having attained high-position in life, be it monetarily, fame, or public popularity, would very likely look askance at this old man and proclaim me a "lowlife". It has to do with "relativity". Would it be acceptable, do you think, to describe homeless folks as "lowlifes"? The abyss becomes apparent, yes? For example, the pitiful homeless situation currently occurring in Myanmar involves a minority faction of Muslims being essentially "eradicated" by a Buddhist majority, militarily controlled. Are those Muslims "lowlifes"? Frank EDIT: "Footpad" was a term heard in early television, the phrase being used only by Arthur Godfrey, in referring to highwaymen, yet another nebulous descriptive noun.
In a nutshell Frank, the term lowlife is almost entirely used to describe those who are basically out to fleece or harm others ( or even themselves through drug abuse etc ) for their own selfish reasons... . This could be anyone regardless of Status, creed or colour... although generally ..the term is most often used here to describe, muggers, robbers, thieves, child abusers, and terrorists Incidentally , most Brits would never know who Arthur Godfrey was...I wouldn't have known myself if it wasn't for my love of country music, and had listened to Ferlin Husky refer to Arthur Godfrey in an interview...
The word POSH just came to mind. I was told that this term was coined during the days when England ruled India and people traveled back and forth by ship. When booking a cabin the preferred accommodations were on the port side of the ship going to India and on the starboard side when returning to England. Port Out Starboard Home. I have no idea if this is true but it makes a good story.
@Holly Saunders I wondered about Arthur Godfrey's "reach". He was very popular here, until he foolishly fired young and popular singer Julius LaRosa live, on the air. Frank
By all intents and purposes it's a true story...it's always one we were taught... Incidentally POSH is a word in very common usage to describe those who are perceived to be of a higher class than the hoy polloi ... never heard of the 'popular' Julias .. Frank...what happened?
@Holly Saunders I was just a kid, so understood little of it. LaRosa was a good and popular singer who I think was given his first big break by Godfrey, on his show. Godfrey had a hidden mean streak, as was revealed years later.
According to several Brit-based forums I got banned from, it's a sex slang word....as best as I can figure, those Brits was desperately holding to the old (1939) definition ~ https://www.etymonline.com/word/scumbag
Well, after a lot of searching I found this ~ https://www.dictionary.com/browse/scumbag, but frankly I think they were looking for an excuse to ban me, and this was a convenient smokescreen....though how two different forums coordinated to use the same exact tactic is questionable.
@Neville Telen Pray tell, WTH were you up to that might have justified being banned? Further, does not a forum's basic economic value suffer as it loses many members? Frank
Don't recall exactly. Vaguely recall one was https://linuxformat.com/forums/, which looks to of shut down since...guess they just could not survive without my words of wisdom. Think it had something to do with DRM, and I said something like all the companies that joined TCG proved themselves to be apex scumbags. Mod then sent a email banning me for cussing, and the word targeted was scumbag. Don't recall the other forum, or much else, other than the same word set that mod off too. At that point I looked into its definition, and made the jump that it was a Brit slang thing, albeit a really really old one....like 'thee', 'thy', 'ye', 'nonce', etc.