Google
English-Test.net
Find penpals and make new friends today!
 
person employed to deliver official dispatches or go on special errands
circumstance
messenger
equity
propensity
TOEIC practice test: Online word games: Free Nouns Quiz Answer
 
Username
Password
 Remember me? 
Search   FAQ   Memberlist   Profile   Private messages   Register   Log in 

How often do you use tjhe adjective 'promiscuous'?



 
ESL/EFL Worksheets and Handouts for Students Printable, photocopiable, clearly structured
Designed for teachers and individual learners
For use in a classroom, at home, on your PC
ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms
Should be WHEN instead of IF: "Mind your head if bending" | meaning of "in one respect"
Message Author
How often do you use tjhe adjective 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 7:59 am  How often do you use tjhe adjective 'promiscuous'?
 

Hi, I've noticed that ever since Nelly Furtado released her song "Promiscuous Girl", hundreds of people find our site googling 'define promiscuous'. I'd be interested to know who of you uses the word 'promiscuous' on a regular basis? I must admit I hadn't before the song became popular....
_________________
Test Of English for International Communication
TOEIC Preparation & TOEIC Vocabulary
Torsten
Site Admin
Torsten Daerr

Joined: 25 Sep 2003
Posts: 7363
Location: EU

Promiscuous/promiscuity Tue Jan 16, 2007 12:55 pm  Promiscuous/promiscuity
 

There is the same term in Spanish (promiscuo/promiscuidad), where it is, as in English, far from uncommon. Personally, I don't really make a regular use of it, no!

Out of curiosity (and being in a bit of a feminist mood, be it said -- let's face it: these negative terms are mostly applied to females Evil or Very Mad ), I wanted to compare the use of 'promiscuous woman' versus 'promiscuous man'. Google shows 40.800 hits for the first and 965 for the second. No comment.
Conchita
Language Coach


Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain

Sign up for FREE and explore English! Click to subscribe to email English courseWant to learn about the future tenses? Read this story and smileAre you a native speaker of English? Then you should read this!English grammar exercises — improve your English knowledge and vocabulary skills
How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 13:43 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

.
My sentiments exactly, Conchita.
.
Yankee
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 16 Apr 2006
Posts: 7827
Location: USA

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 13:50 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

And there was me innocently thinking that Google was female!

A
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story Womens' Day
Alan
Co-founder
Alan Townend

Joined: 27 Sep 2003
Posts: 7376
Location: UK

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 15:23 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

hehe

Well I, ah, never use "promiscuous" when referring to myself... because I'm not. No, really, I'm not promiscuous.

---

Stacy Ferguson [AKA "Fergie" & "The Dutchess (sic)"] is also bringing "promiscuous" back en vogue... via her song "Fergalicious".

How embarrassing -- misspelling one's own nickname (well, it's only the title of her debut solo album, but the girl from the Black Eyed Peas is also naming herself with it).

http://fergie.blackeyedpeas.com/
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.
prezbucky
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 2145
Location: Nashville, TN (USA)

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 16:07 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

prezbucky wrote:
hehe

Well I, ah, never use "promiscuous" when referring to myself... because I'm not. No, really, I'm not promiscuous.

Phew, that's one big load off my shoulder, Tom! Twisted Evil
Conchita
Language Coach


Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 16:11 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

har har har

My lack of promiscuity may or may not have something to do with my penchant for ruining a romantic moment by telling the female how she has just erred in her attempt to speak our glorious language.

hehe
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.
prezbucky
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 2145
Location: Nashville, TN (USA)

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 16:20 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

TMI for 'too much... information'? No, don't tell me -- I'd rather work it out myself.

TTFN (ta-ta for now)!
Conchita
Language Coach


Joined: 26 Dec 2005
Posts: 2702
Location: Madrid, Spain

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Tue Jan 16, 2007 16:42 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

well I don't want to ruin your search for truth, Conchita, but:

TMI = Too Much Information

You had it right.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.
prezbucky
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 2145
Location: Nashville, TN (USA)

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Wed Jan 17, 2007 13:30 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

Torsten wrote:
Hi, I've noticed that ever since Nelly Furtado released her song "Promiscuous Girl", hundreds of people find our site googling 'define promiscuous'. I'd be interested to know who of you uses the word 'promiscuous' on a regular basis? I must admit I hadn't before the song became popular....

I use the word "promiscuous" quite a lot, not only about women, and not only about sex.

Last night I wrote the sentence, "I come from the advertising and communications industry, where management fires people quite promiscuously."

I'm annoyed with that word game that feminists from the 1960s and 1970s play to "prove" that "all the negative terms apply to women". This is just a trick of selecting the negative terms that do apply to women, and not bothering to look for negative terms that specifically apply to men. I have sat in corporate "gender sensitivity" seminars where the (female, from the 1970s) head of human resources cherry-picked ugly words referring to females, and ignored equal or uglier words that are used only in reference to men -- most of the ones used about men were too obscene to write here. When I would give these male-specific terms, the head of HR just stared at me. She couldn't deny that these expressions were just as common, or even more common, than the ones referring to women, and that they were just as bad or worse, but my bringing them up threw a monkey wrench into her feminist theory, and she wasn't able to comment on it.

Let's play at this Google game some more. Here are some terms I tried:

abusive woman - 9,810
abusive man - 94,700

abusive wife - 58,800
abusive husband - 407,000

abusive mother - 74,300
abusive father - 362,000
This one is especially interesting, because it has been statistically shown that the parent most likely to physically abuse a child -- or even murder one -- is a divorced mother.

thinking with her little head - 0
thinking with his little head - 130
("Little head" as opposed to the big one.)

angry mother - 72,200
angry father - 90,100

Don't forget also that some terms are considered to belong to one gender or another by default, and only in unusual situations do people add a gender designation. Here's an example:

male nurse - 372,000
female nurse - 113,000
Obviously, this does not mean that most nurses are men. It means that when people think of a nurse, they automatically think of a woman unless someone indicates that the person is a man.

male psychopath - 294
female psychopath - 16,400
This does not mean that people think most psychopaths are women. It means that if a psychopath is a man, they simply say "psychopath", and that they have to use the term "female" overtly if they don't want people to think of a man automatically.
Jamie (K)
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 24 Feb 2006
Posts: 4337
Location: Detroit, Michigan, USA

How often do you use 'promiscuous'? Wed Jan 17, 2007 18:11 pm  How often do you use 'promiscuous'?
 

I feel hurt by this discrimination. What an abomination this is!

Woe unto men, for their plight groweth.
_________________
Billie Jean is not my lover. Hee.
prezbucky
I'm a Communicator ;-)


Joined: 07 Nov 2006
Posts: 2145
Location: Nashville, TN (USA)

Display posts from previous:   
Should be WHEN instead of IF: "Mind your head if bending" | meaning of "in one respect"
ESL Forum | English Vocabulary, Grammar and Idioms How often do you use tjhe adjective 'promiscuous'? All times are GMT + 2 Hours
Page 1 of 1
Latest topics on English Forums
meaning of "true-crime buffs"I liked the idea of his having a rest: 'his' instead of 'him'This vs. that'Time' vs 'timing'About the possessive 'sExpression: 'In a rut of a busy day, aren't we fast losing the human touch?'Help with context: Lake Baikal, which today is located near the center of...Those days vs. These daysCome to an end vs. come to the endHaving problem with the commause of the Present Simple in the phrase 'I forget the name now'meaning of "That’s all there is."What are compound nouns?Indian words used in English! Sherbat, Pankah, Chutney"Do you have" vs. "Have you"The correct use of "vs" (versus)"Despite of" versus "inspite of"Use article in phrase "very bad tooth ache"How often do you use tjhe adjective 'promiscuous'?

Discover English-test.net
Shriek with laughterUsing gerundWhat does "haveth" mean, the same as "have"?Is it in Britain English or American English?ASVAB test: Vocabulary Words: English Nouns AdjectivesASVAB test: Word games: Free Online Noun Adjective GameMeaning of countenance, solitary, credulous, staccato, hardyPimsleur Vietnamese, Comprehensive Course: Pimsleur Vietnamese Language Learning ProgramElementary English grammar: Infinitive vs. GerundSeventh-Grade Viking Warrior audiobook download

 
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
Subscribe to FREE email English course written by Alan Townend
First name E-mail