son of a bitch love

Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person regarded as mean or disagreeable.
  • interjection Used to express annoyance, disgust, disappointment, or amazement.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun pejorative, slang An objectionable person.
  • noun pejorative, slang Any objectionable thing.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun insulting terms of address for people who are stupid or irritating or ridiculous

Etymologies

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Examples

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Comments

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  • An early use is attributed to John Shirley:

    "There stands Jack Ketch, that Son of a Bitch" (The Triumph of Wit, 1707, as quoted in TLS)

    October 10, 2007

  • Wasn't Jack Ketch a famous executioner in London? I think I remember that name from reading Neal Stephenson's novels...

    October 10, 2007

  • chained_bear: There is even a word - ketchcraft

    October 10, 2007

  • Now there's an occupation.

    October 10, 2007

  • Sionnach! You rock!

    I'm *so glad* that wasn't just some bizarre insanity that sprang fully formed from my overworked brain...

    October 10, 2007

  • Oh, but those are the best kinds of insanity!

    October 10, 2007

  • Look, I love arcane knowledge as much as the next wordie, but some facts, and some days, just make me think, "Why the f$%# do I have room for *that* in my brain, and I can't remember whether I have a dentist appointment today?!" Knowing that Jack Ketch was a famous/infamous eighteenth-century London executioner is just one of those facts. Son of a bitch!

    Also, on a lighter note, whenever I see/hear this phrase now, I think of it with exactly the same inflection that Lewis Black uses.

    October 10, 2007

  • I suspect that many, many Wordies have the same brain space allotment problem.

    October 10, 2007

  • Show me your teeth!

    November 18, 2008

  • "Her husband undertook his godson's defence, representing with great warmth that he knew Keypstick to be a good-for-nothing pimping old rascal, and that Perry showed a great deal of spirit and good sense in desiring to be taken from under his command; he therefore declared that the boy should not live a week longer with such a shambling son of a b--, and sanctioned this declaration with abundance of oaths."

    — Smollett, Peregrine Pickle, 1751

    January 14, 2022