Douchebag

I've had an issue that I've been mulling for a while. It's perplexing me, and I'm hoping that the collective intelligence of the blogging community can help answer this question.

Why do we use "douche" or "douchebag" or "douchenozzle" as a pejorative term when referring to someone?

First of all, douche is a French word meaning "wash". And while it might be trendy to use any French word as a pejorative among the moral majority (and mental minority), it doesn't make any sense.

Douching is also widely considered to be a cleansing activity. It rinses and cleans, flushing out the bad. While the reality of the situation is that women who douche might cause more harm than good because they can upset their chemical balance and cause further irritation and infection, the general impression among people is that it's a good thing.

So if most people consider it to be a cleansing activity and a good thing, why is it used to describe bastards, slouches, nogoodniks and punks?

Maybe it's the act of douching. By calling someone a name that implies they have been stuck inside a vagina, that could be an insult, I guess. But we already call people dicks or cocks, so that's already taken care of.

Personally, I think that since douching is considered by the general public to be a good thing, we should start referring to people who perform acts of humanity or charity as douches.

"That Mother Theresa was a real douche. She helped a lot of people."

"It's Martin Luther King Day! That man was a visionary and a douchebag."

"Happy birthday, Mom. Thank you for being such a huge douche."

Added: 1/16/2007 08:59:00 AM
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