http://www.renewamerica.us/forum/?date=040208The process by which these words have become acceptable in everyday speech is known in linguistics as Amelioration.
Just in my lifetime I have watched the word Sucks ameliorate from an extremely crude expression to a word as benign as stinks. To most of the kids today, the origin of what the word refers to is not even part of its usage. Even the older generations are using it with its new meaning and no thought of its origins.
And how many people today speak of being Screwed by the IRS without a second thought of its crude origins?
Other words that were once benign, like Gay and Boner have become crude. In linguistics, the process by which words that were once acceptable become crude is called Pejoration.
As one example you mentioned the word "sucks". Yes, it is becoming more common every day, but it is definitely not benign. I remember the first time that I heard the word used, in the meaning of today, on television. It was spoken by Robert Blake, on the Tonight Show (with Johnny Carson). It was shocking because it meant the same thing then that it does today. It pertains to homosexual activity, and it is exceedingly crude and unseemly. That people speak it without understanding its meaning is because of poor education and lack of proper upbringing and training in the customs of civilized society.
