For example, in <CG>'s database I find two players named Hui and one named Puto. "Khuy" (pronounced almost identically to "Hui") is an obscenity in Russian, and "puto" is one in Spanish. (There are also five named "Kock" and three named "Bich." Think what <CG> could do with those!)

The obvious meaning of the pun is an inference to a common vulgar phrase that CG.com did not dare include in the pun.

Some might think those of us who are bothered by this should acquiesce to it as part of the decline of civility and decorum in our culture, especially regarding the general acceptance of coarse language in public discourse.

I see what you're driving at. But one man's meat is another man's poisson. What seems profane to you may not -- and in this case does not -- seem so to most others.

When Oliver Cromwell ruled the Commonwealth of England as Lord Protector, the works of Shakespeare were bowdlerized, as we would say (though Thomas Bowdler lived a century later). Every occurrence of the words "God," "Christ," and "Heaven" or "Heavens" was replaced by a euphemism, because the Puritans deemed the explicit use of these words in a secular setting to be impious. ("Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain.") Jews traditionally were equally chary about uttering the name of God, reserving it for prayers and using paraphrases in other contexts. I'd be surprised to learn that you still adhere to this rigorous interpretation of the Third Commandment. (If you're Catholic, it's the Second Commandment.)

<Blacksburg> You ask if <you tell a cop to go play in traffic, does that make traffic a dirty word?> As <OhioChessFan> indicates it's usage and context for the most part that defines whether a word is profane. For your example, I refer to the definitions at http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/per... which defines profanity as "vulgar or irreverent speech or action," and http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/profa... which defines profanity as "obscene, lewd or abusive" language.

So if telling a police officer "go play in traffic" could be considered "abusive language" or "irreverent" (which can include disrespectful as one of it's defintions according to http://www.thefreedictionary.com/ir...), then yes this might fall into or at least border closely on being considered profane language.

As a legal matter, I find it interesting that in the U.S. Supreme Court case Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, discussed at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chapli..., the court held that the arrest of a person for <lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or "fighting" words those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace> does not create a consitutional problem.

Elephino!

Hell must have been furious when his king was chased.

Im stuck hovering between 1460-1490...
its been like this for months...
.......
what the hell can i do to get better ?
i do tactics trainer all the dam time.
it doesnt help at all...
in tactics trainer im between a 1750-1950.

This one deserves another "what d" also!

Hecht vs Keene, 1966