General Question

josie's avatar

When did "douche-bag" first appear as an insulting description of a person?

Asked by josie (30934points) September 20th, 2012

Is there a true origin of it being used in that context, or is it just one of those things that has always just seemed to be there, like asshole, dickhead etc.

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6 Answers

FutureMemory's avatar

I remember it from the 80’s, definitely. It wasn’t all that popular of an insult, but it was something people said from time to time. Unfortunately, over the last few years it’s seen a dramatic resurgence. I personally hate it. “He’s a douche”, “That’s quite a douchie thing to say”, “That was very douche-like of him” etc…hate it!

Kardamom's avatar

I remember my brother and his friends using that term in the mid 70’s, but then it was only used by teenaged boys. I never heard it used in the media until the mid 90’s. Another one they liked was squid, as in the sentence, “That guy is a squid.”

Brian1946's avatar

I think I first heard it used in the 1960’s. Wiki seems to corroborate this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douche#Slang_uses

I was around in the 1950’s, but I don’t remember hearing it then. I think the approximately equivalent term then was “prick”.

JLeslie's avatar

I hate that expression. I don’t think I heard it until my 20’s. That would be the ‘90’s.

tedd's avatar

Probably around the time you started acting like one!

BAM

Skaggfacemutt's avatar

I think it came out about the same time as “ass-hat.”

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