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On Oct 29, 2009, at 3:00 PM, Norman Clarke <compay@gmail.com> wrote:
On Thu, Oct 29, 2009 at 4:52 PM, Gavin Wraith <gavin@wra1th.plus.com> wrote: 
In message <4AE9DEF4.3040706@spellingbeewinnars.org> you wrote:
When I was learning PHP, Python and now C/C++, one of the first things I 
did/do was search for Python sucks, PHP sucks etc.


I fear I haven't seen the interest. Can you expand a bit?


Does the usage "xxx sucks", which I presume was coined in the USA,
mean "I like xxx" or "I do not like xxx"? For most of my life "to suck" 
meant in English what Latin "sugere" meant, and it had no pejorative
or sexual connotation. I presume that the recent usage means what Latin 
"irrumare" meant. Latin has two advantages over English: 1) it is
unnecessary to invent new words in it to describe sexual acts, as
it already has a sufficiency of them, and 2) it is impossible to invent 
new words in it because outside the Vatican it is dead.


I don't know where it was coined, but in American English it
essentially means you consider something to be bad. It originally had
a sexual connotation which I think is mostly forgotten now, though
it's a phrase which more careful speakers still won't use in polite
company.
It does have a sexual connotation, and a very abusive one. I will spare you further elaboration. It's typical of the American gutter- mentality, I'm afraid.