Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Vocab.

What is the difference between a Tool and a Douchebag?

This has been a major topic of discussion as of late. Which kind of makes me sad that we actually need to use these words so often, since it indicates there are a lot of them around.

20 comments:

Breelzebub said...

Tool is a softer word. Douche bag is meaner. Tool box is an elevation. Tool shed is moving up. "Sears" I believe is the ultimate in the tool slang. Tool and douche bag are both mean. I don't really use tool myself. I prefer douche bag, but that's because I'm a more soft person. More guys use tool, in my opinion. I think it's passe personally. Douche bag is far more hip.

The Meesh said...

Douche bag creeps me out. I'd use Tool any day over Douche Bag. But, more often than not, I resort to more juvenile descriptions of boys who bug me: Jerkface.

carolinesbakeshop said...

you should ask our friend, lee the douche. he might know.

Anonymous said...

tool may be softer, but i prefer the use of douche bag. or, as my sis and i have shortened it, d-bag. and i agree with v-vice up there...tool is such a "dude" word. hence, my use of d-bag.

my real favorite is a-hole. but that's me. and i'm mean.

Frozen Okie said...

I think tool is softer because the meaning is somewhat different. A douche-bag is typically someone who is inconsiderate and uses people. A tool may very well be inconsiderate, but less likely to be a user and in fact more likely to be used. Used by "friends" who are douche bags, used by women, just used in general. But somehow you only partially feel bad for the tool- while they let themselves be used and often even create a situation in which they would be used they often don't have the werewithall to even realize they are being used. Whereas with a douche-bag you pretty much never feel bad for them.
You may be pissed off at a tool for being inconsiderate and being a jerk- but they are rarely intentionally trying to manipulate and use people the way a douche bag does.

Thus, douche bags are worse than tools, but tools are a bit more pathetic than douchebags. (Voldemort is a douchebag, wormtail is a tool)

Salt H2O said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Tannertrue said...

A tool is a person who is inept. A useless person (ie. the irony of calling them something useful)

A douche is usually very pompous and overly confident.

My friend and I try to make up new insults that aren't in popular lexicon. I called him a "sack" once. The other day he called me "forehead." You may think that your forehead is normal sized but your world comes crashing down when you are called "forehead".

Salt H2O said...

I'll stick to the less offensive, but equally harsh "Jerkstore"

chloe said...

So, my question is are these gender based insults? I mean, is it appropriate to use any of these when speaking about a woman? Or are they strictly masculine?

k8 said...

i use the two interchangeably. and here in Southern California, I get to use both of them quite a bit.

(although I will clarify that i use it mostly in reference to strangers, the boys in my social circle are pretty d-bag free)

Tannertrue said...

I generally try not to insult women. Because, all the female insults I know are all really, really bad. But, I would never call a girl a douche. I don't use "tool." Just not my thing.

Breelzebub said...

Farrah, I dedicated a whole blog to the term douche bag vs. douche. I believe actually two blogs. Both are dedicated solely to men. Read if you'd like further clarification on the word, but Tanner is pretty accurate. Women are mean and referred to as beeyotch or biotch, depending on how you spell a derogatory epithet invented by a rapper.

Anonymous said...

VV is correct - douche bag is reserved for guys. It is someone with unjustified arrogance and overconfidence. Common associated features are spiked hair with too much gel, excessive tanning (or spray on tans), shirts unbuttoned to the navel with a recent chest wax, backwards upside-down visors and a chin-tilt/sneer like K-Fed. For reference, see any of the brothers from "Growing Up Gotti" a couple of years ago. If you call someone who is just generally acting stupid a "douche bag", it is a misuse of the term.

Tool is someone who is generally incompetent, feckless and aggravating. It is sometimes a much more temporary state than is douchbaggery. You can be a tool for a short time while reverting to normal status later that evening. (Hence the common African-American phrase "acting the tool" har har har.) If you are a douche bag, it is with you until you seriously change your ways.

While in Paris last year, I was able to move to the advanced lexicon as I honed my use of the French equivalent which is "Le douche bag". You Californian are probably way ahead of me, though.

Anonymous said...

*Californians

f*bomb. said...

Already done, Hansen. Already done.

"Le Douche." That's what I'D say, too, if I used such language. Of course, that also kind of sounds like an uptempo techno band from the mid-nineties, but...whatever.

chloe said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Rhymenocerous said...

As someone who has variously been called both things, I need to clarify, using my friend www.urbandictionary.com

TOOL
"someone who tries too hard. a poser. one of those chic's who holds the sign saying "Carson Daly is Hot." the asstard who goes to a rock show because they heard one of the songs on the radio or mtv. or someone who insists on wearing velour sweat suits. Avril Lavigne."
- or -
"someone who is a complete idiot/ one who is used by other people, and usually dosen't even realize it/ someone who can't think for themselves/ an asshat."


I think 'asshat' is pretty descriptive.

DOUCHEBAG
"A douchebag is a pretentious, sugar coated prick, but with emphasis on pretentious and sugar coated. It's not an adjective for an asshole, because assholes call other people douchebags, and assholes are more often than not proud of being assholes."
- OR -
"includes males who also wear cowry-shell or "pooka"-shell necklaces, Livestrong bracelets in various colors/for other causes, prefer oversized Phat Farm, Vans or DC sneakers with huge "tongues". Some also wear large amounts of fake-gold chains and fake-diamond earrings, and hit on girls much younger than they"


And Vanilla, I thought we had agreed to replace "douchebag" in our lexicon with the throwback "cheese-dick", no?

f*bomb. said...

Above and beyond, my man. Above and beyond.

...But I LIKE cheese...

f*bomb. said...

And, PS-
What is the deal with pooka-shell necklaces? I mean, I always kind of liked them in the early 90's. Why do these guys have to
1) dress like they play vollyball in 1992 and
2) wear visors at night?

I just don't get it. Like, AT ALL.

CoCo said...

If anyone is interested in an coastal observation, the "d" term is rarely heard on the east coast, but "tool" is thrown around aplenty. D-bag (or D-box, a superlative to which I was recently introduced) was only resurrected in my vocab upon my return to CA.

N.B. This is not an attempt to start an east coast vs. west coast debate, just throwing out an observation.