<p>When we think of slurs in English – like the N-word, the F-word, and others – we tend to think of nouns rather than verbs or adjectives. This is probably not an accident: paradigm examples of slurs are indeed nominal in nature, and slurs exhibit a cross-linguistically robust tendency to concentrate in the grammatical class of nouns. But why? Recent work suggests that the distributional predominance of nominal slurs is due to the fact that the offensiveness characteristic of slurs is downstream from the inferential biases associated with nominals and their predicative uses. We begin by describing this hypothesis, rehearsing the considerations in its favor, and clarifying its predictions. Next, we present cross-linguistic data from Italian and German indicating the need for a more nuanced picture of the distributional pattern. Finally, we make our proposal: we suggest that full-blooded slurry offensiveness is a class-insensitive achievement, yet slurs are very often nouns because membership in the grammatical class of nouns is functionally conducive to higher derogatory potency.</p>