Is Shut a Bad Word?

Nolan goofing around in a tree.

Every once in a while one of my younger grandchildren will ask me or one of his or her parents if a certain word is "bad" or not, so I wasn't too surprised when Nolan asked his mom and me if "shut" was a bad word.

Of course we both knew the word he thought he was saying, but because he clearly said, "shut," we told him that it was not a bad word.

Later when he was playing with one of his toys and it either malfunctioned or he dropped it (I didn't actually see what caused the outburst), I heard him say, "oh, shut!"

I guess any word can sound bad with the appropriate attitude.

Sigh.