It begins with an S and ends with a W

I was leaving a grocery store and I noticed a woman with only one item in her hand.  I made a comment about "Wow, you came all the way here to just get  one thing?" and she said "Well, I came back. I was here before and someone used a very nasty word."

"Oh…" I said.

"Yes," she replied, and then added pointedly, "It begins with an S and ends with a W."

She continued talking, (she seemed like a very nice woman) but I couldn't make sense of anything she said after that because I was 100 percent completely stuck on "a bad word... that begins with an S... and ends with a W?"

Somewhere during our walk to the parking lot she said, "Well I'm a widow" - Which seemed like a random detail at the time, but I later realized that "widow" ends in "w" so maybe that's a clue? Of course she then seguayed into talking about fruit and I couldn't figure out if that was related to her being a widow (Was she recently widowed? Was the fruit for a memorial service?)

I'm still stuck. I have no clue.

It's not her fault. Clearly it's mine for not keeping up with current widow vernacular.