A history of swearing in the English language (1071 hits)
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Submitted by Axolotl (View user info) at 2008-07-20 19:05:01 EDT
It can be called a number of names—swearing, cursing, profanity, bad language, or in more specialized terms, expletives, blasphemy, oaths, or obscenity. It's some of the most basic and versatile of the words in a language, and the words that snickering students of it are quickest to learn.
To some modern ears, cursing in the English language seems new—words like shit, fuck, and the like seem the exclusive domain of this last century, maybe. After all, how many historic documents or movies were there with cursing? The Declaration of Independence certainly didn't say 'fuck all of those cunts over in England,' and Shakespeare's plays seem fairly free of profanity. But the perceived absence of such language in genteel society (ie. most writers over the ages) hides the fact that the 'bad words' of English have survived for hundreds of years.
A history of swearing in a language is a history of the language itself, so we'll start off where it all began. Around a millennium and a half ago, Britain was not-yet-England, ruled by Romans, Celts, and tribes of Saxons living in scattered villages. Due to politics of the time, another tribe, the Angles, emigrated from the coast of Germany, and settled in Britain. Angle-land morphed into England. It's for this reason that in many ways the English language is very similar to the Dutch and German, especially from the coast of Germany from which the Angles left.
By the year 1000, Old English had taken form. This is the English of Beowulf, barely-discernible and nearly impossible for modern speakers to comprehend. It seems more like German than English to a modern eye, and few expressions from that language have survived. Old English 'were' meaning man has survived in 'werewolf,' and some other words like 'stan' (stone) and 'se' (sea) have survived mostly unchanged.
Old English had a great deal of Germanic words that though curses today, were used in everyday common language. 'Fukke,' 'schitte,' 'conte,' were common and acceptable for everyday use, having not yet gotten a taboo nature. Another word from that era was 'pusse' (pussy), from old English 'puss' meaning pocket or bag. It would gain another layer of meaning wayyyy on down the road, though.
Old English might have survived until the modern age, and we'd all be speaking something similar to Dutch or Frisian right now—but a huge, profound event occurred that blasted the foundations of Old English and forever changed the language. In the year 1066, William the Bastard, a Norman French lord, invaded England, and after defeating the Anglo-Saxons at Hastings, became the first Norman King of England. The Normans came over and completely took over the country, ordering censuses and a modernization of England. 1.5 million English were ruled and dominated by 20,000 Norman French.
With the French and English living in such close contact, it was over these following hundred years that the English language changed dramatically.
No longer a purely Germanic language, English became a creole, or mix, of Old English, French, and Latin. English was used by the commoners, but slowly influenced the speech of the French lords. French was used in official use, but its vocabulary penetrated English. By the late 1100s and early 1200s, Middle English was born.
A social change happened with the language. Different words meant the same thing, but with slightly different connotations. See today, with the origins of these synonyms:
Old English: Kingly
French: Royal
Latin: Regal
Even today, French-Latin based words sound more official or formal, and Old English words sound low-class and common. See the difference between heart/cardiac, wealth/riches, city/urban, lordly/gentle, sea/ocean. Fuck, shit, cunt, whore, pussy, these were all Old English words commonly used by the peasants. But now there was a new vocabulary:
Old English - Norman French
Shit - Defecation
Fuck - Fornication
Sweat - Perspiration
Piss - Urination
The Old English words sound vulgar and common compared to the Norman French - and that's exactly how it was back then. The Norman lords sounded high-class in their language, and English mothers instructed their children to talk like the lords, in hope for a better life. Fuck, shit, cunt - these became 'bad words.' They started to gain taboo status, and be thought of as lowly and base. Old English words begin to be confined to lower classes.
The Norman lords' influence can be seen in most aspects of life. The peasants killed the meat, the lords ate it. For the Normans, sheep becomes mutton, cow becomes beef, pigs become pork. Wood becomes forest, house becomes mansion, worthy becomes honorable, god becomes deity, leafworm becomes caterpillar, and bold becomes courageous. When talking about bodily functions, the lords would use Latin or French words, rather the vulgar and now-profane language of the commoners.
Still however, the Old English curses survived. While considered vulgar, they were not yet obscene, or out of the public eye. In London and other English towns of the 1200s, you could find a Gropecunt Lane, somewhere in the red light district. There was a common bird known as a windfucker. William the Bastard was a commonly used title, though most likely used out of earshot of the king.
The year 1300 arrived, and around this time English began taking a form that can be understood today.
Swearing in this Middle English was wide and varied. Queynte (cunt), fart, fuck, schitte, arse, and swyve (to have sex) were all in common vulgar usage. Calling someone a dog or rogue was good for a harsh insult, and 'strumpet' and 'sodomite' had recently entered the language. But the worst words of all, and most offensive, was blasphemy. Oaths that called upon the name of God, Jesus, or Mary were considered the most offensive phrases in the language. One who swore casually 'by God's nails' or 'by the holy foreskin of Christ' were considered shocking. Minced oaths like 'by Gog' or 'by Cock' were just as bad.
(Word on pronunciation: Up until the mid-1500s English was pronounced very different. Not only was every letter pronounced, even in words like knight and knife, but the vowels had more Latinized pronunciations. John was pronounced more like 'jehan,' sword used every letter. Also, there was no standardized spelling.)
By the 1380s, the Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer was written, which is a valuable look into the speech and vocabulary of the Middle Ages. It was profane, featuring phrases like 'and he grabbed her by the cunt' and lines like 'As I have thries in this short night/Swyved the miller's daughter bolt upright' (I have three times in this short night/Fucked the miller's daughter bolt upright.) As an example of this era of English, see some of the first lines of the story:
Whan that Aprill with his shoures sote
The droghte of Marche hath perced to the rote,
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
And litel birdes maken melodye
That slepen all the nicht with open ye—
So pricketh them Nature in hir corages—
Than longen folk to go on pilgrimages.
When that April with his showers sweet
The drought of March has pierced to the root,
And bathed every vein in such liqueur,
Of which virtue engendered is the flower;
And little birds make melody
That sleep all the night with open eye—
So pricks them nature in their hearts—
Then folk long to go on pilgrimages.
English in the late 1300s was fairly comprehensible at sight, if not by ear. As this century closes, here's an amusing song from the late 1300s, presumably sung by English soldiers in the Hundred-Years War.
It is written with a col, it is written with a col,
He that schitteth with his hole, he that schitteth with his hole
But he wipe his arse clean, but he wipe his arse clean,
Or on his britch it shall be sene, or on his britch it shall be sene.
(It is written with a coal, he that shitteth with his hole, unless he wipes his arse clean, on his breeches it shall be seen.)
In the 1400s, it seems, more insults were turned against women, perhaps due to the disgrace Joan of Arc leveled against the British. While 'bitch' and 'cunt' both existed beforehand (only meaning dog and vagina) now they began to be used against women as a metaphorical descriptor. 'Slutte,' meaning dirty or unclean woman and 'scullion' meaning unclean servant girl both entered the language in the early 1400s. 'Wretch,' meaning exile, and 'rascal,' meaning a common peasant soldier similarly entered the language. Words that seem harmless today like 'fool,' 'buffoon,' and 'oaf,' were harsh insults back then.
Blasphemy was still the most offensive cursing. The English soldiers in the Hundred Years War against France were very prone to it, using the newly-coined phrase 'goddamn' so much that the French soldiers nicknamed them 'les goddams.' (They were also nicknamed 'les rosbifs' due to their rabid consumption of roast beef.) The word 'jeez' (contraction of Jesus) is common today, but in the late 1400s was considered terrible blasphemy, as was 'by Jove.' In 1550, a writer considered "idle oaths" such as "by cock, by the cross of the mouse food, by Saint Chicken" to be "most abominable blasphemy."
While arse had existed for a long time beforehand, in the early 1500s the more colorful phrase 'arsehole' was coined. Also in the 1500s the word 'anus' entered the language unchanged from Latin.
Though becoming more profane and unacceptable as the years went by, 'fuck' was still in fairy common usage. In a 1503 poem by William Dunbar he states, "Yit be his feiris he wauld have fukkit/Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane." (Yet be his fairs [fair ladies] he would have fucked/You break my heart, my bony one.)
In 1578 the word 'penis' enters the English language directly from Latin. Before (and after) this time, the penis had a variety of colorful names. Member, tool, rod, staff, and sword were all used in the Middle Ages, and after the Industrial Revolution in the 1700s, it would be termed the engine, the tool, the machine, the cock, and a number of other names. On the more feminine side, Philip Stubbs, an English writer wrote a 1583 book called "The Anatomie of Abuses," a list of insults and curses. Inside he noted that "the word pussie is now used of a woman."
The word 'punk' entered the language, though with a far different connotation. A punk was a prostitute, male or female. 'Punk' could be used in the 1500s for any effeminate man or unmanly activity. Five hundred years later, the meaning has changed incredibly.
Shakespeare is not known for being profane, though he makes allusions: like Hamlet laying his head in Ophelia's lap and observing it to be a 'fine country (cuntry),' like the 'focative' case in 12th Night, using sexual situations and the word 'luxury (overly sexual)' among other references to profanity. However, his swearing took a highly different form.
During Shakespeare's time, Queen Elizabeth had forbidden anyone to "in any Stage play, jestingly or prophanely speake or use the holy Name of God or of Christe Jesus or of the Holy Ghoste or of the Trinitie." However, Shakespeare kept in his swearing, which were seen as very offensive for his time. Though 'gadzooks,' 'egad and 'golly' sound so squeaky-clean and ridiculous that they could be used by an old grandmother, four hundred years ago they were very different. Words like that were sped-up contractions for longer oaths. When one wanted to swear 'by God's hooks' or shout 'oh God' he could turn to these.
Gadzooks - God's hooks (arms)
Zounds - God's wounds
Sblood - God's blood
Sfoot - God's foot
Golly - God's body
Slight - God's light
Snails - God's nails (to hold Jesus to the cross)
Odsbodikins - God's little body
Egad - Oh God
Drat - God rot
Cor blimey - God blind me
Criminy - Christ
This was a time when 'damn' and 'hell' were considered terrible curses, and 'fuck,' 'shit,' and 'cunt' were slowly becoming more obscene year by year. The words 'sfoot' 'foot' and 'foutre' became minced oaths for 'fuck.' A humorous entry for "fuck" in an English-Italian dictionary follows: 'To fuck - to swyve, to copulate, to penetrate, to occupy.' Other curses and phrases entered the language. "The vile crime of sodomie or bugerie" became illegal officially in England as 'bugger' entered the language. Around this time 'bloody' became popular, though still profane. It could either be a reference to holy blood, or to menstruation, but whatever the origin, it has survived to this day.
While Europeans spread smallpox among the Indians in America, the Indians similarly spread syphilis into Europe. 'Pox' began to become a fashionable insult; it was a great disgrace to be labeled as one with syphilis or another disease.
In the 1600s, Oliver Cromwell, a puritan, gained control of England and passed oppressive laws against swearing, cursing, blasphemy, and sexuality. This didn't stop him from labeling Ireland 'a bleeding nation' during one of his murderous invasions.
The word 'faggot' entered the English language around the time of the English Civil War and New Model Army. Originally faggot referred to a bundle of weak sticks; metaphorically it came to refer to a weak or effeminate man hired to fill ranks in an army—basically an ineffective sissy. This meaning of 'faggot' as sissy would survive a long time, eventually becoming a slur against gays.
'Slut' was in common usage, but not necessarily negative, as it could just refer to a servant girl. English diarist Samuel Pepys refers to his servant as 'an admirable slut,' though modern minds could run away with this in an unintended direction. An anonymous 1660 poem refers to a newly-coined word:
They talk'd of his having a Cardinall's Hat
They'd send him as soon an Old Nun's Twat
We'll come back to this poem about two hundred years later down the line for a humorous lesson in being familiar with profanity. Blasphemy wasn't as offensive as before, but still considered bad. 'Damn' appeared in papers and writings as just 'd—m' and Daniel Defoe wrote in one of his 1697 books "G.D. ye, does not sit well upon a female tongue." (ie women shouldn't be using the phrase 'goddamn') The King James Bible finished in this century was a huge influence on the English language, featuring the word 'to know' as meaning to have sex, and a colorful line in 2 Kings 18:27 reading "men who eat their own dung and drink their own piss."
In 1704 Jonathan Swift uses the phrase "after your arse" which simply means "behind you," but arse was becoming more profane. As the Industrial Revolution took hold, cities in England morphed into slums, and the country become less rural and more urban. Thousands turned to gin and alcoholism to deal with the changing society, and prostitution and street crime became rampant. In the wake of puritanical rule, sexual mores relaxed slightly, and loose women were known as 'hussies,' 'jades,' 'sluts,' or a variety of other names. Promiscuous men were 'cads,' 'rakes,' or 'womanizers.' Homosexuals were 'mollies,' 'punks,' and 'sods.'
Blasphemy was still a powerful curse. 'Gosh' entered the language as slang for God, and 'oh my gosh' became an offensive swear. 'The deuce' was a phrase referring to the devil, and 'heck' to hell. Fuck, shit, and cunt were becoming extremely offensive, and in the late 1700s, they stopped appearing in print; blocked out like s—t.
I've focused on England for most of this, but at this point we'll turn across the pond to America, or the 'United Colonies' as they were known in 1775. Swearing in America then was more common and prevalent than in America today, though vocabulary was slightly different. One phrase that originated in America and has survived years of usage is 'son of a bitch.' Accounts from the Boston Massacre refer to this phrase. In March 1770 an angry American mob pelted ice and rocks at the unwelcome British occupiers, with one man angrily getting into the face of the 'lobsterbacks' and shouting "Fire! Fire you sons of bitches, God damn you, fire!" As if in response to the man's dangerous dare, a British soldier discharged his musket into the man's stomach, dealing him a fatal wound.
Five years later at Lexington not too far away, a British regiment of Royal Marines led by a Major Pitcairn faced a few dozen armed American militia unwilling to let the British pass through their town. Pitcairn famously said, "Disperse, you damned rebels!" When none of the American patriots left the field, the British opened fire and the Royal Marines charged with bayonets, dealing the Americans their first defeat.
American English had a different pronunciation than British English, slow and relaxed speech, almost a drawl. In the America of the Revolutionary War, soldier was pronounced 'sohjuh,' sidewalk pronounced 'sideawk,' and tellingly, negro pronounced 'negger.' The American accent was not the same as today (it would change drastically after the War of 1812) but just different enough from the English accent that it could be noticed.
As in all wars, swearing is popular among the soldiers, and spreads throughout the population. 'Shit' was used casually, and 'fucking' as an expletive adjective became popular, though 'damn' was still offensive, and served its purpose still. Swearing and blaspheming was so widespread that George Washington himself, a strict and disciplined man, issued the following orders to troops in his army:
"Head Quarters, New York, August 3rd, 1776
Parole Uxbridge, Countersign Virginia
The General is sorry to be informed that the foolish, and wicked practice, of profane cursing and swearing (a Vice heretofore little known in an American Army) is growing into fashion; he hopes the officers will, by example, as well as influence, endeavour to check it, and that both they, and the men will reflect, that we can have little hopes of the blessing of Heaven on our Arms, if we insult it by our impiety, and folly; added to this, it is a vice so mean and low, without any temptation, that every man of sense, and character, detests and despises it."
Some offensive words of that time included: fuck, prick, cunt, shit, whore, bitch, arse, frig (to masturbate), ballocks (testicles), spunk (semen), gamahuche (to have oral sex), cherry (hymen), and depucelate (to devirginize). The Marquis De Sade popularized many of these in his disgusting but interesting erotic novel "The 120 Days of Sodom." In 1795, fuck appeared in the Oxford English Dictionary for the last time until 1972.
The 1800s dawned, and while cursing was still widespread due to the Napoleonic Wars, the Enlightenment, and Industrial Revolution, there were still some changes. While 'damn,' 'hell,' and blasphemy were still offensive, they were much less than in other years. 'Zounds,' stopped sounding like 'God's wounds,' and words like 'drat,' 'shucks,' 'gadzooks,' 'blimey' began to become tame.
Poet Robert Browning in the 1840s wrote a verse in his poem 'Pippa Passes' "owls and bats, cowls and twats, monks and nuns in a cloister's moods/adjourn to the oak-stump pantry." He became a laughingstock for his use of 'twat,' which he believed was another word for a nun's headdress. Where did he come to think this meaning was right?Remember the poem "They talk'd of his having a Cardinall's Hat/They'd send him as soon an Old Nun's Twat" from a little further up?
As the Victorian Age arrived in England, people grew more uptight, and less eager to curse or discuss bodily functions. Cuthbert Bede wrote in 1854 "I wouldn't give a blank for such a blank blank. I'm blank, if he doesn't look as if he'd swallowed a blank codfish" censoring himself in a way that foreshadowed the bleeps of 90s television. 'Crap,' coined in 1846, soon became profane. In Victorian England, offensive words included tummy, pants, stomach, golly, and toilet—all ridiculously prude to the more libertine in America.
The Civil War erupted in the United States in 1861, and through a bloody four years of fighting, massacres, prison camps, and death, the language of America grew harsher, especially out in the Wild West. Swearing became acceptable in some situations in genteel company; a witness to the assassination of President Lincoln describes policemen shouting "Clear out! All you sons of bitches get on out of here! Damn you! Etc."
A letter sent to President Lincoln by a constituent in the 1860s was as follows: "God damn you and your old goddamn hellfired soul to hell, God damn you and your families' old hellfired goddamn souls to hell, and good damnation, God damn all of your goddamn old hellfired friends' souls to hell."
'Asshole' began to be used in America not just as a body part, but as a descriptor of a person or place; the phrase 'asshole of the world' was used in 1865, though it was probably used in speech beforehand. After the Civil War, cursing took on a form that would have been quite familiar to modern speakers (though 'damn' and phrases like 'what the hell' were still very profane.)
Any watcher of "Deadwood" will be familiar with the near-constant swearing of the Wild West. 'Cocksucker' was coined and used shortly after the civil war, and 'motherfucker' appeared in print for the first time in court documents in the 1870s, though it wouldn't become widespread until World Wars I and II. Cowboys and denizens of the West had colorful vocabularies, though some of their swearing would sound prudish. While Billy the Kid and others had a strong command of four-letter-words, also in their cursing were things like "gee whillikins," "damn," "hellfired," "gosh," and "gee whiz," all thought of as offensive.
Cursing included fuck, shit, bastard, bitch, damn, and a huge amount of other words. A popular vaudeville routine in the late 1800s by the Barrison Sisters was called "Do You Want To See My Pussy?" The five attractive sisters would pose this question to the appreciative audience of young men, and then proceed to pull tiny kittens out of their dresses to uproarious laughter. 'Nigger' was considered highly offensive in some circles, but said so casually in other places that it wasn't even commented on. Colored and Negro were more acceptable; black was considered insulting.
As the age of romanticism and lordliness prepared to die in the throes of the World War, one humorous episode stands out in 1912. When the Prince of Wales was shot on a Belgian subway platform by an anarchist assassin, he grunted "Fuck it, I've taken a bullet" as he went down.
James Joyce made a reference to 'fuck' and 'cunt' in his verse from Ulysses:
If you see Kay,
Tell that I'll
See you in tea,
Tell him from me
'Faggot' entered into a new meaning, referring to homosexuals, as early as the 1910s. A 1914 guide to underworld slang featured the sentence "All the fagots (sissies) will be dressed in drag at the ball tonight." Similarly, 'dyke' became coined in the 1920s, with references to "faggoty men and bulldyking women." The more colorful term 'faggotry' was also invented.
World War One influenced American language and culture great deal. Being the first war where soldiers in units were taken from all across the country, the American language became very similar when the soldiers returned. The word 'bullshit' was made popular in the trenches of World War I. On another note, when Americans consorted with French prostitutes, who offered oral sex for far cheaper than standard sex, and shaved their legs, they brought these ideals home to their American wives. Women in America began shaving their legs, and oral sex became more widespread across the American continent. 'Blowjob' entered the English language.
By 1922, the phase 'to give a shit' was common. While 'damn' was still offensive, it was allowed to be said in Gone With the Wind in the famous quote "Frankly my dear, I don't give a damn" and the taboo level dropped. The last words of a king of England in the 1930s, when told by his doctor he would be well enough to visit Bognor, his summer palace, were "bugger Bognor."
World War II featured colorful cursing and swearing from privates up to the generals. The man who would one day be known as Dr. Seuss made humorous cartoons for the soldiers featuring breasts, racial slurs, swearing, and most interesting for me at least, a scene of Hitler gloatingly receiving a postcard from a death camp. Acronyms like FUBAR (fucked-up beyond all repair) and SNAFU (situation normal: all fucked-up) were invented in World War II and popularized after the war.
Before his soldiers went into battle on D-Day, General Patton gave an inspiring speech to the troops laced with profanity, much of which was removed in the movie of his name. In the 1940s and 1950s, 'nigger' became unquestionably offensive, 'dick' entered the language to describe the penis, and Catcher in the Rye courted controversy for its shocking use of 'fuck you.'
By the 1968 Democratic Convention when Mayor Richard Daley of Chicago shouted "Fuck you, you Jew motherfucker!" at a protestor, it seemed that many taboos had been dropped. Profane cheering was featured at Woodstock, and in the 1970s movies and songs began to use profanity where they had not before. In the 1980s, pornographer Larry Flynt was on trial in the Supreme Court when he referred to the honorable judges as "nothing but eight assholes and a token cunt."
By the 1990s, profanity was everywhere in society. Movies like Pulp Fiction took it to a new creative level, and artists like Snoop Dogg and N.W.A. used profanity to both add to their songs and form images for themselves. The latter artist, N.W.A. (Niggas With Attitudes) received huge controversy from their 1988 song "Fuck Tha Police," one of the most popular songs ever with 'fuck' the title. Profanity and racial slurs account for nearly forty full seconds of the song, though it was more controversial for its assumed encouragement to kill police officers:
Without a gun and a badge, what do you got?
A sucker in a uniform waiting to get shot
By me, or another nigger;
With a gat it don't matter if he's smaller or bigger.
One phenomenon I've noticed is the word 'sucks' losing its taboo nature and becoming acceptable. When my dad was my age in the mid-late '70s, 'sucks' was a very offensive word, being taken from the phrase 'this sucks dick.' However, over time, sucks has become so common that it seems to have lost the sexual/vulgar meaning and has taken on the connotation of just describing a bad situation.
Another phenomenon over the 20th century and into the 21st deals with mentally handicapped. In the early years of the 20th century, and over the last few hundred years, 'idiot,' 'moron,' 'imbecile,' and 'cretin' were all nonoffensive and acceptable words to refer to those who were mentally handicapped or developmentally disabled. When these became used as insults, the health community termed those afflicted 'retards' or 'retarded.' And then in the 90s and 00s when 'retard' became used as a common insult, there was a new word coined: 'special.' And now I've noticed 'special' becoming a similar insult.
With the advent of mass media, public figures can be seen cursing and using inappropriate language. Whether in public events like Bono of U2 saying "fucking brilliant" or on a live mic like President Bush saying "Hezbollah needs to cut this shit out," or even in transcriptions like Dick Cheney telling Senator Leahy to "fuck yourself," public figures are humanized like the rest of us.
As far as I'm concerned (and from the point of view of an 18-year-old American boy), the worst words in the language now are:
Cunt
Nigger
Cocksucker
Faggot
These are the four that are impossible to say in company without a reaction. And in a way it makes sense. We use 'shit' from our preteen years as an exclamation and a descriptor without guilt, and 'fuck' when we're old enough to describe sex, and an expletive. Lesser words like 'bitch,' 'bastard,' 'ass,' 'dick' and likewise are in such common use that their shockingness.
'Cunt' is very rarely used in my age group; the first time I heard the word was watching The Exorcist when I was 13. I've only heard it ascribed to very few girls, and with nothing but venom intended. In English countries the word is far more common and can be given to men, but in American use it's generally far harsher.
While growing up in a town 75% minority, I heard 'nigga' every day walking through the hallways of my high school. I heard it more when I moved on, and got used to it, even eventually getting used to hearing white boys say it, whether quoting rap songs or fitting in with black culture. It's a word that I never if ever use unless in a quote; using it alone can brand you with a reputation that lasts a long time. You become 'that white kid who says nigger all the time.' It's still shockingly offensive if used in most circumstances; few can get away with it and sound casual.
'Cocksucker' and 'faggot' are somewhat related. While it's no big deal to jokingly call people fags, the harsher consonants of 'faggot' and other homoerotic insults have another level of disdain.
In one of my first posts on Uber, a user named Rad1101 said simply "fuck you" to me and though fairly common, the simplicity bore nothing but contempt to my ear. More recently, I had something similar with someone extremely close to me. While having a hypothetical argument, she said "fuck you," and while it was soon apparent it wasn't a serious sentiment, those two simple words from someone I cared about that much chilled me to the bone.
In my age group, we started cursing around 7th grade or so. Now, at 18, the novelty has worn off and those who do it constantly can be seen as idiots. Girls generally curse as much as guys, though again, it depends on the person. Guys will do it more openly, and usually more around other guys.
I work with children, around 5-9 years old, and I occasionally have to deal with disputes between them. A few days ago one came to me and said "James said a bad word!" I asked him to whisper it in my ear, and reluctantly, he did so.
"James said 'fuck.'"
"James said that word?"
The boy paused for a moment and then said, "No he didn't, he just said 'stupid.'"
I laughed; clearly the boy wanted an opportunity to use this powerful forbidden word in context. But then I thought about how many generations of children have learned and used this word. I was thrilled and astonished when I heard the word and understood it for the first time, around maybe 5 or 6 years old. And most likely my parents heard it in similar circumstances, and their parents before them. It just gives me a moment to reflect on how we learn things, especially language.
Whereas a thousand years ago 'shit,' 'fuck,' and 'cunt' were normal and common and saying 'oh my god' or 'damn' was offensive, it's the other way around now. Cursing has always been around, and though it's changed dramatically over the years, as long as the English language exists it'll be with us.
User Reviews
Submitted by iddqd (user info) at 2008-07-23 04:56:50 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
congrats you made foul language boring
Submitted by simple_catalyst (user info) at 2008-07-22 23:26:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
quote your sources.
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2008-07-22 00:35:24 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Well that's just odd. You should have a word that is always offensive. Otherwise, how can you really seriously insult someone?
Submitted by apollo88 (user info) at 2008-07-21 23:00:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No to ladyp.
History is now reversing, the base is becoming common place and the upper posh is derided.
wtf i read all that
Submitted by LadyPlural (user info) at 2008-07-21 19:00:43 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Twat is also a seriously offensive thing to say in American English.
Hey Britons, are there any words that are pretty much always offensive over there?
Submitted by TBILLZ (user info) at 2008-07-21 18:35:32 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Very good historical writing. I'm not a linguist so this wasn't the most interesting thing for me but nonetheless I commend anyone who puts in the effort to write such a thoughtful piece. -1 for the absence of references.
Submitted by TheGoat (user info) at 2008-07-21 14:03:35 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
fook yeah!
Submitted by JoeyG (user info) at 2008-07-21 14:00:33 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Cuntishly Fuckworthy.
Submitted by Poots (user info) at 2008-07-21 13:46:48 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
infuckingformative
Submitted by shadow (user info) at 2008-07-21 13:12:39 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
research.
Submitted by tatersninja (user info) at 2008-07-21 12:51:27 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
There's no way I'm reading that right now. I have the attention span of a gerbil this time of day.
Not to geek my self out, but one of the more interesting books I've read was about the creation of the dictionary. Check it out.
Submitted by Jeanneee (user info) at 2008-07-21 12:06:31 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
It was actually the swearing chapter in "The Mother Tongue" by Bill Bryson that got me interested in linguistics. Then I decided to get a degree in it, for some stupid reason.
Submitted by monkeyswithguns (user info) at 2008-07-21 10:49:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Quite informative.
Submitted by skrapmetal (user info) at 2008-07-21 10:47:13 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Someone should set about creating a really completely totally heinously offensive word, one that make all the others look as innocuous as the word 'poop' is to us now. A word so foul the hearer will collapse, twitching and drooling on the pavement, upon hearing it. A word so utterly base that merely saying it wrenches the soul from the one who dares speaks the word.
Linguists: have at it.
Submitted by Ltap (user info) at 2008-07-21 10:04:37 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by czwij (user info) at 2008-07-21 08:14:41 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
fucktard and asshat clownshoes i have from this site.
thanks for that
i use them often
Submitted by myshit (user info) at 2008-07-21 05:07:11 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
By the 1990s, profanity was everywhere in society. Movies like Pulp Fiction took it to a new creative level, and artists like Snoop Dogg and N.W.A. used profanity to both add to their songs and form images for themselves. The latter artist, N.W.A. (Niggas With Attitudes) received huge controversy from their 1988 song "Fuck Tha Police," one of the most popular songs ever with 'fuck' the title. Profanity and racial slurs account for nearly forty full seconds of the song, though it was more controversial for its assumed encouragement to kill police officers:
Without a gun and a badge, what do you got?
A sucker in a uniform waiting to get shot
By me, or another nigger;
With a gat it don't matter if he's smaller or bigger.
-------------------------
Where is the profanity in the above verse?
Submitted by czwij (user info) at 2008-07-21 03:52:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
here's one ya missed
wank - masturbation
Submitted by Unabonger (user info) at 2008-07-20 23:51:38 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
interesting.
Submitted by i_can_get_you_a_toe (user info) at 2008-07-20 23:00:22 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2008-07-20 21:51:00 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
http://www.personal.utulsa.edu/~marc-carlson/history/elizlng.html
Here's a page you might enjoy. I have it bookmarked.
Shut up, fags.
Submitted by Axolotl (user info) at 2008-07-20 21:36:34 EDT (#)
Ranking: 0
I love language and linguistics in general, as well as history. And everyone loves cursing, so I picked the most interesting mix of these.
And no, I didn't post my homework you idiot/moron/imbecile/retard/special one. Has your brain shut down for the summer or are you just up on the wrong side of the bed
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2008-07-20 21:20:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Or this shit: http://www.ubersite.com/m/117725
Submitted by lungfish (user info) at 2008-07-20 21:11:28 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Nicely done. Linguistics is a hobby of mine. Shut up. At least I don't play video games or watch Batman movies...or Star Wars...or Lord of the Rings.
Fags.
Submitted by PayMeLater (user info) at 2008-07-20 20:50:45 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
Stop posting your homework.
Submitted by Hookhand (user info) at 2008-07-20 20:13:18 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
No Comment
Submitted by Shlongy (user info) at 2008-07-20 19:20:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: -2
SDhut the fuck up.
Submitted by frankthebear (user info) at 2008-07-20 19:07:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Holy fucking fuck! I'm not reading all that! have a +1 anyway for effort