Swear Words

[Orleander]

why are so many swear words related to our bodies and its function?
example, shit, cunt, fuck
about the only one I can think of that isn't is damn

and why aren't defecate or copulate swear words? Its the same thing as the others.

[Enmos]

I didn't know 'example' was a swear word... :o

;) In the Netherlands we also like the swear with diseases.
It's all about shocking the other person, so taboo words are used.

[tablariddim]

Some choice Greek Cypriot (with Turkish roots) swear words/phrases:

S'ton shisto pou s'efkalen--(go) to the slit you came from

Gamo tin ratsa sou--I fuck your race(family ancestors)

Reh poushto-pezevengee--You Queer-Pimp

Gamo ton shisto tis manas sou--I fuck your mother's slit

Na sou sheso (sounds like a Japanese dish, I know)--I shit on you

Skasse--Burst (for shut-up)

Pigene s'ton thkiaolo--Go to the devil

[shorty_37]

:bugeye:Damn isn't a swear word.

[S.A.M.]

why are so many swear words related to our bodies and its function?
example, shit, cunt, fuck
about the only one I can think of that isn't is damn

and why aren't defecate or copulate swear words? Its the same thing as the others.

All those repressed Freudians.:cool:

[Orleander]

:bugeye:Damn isn't a swear word.

Your kids get to say it at school??

[USS Exeter]

Wow, my parents wouldn't even let me say crap until I was in 8th grade!

[one_raven]

Your kids get to say it at school??

Yours don't?

Would your child get in trouble for saying, "Christians believe that God damned sinners to Hell"?
I would hope not.
Just as I doubt your child would get in trouble for saying, "The femal sexual organ is called the vagina".

However, if your child says to another child, "Go to Hell, you God-damned vagina", (s)he probably would.
Curse words are all about intention.
Which is why I think a chaild calling another person "jerk" is just as bad as a child calling anotehr person "asshole" - regardless which is a "curse word".

By the way, there are many "curse words" that have nothing to do with anatomy or bodily functions (depending on what you define a curse word).

Whore.
Slut.
Ass (it has nothing to do with your posterior).
Bitch.
Faggot.
Bastard.
Kraut.
Wet back.
Gook.
Nigger.
Coon.
Jigaboo.
Dildo.

I think most curse words are meant to be disparaging to the person regarding their behavior, beliefs or background.

By the way... I don't consider fucking a "bodily function". If you do, perhaps you are doing it wrong. :D

[shorty_37]

Your kids get to say it at school??

I don't know what would happen, they haven't said it. I have more of a problem with the kid ( grade one) who was calling my son a "bitch" over and over at recess!

[redarmy11]

By the way, there are many "curse words" that have nothing to do with anatomy or bodily functions (depending on what you define a curse word).
And conversely there are many body-related phrases that aren't considered offensive:


Give [him, her] a piece of one's mind.
Four fingers of whisky.
Put one's foot in it.
Use one's head.
And so on, and so on, and so on.

So the question is: why do so many of our expressions - offensive and inoffensive - reference the body?

[tablariddim]

So the question is: why do so many of our expressions - offensive and inoffensive - reference the body?

As a point of reference it is the thing that everybody is familiar with and as an insult it is as personal a show of disrespect as it can get.

[Orleander]

I don't know what would happen, they haven't said it. ....

OK then, guess.

[Orleander]

...By the way... I don't consider fucking a "bodily function". If you do, perhaps you are doing it wrong. :D

really?? Its what my body does. How is it not?

[S.A.M.]

He's newly married, you have to say "making love" ;)

[Baron Max]

All those repressed Freudians.

Would you teach your daughter those "repressed" words, Sam?

Would you let her use them in regular speech in front of your guests?

Baron Max

[Fraggle Rocker]

Why are so many swear words related to our bodies and its function?
Example: shit, cunt, fuck.The essence of a cussword is that the word itself evokes outrage in the listener. The passage of a word into and out of vulgarity works both ways. "Crap," "ass" and "dick" were considered really outrageous in my day, back in the 1950s. We used them but never when adults were listening, and even we regarded them as "strong language" and didn't throw them around lightly. Boys certainly didn't say them around girls, for example. Today you hear them all on "family" TV shows and probably most young women say "fuck" occasionally. If you said "fuck" around a girl she would blanch and run to the principal, her brother would beat you up, her father would have a long talk with your father, and depending on your "family values," he might beat you up too. (Mine wasn't violent, and what I coincidence, I never felt any need to outrage him.)

Ever wonder why we call teats "breasts" when really everybody only has one breast? "Teat" got to be a cussword. In the Victorian Era, so did "leg." That's why chickens and turkeys have "drumsticks" but no legs. "Piss" was once a perfectly respectable word and the French still call public urinals pissoirs. In my day, "piss" was a cussword. Now you can say "piss off" in almost any company.

As for "damn," in Victorian England many words that had the slightest tinge of naughtiness became taboo. Yes, preachers could say "damn" literally in their sermons, but if an Englishman said "damn you"--or far worse "God damn you"--to another Englishman, those were literally "fighting words."

Ways of emphasizing your conviction about something, e.g., "By God's wounds, [the thorn pricks on Jesus's forehead and the nail holes in his hands] I am really disappointed in the way the Home Ministry is mollycoddling those upstart Welshmen," began to cause outrage. It got shortened to "Zounds," or euphonized into "gadzooks."

Our Western societies go through periods of being outraged by frank discussions of sexual activities, bodily elimination functions, the organs associated therewith, and the dark side of religious dogma. So "fuck," "shit," "tit" and "goddamn" have taken their turns as cusswords. Starting in the 1960s the pendulum began swinging the other way, and today Emmy winner Jon Stewart can call people "pussies" and have a daily segment about the Vice President titled, "You Don't Know Dick." And just last week Dick's wife was a guest on the show!

As I've noted before, English is actually rather impoverished when it comes to cusswords. Spanish has two completely obscene and unprintable words for "fuck." It also has two completely obscene and unprintable words for "penis"--we don't even have one, they all have alternate respectable meanings!

Sorry, I make it a policy not to teach foreign profanity because don't we all just hate it when foreigners who can barely ask directions in English can tell us fluently to go fuck ourselves? Their countrymen feel the same way. But since we all know this one already... Spanish has a perfectly obscene and unprintable word for "pubic hair," pendejo, from Latin pendiculum, "tiny hanging thing." Venezuelan President Chávez called Bush a pendejo in a televised speech and outraged us while cheering on his own people. We don't even have a very good word for it, much less use it as an insult! I've been told that an Arabic speaker can cuss you out for a whole minute or two without using the same word twice. We run out after two sentences.
about the only one I can think of that isn't is damnAs I said, religious words have their turn. In Hebrew it's considered blasphemy to say the word for "God" out loud. Fortunately Hebrew is written without vowels except as instructional aids, and no one ever wrote the vowels for YHWH, so we don't know how it's pronounced. Customarily it's written Yahweh in secular English or Jehovah (J=Y and V=W in Latin) in some religious texts, but that's just because our writing system absolutely requires vowels. They're just guesses. There are quite a few devout Christians who will write you out of their lives if you ever say, "Jesus Christ!" as an epithet.

This is an ingrained habit in our culture. Remember in the Harry Potter books, it's really naughty to say Lord Voldemort's name? Sure, it's because the mere name supposedly has some mystical powers. Uh huh, uh huh. Isn't that just about the same way Christians feel about using Jesus Christ's name in vain? Or the Jews and Mister YHWH? If you had said "fuck" to my mother, it would have had some mystical powers all right. It would have destroyed your chances of EVER tasting one of her homemade desserts.
And why aren't defecate or copulate swear words? Its the same thing as the others.Because it's not their turn. There is debate over the possibility that "shit" was once a perfectly respectable word, like "feces" or "manure." Look what happened to "cock." Near as I can tell, when "penis" became a naughty word, "cock" was preempted because of its meaning of "faucet" or "tap." Soon "cock" became naughty too, and we had to coin the strange word "rooster" for a male chicken!

Is anyone else old enough to remember your parents reciting the old nursery rhyme, "I love little Pussy, her fur is so warm"? That one's been out of circulation for a long time!

If you don't remember that one, then I guess you just don't know Dick. :)
"Damn" isn't a swear word.Oh dude, it sure was 55 years ago. So was "hell." You never saw those words in print or heard them in polite company, with the single exception of religious services.

And remember the basic definition of "to swear." To damn someone is to curse them, right?

[S.A.M.]

Would you teach your daughter those "repressed" words, Sam?

Would you let her use them in regular speech in front of your guests?

Baron Max

Hmm you think I should bring her up as a repressed Freudian? Is that what happened to you?:bawl:

[Fraggle Rocker]

Hmm you think I should bring her up as a repressed Freudian? Is that what happened to you?Knowing that words have the power to evoke emotions, the question is whether you would not want her to understand that using those words might elicit a reaction she did not want. You can be saying something perfectly sensible, even profound, but if you use words that you know are going to evoke a sense of outrage in the listener, what you are communicating is that you would rather generate hostility between you than actually communicate your idea.

The problem with using outrageous language at home, whether you're an adult or a child, is that your brain develops language patterns in order to be able to speak quickly. You may very likely use a language pattern in public that generates outrage there even if it would not have done so at home.