Don’t want to start a fight, just adding my two penneys.
I appreciate cuss word substitutions and have heard it said
that profanity is the crutch of a conversational cripple.
Men who do not swear are really, really sexy to me.
...just sayin’...
Substituting “frig” for the f-bomb is even lamer than cussin’.
I agree that cussing can be evidence of a lack of polish, breeding and no substitute for real eloquence. Often, cussing is just an inarticulate expression of anger. It shows a lack of creativity and thought.
On the other hand, some people, like Mark Twain’s stevedore, can curse expressively, creatively, with insight and subtlity. They are the poets of profanity, the bards of blasphemy, and the world is richer for having them in it. The Army used to use them as drill instructors. There are occasions and situations were only native America profanity can truly convey the magnitude, import and scope of one’s failure to, say, properly execute a “column to the right FACE”. It was Truman’s genius to recognize that many of the best practitioners of this arcane art are African American men and made their talents available to whole Army. Southern boys, who grew up in the mixed company of presegration South (that is those growing up before 1970, when segration went from being merely de jure to a reality) often mastered the art.
But frig is just a "cleaned up" way to say f---. If its used in a sentence, trying to convey a thought, it will be said as "well that friggin' thing..." which most men would call acceptable. MOST men will see that profanity does not HAVE to be used in conversation.
But when there is an outburst of frustration or exasperation, FRIG! doesn't cut it. You sound like a pansy.
Darn it or Dang it are more acceptable, as these are words that have been accepted over time.
But frig? Using frig sounds like Wally Cox or Woody Allen desperately trying to be viewed as cool or tough, but AFRAID of actually swearing.
>>> “Men who do not swear are really, really sexy to me.”
I was a licensed driver myself before I ever ONCE heard one of my parents swear. I got my Dad mad at me - about what, I don’t recall - and he said something that included the word shit.
Now of course I was ashamed to have so distressed my father that he used a curse word, but I was inwardly gratified to at last refute the working theory that BOTH of my parents were pod people.
Holding in frustration for long enough to tamp down the natural urge to ejaculate a socially unacceptable yet situationally appropriate word isn’t good for anybody, and as proof I submit my own Mom. Bless her heart, I love her to death... but day-yum!
You never knew what you were walking into with her.