Our sensitivity about 'curse' words has changed with the times

Deseret News ^ | Saturday, September 6, 2003 | Elaine Jarvik

[Cicero]

Another interesting difference between Anglo-Saxon and Norman French is that the names for animals are mostly Anglo-Saxon, from the workers who raised them, but the names for the meat made from those animals are French, from the lords who ate them.

Cow/beef; Pig/pork; Sheep/mutton; and so on.

[ChemistCat]

On Saturday?

Ye-ah.

:Sigh:

[nicollo]

I like this line:

"Can you imagine Mother Teresa saying, 'Hey, that really sucks, I am so pissed off,'" Johnson asks.

Gonna use it with my kids.

"Son of a gun" used to be an "awful" expression. It was a reference to the locale in which a bastard child's life was conceived, the gun decks of ships at port. S.O.B. took over, but that's lost it's edge, too. I mean, here's a clear case of the democratization of words: so many S.O.B.'s out there these days...

My kids' mother let them buy the PG-version of an Eminem album. It was ridiculous, reminded of a most sublime free speech protest from 1924, a little book called "Mother Goose - Censored," and went like this:

Old Mother Goose, when
She wanted to ________
Would _______a fat goose
Or a very fine gander.

or

Jacke and Jill went up the hill
To ______________________;
Jack fell down adn broke his ______,
And Jill came tumbling after.

And so on, through all the nursery rhymes.

So I bought the kids the uncut Eminem, and told them, "Don't you dare use these words yourself." My son took to repeating the bad words with their more, uh, formal versions, "excrement!" "Fornication!" etc. It's funny!

Now, if I can just remove "this" and "like" from their vocabulary....

Nicollo unmasked: Bromleyisms here

[Major_Risktaker]

Eagle Eye,

you said, "it's all just so gay..."

What does that statement mean and why do people say it?

[Tall_Texan]

Society is replacing those swear words with new ones like "ultraconservative", "Christian", "prolife", "right-wing"...

Soon, those will be said in the same vein we used to hear "nigger", "spic", "kike", "whore"...

[Tredge]

"We're wearing these things out very quickly, and you can't just make these things up. An entire culture has to agree that a word means something, that it has an aura and a gravitas, and that takes generations."

That's great, now even "f**k" has this "gravitas" thing. I infer that back in the 2000 campaign if GW Bush really wanted to bolster his Gravitas Quotient someone should have told him to pepper his speeches with the f-word.

Much is made here and elsewhere about parents' roles in teaching their children the skills and values they'll need in life later on, but I've never read anything about grandparents' roles in the process. In my case, my grandfather (an oil tanker captain) taught me that profanity, while being a valid tool in communication, is like the paintbrush to the painter - one requires training and talent to employ it artfully. His most important lessons were taught to me while on the golf course - it was there I learned that if one truly wishes to be a vulgarian he must have the temperment of the artist.

Reflecting on the education he gave me, I never understood why some people would be so artless in their use of our culture's treasured four-lettered words. It's akin to crying wolf when every other word is f-this and f-that. What will they do when the situation arises when the f-word is truly called for, and it needs to carry a punch? They have no go-to option, because they've all but worn out their vocabulary. Listeners will remark "Oh, he's just saying 'f**k', but he doesn't really mean it - he says that all the time." Innocent blood may be spilled while he lamely fumbles for a substitute to "f**k" where none exists - it has been the best our culture can do. For these people I feel truly sorry they didn't have the upbringing that I did.

[winker]

Rules of etiquette mean nothing to cretins! The shock and awe of gutteral language that goes against conventional norms, frames the person's ignorance.

Take the rules of this forum for example! It is expressly noted that no profanity,gutteral language,racial slurs or any un-savory language is allowed, yet the moderators always seem to allow deviation of these establised rules. I have called and made reference on numerous occasions about this growing problem in our nation and socially astute people are in high awareness of the slackness in applying and regulating what gets out on this forum.

This growing national experiential phenomen grows ever more present in the liberated environment of modern America, so the moderators on forums where this violates the established rules must be quick to delete the objectional material before it gets posted otherwise they themselves become part of the problem by allowing it to linger. Your challenge is still before you and unfortunately always will be!

[Alter Kaker]

Profanity is the crutch of the conversational cripple.

Not true. Profanity CAN be crutch of conversational cripple, but I know great many fine conversationalists who pepper comments with profanity.

[azcap]

Language that offends traditional morality is OK to today. You can thel the teacher to F*** Off. Language that offends political special interests is forbidden and punished harshley. Call the teacher a Fa**ot and you will be expelled. Call soeone at work a Bas***d - that's fine. Call someone a c**t you will be unemployed.

[Uncle George]

"Arn't they all just words"
Like "the little hole in the dike is only a snall leak". It is what follows in the declining of morality that counts in the long run. As the permissiveness of profanity started in movies in the "DAMN" in "Gone with the wind" has lead to the GARBAGE MOUTH dialog now heard in most movies.

[Gal.5:1]

My neighbor was a hippie type in the 'glorious 60's' here in the SF area. He's around 60 years old now and every time he chats with me he uses the phrase " it looks like s---!" to describe, say, another neighbor's dry lawn. His conversation is peppered with this word, and also J-C- used as a swear word.

Gee, it is so nice to look up to the older generation for inspiration and guidance in matters of culture and manners.

[Savage Beast]

Often, cursing in movie dialogues is so inappropriate that it becomes distracting and irritating, like getting the accent wrong.

[Marie]

I'd swear much less if there were no liberals.

[southernnorthcarolina]

The word "Hero" is lost and there is no substitute. "Hero" has come to mean anyone we like, leaving no word for TRUE Heroes. Thus, there is no ability in English to differentiate and discern.

You are right. And what an outstanding example of "word devaluation."

Hero, of Greek origin, is defined thus in my dictionary... and note that each of the definitions is a step down:

1. in mythology and legend, a man of great strength and courage, favored by the gods and in part descended from them, often regarded as half-god and worshipped after his death; as, Aeneas and Hector were heroes to the ancients.

2. any man admired for his courage, nobility, or exploits, especially in war; as, Washington is a national hero.

3. any person admired for his qualities or achievements and regarded as an ideal or model.

4. the central male chacter in a novel, play, poem, etc., with whom the reader is supposed to sympathize; protagonist: often opposed to villain.

To continue the downward spiral of the word, we could add a usage more often seen these days:

5. the 15-year-old kid who kicks a field goal to prevent his sorry team from being winless.

What to do about "word devaluation"? Nothing, I guess, because the cure would be worse than the disease. France, as well as Quebéc, are obsessed with keeping the French language "pure," and have set up bureaucracies for the purpose of enforcement (as in making un-approved words on signs and in ads illegal). We don't want to go there.

Guess we'll just have to come up with a new word for hero.

[Ferret Fawcet]

I fear you may be right on that one.

I've learned to tune out most profanity... they ARE just words, even though I find them distasteful and disrespectful.

But- if I'm around friends or family who blaspheme, I will kindly let them know that that's where I draw the line. It's working to some extent- a friend of mine who was very fond of saying G-D and J-C has almost completely stopped. It does disturb me, however, that those two profanities are given a free pass on TV.

[mongrel]

Crap comes from Thomas Crapper, a toilet manufacturer in England at the turn of the century. His toilets had Crapper written in bold on the tanks. American GI's in WWI picked up the word as slang for toilet, and crap for what was put in it. In time the word gained then lost its vulgarity.

It is a lie that vulgarity is not renewable. New words are developed based on what a society considers "holy." Right now racial tolerance is probably the holiest thing, and so racial slurs are the vulgarities. For most of history it has been religion along with spiritual life. Thus the words for God and the base functions of the body became the objectionables.

[stuartcr]

People have been cursing since there were languages.....long before movies.

[stuartcr]

Outside of literal definitions, the meanings of profanity/curse words are subjective....what is offensive to one, may not be offensive to another, therefore, they really don't mean anything.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

To what do you (or they) think 'suck' refers?