Hmm... honestly, they're just words to me. I respect people who don't like them and think they are wrong, but to me, they don't represent anything bad. Think of it. You say crap, and s*** is just a synonym. Why is it acceptable to say crap and not s***? It doesn't really make much sense to me. I only swear if I'm alone, in an extreme situation or if the people around don't mind, but only because I don't want to upset anyone by "swearing".
I agree with the fact that they are just words. How could such a simle concept mean something bad? I would really like to know when, how, and who actually made these words into "Crused words". It would be very interesting to know.
it is annoying that people are all like "OMG YOU JUST HELD UP YOUR MIDDLE FINGER" even when it was an accident or you are using it as a finger to point with (like so many people do)
well, i have no idea where swearing comes from, but now its mostly used for the shock factor. its either to make ppl realize how mad you are or just to freak people out. but ive heard so many times, im not even shocked anymore... but i dont actually use them, somehow saying that stuff myself doesnt feel right
Terms of profanity have historically been taboo words. Some words that were originally considered profane have become much less offensive with the increasing secularity of society.
Mostly true- the words that have become less profane are generally the words associated with some kind of blasphemy (at least in Western society whose roots have come from a Church dominated background). These include exclamations such as "geez!" and "gosh!" or "golly!", which are in fact variations of the words "Jesus" and "God", and as such would strictly constitute 'taking the Lord's name in vain'- some of the commonly used words like d*** are in fact filtered. But most people probably wouldn't appreciate this.
As people said, what defines taboo is really cultural context and symbolism, and after that, ultimately precedent. Usually offence was taken for some practical or symbolic reason and the symbol itself persisted. For example, the word b***** is considered an insult today but in Elizabethan England was a horrific accusation, because it literally means "born out of wedlock". These days it's not such a big deal, but even less than thirty years ago it definitely was, and back in Ye Olde England it was one of the ultimate slurs on one's character and moral worth.
Other times the word actually started out innocuous, or had a complex history, and was appropriated by another culture. I don't dare cite any examples here because the single best word also happens to be "the A-bomb of the English language", upon which volumes of scholarly pursuits could be expended and we would be no closer to discovering its true origins nor the path of its evolution.
Actually...I have a good example of ways words can be context-specific: in order to make a scandalous insult, Roman poet Catullus calls a figure of his satire a Celtiberian (Celtiber is the name of a Spanish town that existed during the ancient Roman times). In short, he was making an ethnic joke about their oral hygiene:
Now you are a Celtiberian: in the land of Celtiberia, whatever each man has urinated, with this he is accustomed in the morning to rub his teeth and gums until they are red, so that the more polished those teeth of yours are, the more urine they proclaim you to have drunk.
Note of course that urine played a different role in Roman hygiene than it does these days. But it was more acceptable to use it to wash togas...not teeth!
dont understand it realy, aperently if a bunch of people say something insulting it turns into a curse. I mean if people started saying the word 'orange' or somthing for curses, would it get cencored too? i mean if i said things like Orange you! or your an orangehole! and it cought on, would it get cencored?
* The term must be recognisably offensive in the context that it originated from.
* The term's offensiveness must become widespread.
* The term would most likely then transcend its context and extend into others- i.e. it becomes an offensive term in itself.
Orange, right now, like pie, is not likely to become an offensive swear word because its usage is far more recogniseable as food items i.e. if it were offensive we'd have some real trouble communicating. Words like 'g@y' are censored on the AG forums because of its more recent history, despite having an entirely different meaning in the past (i.e. 'happy'.)
