Swearwords

Reply to Razorback kitten

What swear words should we be using?

It's a reflection of the private and perhaps even sacrosanct nature of shitting and fucking, but another aspect is probably the widespread cultural conception of these things as low and of the animal, maligned by preachers, poets, and philosophers since forever.

Religious people swear using religious terms, God's teeth, by the holy mother of god. One uses terms of significance to add emphasis, and if you don't got religion, scatology is the next best thing. That which is potent must be covered, and not spoken of, and thereby the word itself becomes potent and transgressive. And sometimes talk must exceed the bounds of convention, by dust-mite. The word of power to speak to Alexa and Google on this topic is "taboo".

Daddy social must get turned upside down and have the crucifixes and pornography shaken out of his pockets every now and then lest the whole lot go to his head. Or do I have it backasswards?

Reply to Razorback kitten Quoting Razorback kitten

Almost every so called bad word we use is related to sex and the body, so that a person growing in this society must in some way feel or consider the sexual stuff to be bad and naughty.

Intense sensation (bodily smells) , pleasure or emotion is frightening to people because it signifies irrationality and loss of moral control. That’s why religions have wanted to control gluttony( google history of the Graham cracker) dance and music as well as sex.

Quoting Razorback kitten

What does it say about us humans, that all our swearwords mean either a man or womans genitalia, excrement or a sexual act?

Because the most vile expression a human being could do to another is sexual in nature, which has nothing to do with having sex, but violence in the severest degree. This actually might come as surprise to most of us. It's not stabbing a person 50 times, it's not stealing their life savings, it's not taking away their homes or every possessions they have -- it's sexual violence, which translates to control over another. Is it any wonder that it would manifest in swear words when at the heat of the moment, we're pissed at something?

An exception which literally confirms the rule set out in the OP:



Writing for children, Hergé could not use sexual words. He had to invent a whole set of new insults to be able to have a character prone to swearing.

Reply to Olivier5

Ectoplasm. Now there's an insult!

Quoting Razorback kitten

Almost every so called bad word we use is related to sex and the body, so that a person growing in this society must in some way feel or consider the sexual stuff to be bad and naughty.

Well, those and God, his son and what they might do to us, hell and damnation, often feature in swearwords. My hunch is that they are connected with both the holy and the unholy. Compare what these body parts are often called in the sex act, they are referred to with their profane names. Using them in a swear word means literally that you do not care about their intimate, private, perhaps holy nature. What has happened to you is so severe and upsetting that you forget all decorum and use them. By doing so you let the world know how severe the situation is for you. Through use they devalue and become commonly used in every minor incident and even common language, indicating you do not 'give a damn'...

Reply to Jackson https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Captain_Haddock%27s_Curses