The idea of profanity or "swears" has bothered me for years. Let me break it down into two categories.
1. using the names of something sacred profanely or to express anger
The most common example is using Christ's name in vain. The problem is anything can be sacred to somebody. Someone may say "fiddlesticks!!!" when he stubs his toe but maybe fiddlesticks are something I hold as holy. People will say the easiest thing is to avoid using certain phrases or words that people consider sacred but than I say I hold EVERYTHING sacred. Therefore NOBODY can use any word or phrase to express anger as it will offend me. It's only fair.
2. the other swears: shit, fuck, etc......word that are just "bad"
Unlike the types of swears above these lack any logic or reason. What makes a word bad? A word should have no moral value. A word can represent something good or bad. "Murder" is bad but the word is not. What makes "shit" a swear but not "excrement"? They both mean the same thing. Some people claim it is their intent that makes these words bad. But if it is their intent than it is not the words themselves. Yelling "fiddlesticks" after stubbing your toe has the same intent as yelling "fuck". On the other side of the coin if I say I have to take a shit then "shit" in that case is not a swear. The intent is just to inform you of what I feel I have to do. The fact is these word have been deemed bad and people just accept it without thinking about it.
Another thing that bothers me is when newspapers or magazines print "f*#k" so as not to offend anyone. The writer knows what he means. The reader knows what he means. As long as it isn't actually spelled out it's OK. That makes alot of sense.
Conclusion: The concept of swearing is fucking bullshit!!
7 comments:
I believe this is correct: The "vulgar" (ie "of the common people") words tend to be of Anglo-Saxon origin and were the regular words for such things until the Norman Conquest. At that point the nobility (French-Normans) considered their words for these things to be polite and the lower class (A.S.) words to be impolite. (I have a song about this.) I learned this in Anglo-Saxon class. Maybe a Norman-French teacher would say otherwise.
Re. "profanity" of the religious sort: I think you can go with the odds and admit that "Jesus Christ!!" is more likely than "Oh, my pencil!" to offend someone. So, it comes down to the question of whether we care about offending anyone or not.
"Profanity" means words spoken "pro" (before, ie outside) "fanum" (a temple) -- words that are acceptable to use outside of "church" but not inside. That concept is questionable.
Thanks for the edumacation Richard.
As for the origin of "profanity"....
It is strange how some folks who do believe in God and accept his omnipotence behave as if He can only see them whiler they are in a place of worship.
The link to my song about such taboo words:
http://www.psw.ca/rpepper/mp3s/richardpepper_anglosaxon4.mp3
The word verification "Word of the Moment" is "wenlot"!!
Okay, we'll try this:
http://www.psw.ca/rpepper/mp3s/
richardpepper_anglosaxon4.mp3
"gmtny" which suggests GM Tony to me -- except that he drives a Hyundai too!
Great tune Rich!!! I recall hearing it before. Robin must have played it for me at one time.
I don't like that word verification but I was getting some spam posts.
"bknyy"
interesting PDF can be found here:
http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=896790
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