What?s the big fucking deal?

VICTORIA (CUP) &- Shit, piss, ass, fuck. Offended? All right, what about asshole, motherfucker, cocksucker and cunt? That list pretty much sums up the most abusive and insulting words in the English language. And how many North Americans know these words by the third grade?
From a young age we learn what “bad words” are. By kindergarten most of us know what words are naughty, even if we can’t attribute much meaning to them. But why is such a ruckus kicked up whenever an expletive is issued?
Cursing and cussing can be so paradoxical. Drospping the f-bomb, for instance, is taboo in most cultures the world over, but instead of shirking it off, people swear regularly.
Fuck this, fuck that and what the fuck?
Fuck is an adjective, verb, adverb, noun, pronoun and interjection. As far as cuss words go, it can be used any fucking place.
Swear words don’t necessarily roll off the tongue or convey much by way of poetry, but what is it about raunchy expletives that upset us so much?
From the point of view of a cunning linguist, it’s apparent that the history of language contains a buried backdrop of class war and ethnic conflict.
Almost all English swear words come from Anglo-Saxon, Danish or Gaelic roots. This goes back to the history of social class in England, particularly to the Norman conquests of 1066. At this time the French and Latin languages dominated aristocratic, legal and royal circles.
So we have crass and lewd words coming from farmers, serfs and blue-collar types (the Anglo-Saxons) &- the ones who enjoy blowjobs. And then there are the aristocratic bluebloods. They don’t get BJs at all. Instead they enjoy “fellatio.” Got it?
While the common peasant might suggest their local bishop or nobleman is a “motherfucking asshole,” Latinized, he is merely an “incestuous anus.”
Similarly, peeps in the inner city might refer to their landlord as a “fucking shithead” but properly speaking he’s only a “copulating excrement head.” Which one sounds more ludicrous?
What it is about language that deems some words profane and others hunky-dory? For example, the word “profane” comes from Latin and means “outside the temple,” hence the association of blasphemy with damnation.
So is it long-held ties to Christian dogmatism that has predetermined our views on appropriate and inappropriate speech? Perhaps our frequently backsliding status quo has a part in all this too.
Whatever the cause of the clamor over profanity, it’s fair to say that words have whatever power we decide to give them. When you bang your shin or stub your toe, doesn’t it feel great to let out a “fuck”? You bet it does.
Even if we are a little old-fashioned or turned off by brute lip service, we should still acknowledge there’s a place for foul language. Like Mark Twain said, “There ought to be a room in every house to swear in.” Fuckin’ right there should be!

VICTORIA (CUP) &- Shit, piss, ass, fuck. Offended? All right, what about asshole, motherfucker, cocksucker and cunt? That list pretty much sums up the most abusive and insulting words in the English language. And how many North Americans know these words by the third grade?
From a young age we learn what “bad words” are. By kindergarten most of us know what words are naughty, even if we can’t attribute much meaning to them. But why is such a ruckus kicked up whenever an expletive is issued?
Cursing and cussing can be so paradoxical. Drospping the f-bomb, for instance, is taboo in most cultures the world over, but instead of shirking it off, people swear regularly.
Fuck this, fuck that and what the fuck?
Fuck is an adjective, verb, adverb, noun, pronoun and interjection. As far as cuss words go, it can be used any fucking place.
Swear words don’t necessarily roll off the tongue or convey much by way of poetry, but what is it about raunchy expletives that upset us so much?
From the point of view of a cunning linguist, it’s apparent that the history of language contains a buried backdrop of class war and ethnic conflict.
Almost all English swear words come from Anglo-Saxon, Danish or Gaelic roots. This goes back to the history of social class in England, particularly to the Norman conquests of 1066. At this time the French and Latin languages dominated aristocratic, legal and royal circles.
So we have crass and lewd words coming from farmers, serfs and blue-collar types (the Anglo-Saxons) &- the ones who enjoy blowjobs. And then there are the aristocratic bluebloods. They don’t get BJs at all. Instead they enjoy “fellatio.” Got it?
While the common peasant might suggest their local bishop or nobleman is a “motherfucking asshole,” Latinized, he is merely an “incestuous anus.”
Similarly, peeps in the inner city might refer to their landlord as a “fucking shithead” but properly speaking he’s only a “copulating excrement head.” Which one sounds more ludicrous?
What it is about language that deems some words profane and others hunky-dory? For example, the word “profane” comes from Latin and means “outside the temple,” hence the association of blasphemy with damnation.
So is it long-held ties to Christian dogmatism that has predetermined our views on appropriate and inappropriate speech? Perhaps our frequently backsliding status quo has a part in all this too.
Whatever the cause of the clamor over profanity, it’s fair to say that words have whatever power we decide to give them. When you bang your shin or stub your toe, doesn’t it feel great to let out a “fuck”? You bet it does.
Even if we are a little old-fashioned or turned off by brute lip service, we should still acknowledge there’s a place for foul language. Like Mark Twain said, “There ought to be a room in every house to swear in.” Fuckin’ right there should be!