Search results
Look up and browse swear & curse words on the NoSwearing.com swear word dictionary.
- Swearing in Media
- Why Swear?
- Uses of Swear Words
- What Makes A Word Bad?
- David Cameron's 'Jokey, Blokey Interview'
- Censoring Swear Words
- Supreme Court Rulings on Swear Words
- The Lighter Side of Swear Words
- Sources
Profanities in today's society are about as ubiquitous as air, but here is an example from media nonetheless. Spock: Your use of language has altered since our arrival. It is currently laced with, shall we say, more colorful metaphors, "double dumbass on you," and so forth. Captain Kirk: Oh, you mean the profanity? Spock: Yes. Captain Kirk: Well, t...
If using swear words is considered offensive or wrong, why do people do it? As it turns out, there are many reasons that people might choose to pepper their language with colorful curse words, and profanity actually serves a few meaningful roles in society. Here's what the experts have to say about why, when, and how people swear.
"A final puzzle about swearing is the crazy range of circumstances in which we do it," begins Steven Pinker. "There is cathartic swearing, as when we hit our thumb with a hammer or knock over a glass of beer. There are imprecations, as when we suggest a label or offer advice to someone who has cut us off in traffic. There are vulgar terms for every...
So how does a word become bad? Author George Carlin raises the point that most bad words are chosen rather arbitrarily: "There are four hundred thousand words in the English language and there are seven of them you can't say on television. What a ratio that is! Three hundred ninety-three thousand nine hundred and ninety-three ... to seven! They mus...
Just because many people swear doesn't mean that swear words aren't still controversial. Former British Prime Minister David Cameron once proved in a casual interview how quickly conversations can turn sour when swear words are used and lines between what's acceptable and what's not are blurred. "David Cameron's jokey, blokey interview ... on Absol...
In an effort to use swear words without offending, many writers and publications will replace some or most of the letters in a bad word with asterisks or dashes. Charlotte Brontë argued years ago that this serves little purpose. "[N]ever use asterisks, or such silliness as b-----, which are just a cop-out, as Charlotte Brontë recognised: 'The pract...
When public figures are heard using especially vulgar expletives, the law will sometimes get involved. The Supreme Court has ruled on indecency countless times, spanning many decades and multiple occasions, though often brought to the court by the Federal Communications Commission. It seems that there aren't clear rules as to whether the public use...
Swearing doesn't always have to be so serious. In fact, swear words are often used in comedy like this: "'Tell me, son,' the anxious mother said, 'what did your father say when you told him you'd wrecked his new Corvette?' "'Shall I leave out the swear words?' the son asked. "'Of course.' "'He didn't say anything,'" (Allen 2000).
Allen, Steve. Steve Allen's Private Joke File. Three Rivers Press, 2000.Carlin, George, and Tony Hendra. Last Words. Simon & Schuster, 2009.Holmes, Janet. An Introduction to Sociolinguistics. 4th ed., Routledge, 2013.Hughes, Geoffrey. Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English. Blackwell, 1991.- Richard Nordquist
Look up or learn curse words. Filter swear words & adult language. Translate your text into Smurf with Smurfilator.
Jun 14, 2023 · From ancient Rome to the Renaissance to today, there’s lots that the history of swearing can teach us about how taboos, language and culture evolve — and it can provide a glimpse of the future of (mostly) four-letter words.
- Alex Orlando
- Ass. How did a word meaning “donkey” come to mean “butt”? It didn’t: Each ass has its own etymology. Ass the donkey is an Old English term derived from asinus, the Latin word for the animal.
- Bitch. Bitch hails from the animal kingdom, too. The earliest sense of the word—Old English’s biccean, a borrowing from Germanic languages—refers to a female dog.
- Cunt. Today, however, cunt (also likely from Germanic) often takes the cake when it comes to offensive appellations given to women. But it didn’t become an insult until the 1600s; for centuries before that, it mainly just referred to female genitals.
- Damn. Damn, which comes from French and Latin verbs, wasn’t always an expletive. To damn someone circa 1300 often just meant to sentence them for a crime.
Learn everything about English curse words, also known as swear words, bad words, or insults, and download your 3 Cheat Sheets to understand all of them!
Jun 17, 2021 · Insults, dirty words, curse words and profanities, no doubt about it. The reasons for swearing and insults are multiple, here are just a few: creating complicity with your fellows, finding solidarity in your mutual hatred of something, blowing off some steam, shocking your second-grade school teacher, and sometimes just expressing yourself.