Comments on: How to do things with four-letter words.

How to do things with four-letter words.

Fat Elvis — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 15:56:51 -0800

How to do things with four-letter words. Why do we swear? Or, more importantly, why are swear words "bad" and other words are fine? Angus Kidman's thesus on the semantics of swearing in Australia - and most other English speaking places as well - tries to shed some light. Possibly NSFW.

By: The Jesse Helms

The Jesse Helms — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:22:46 -0800

'Cunt' is such a good word.

By: jonmc

jonmc — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:27:42 -0800

Fuckin' A!

By: MiguelCardoso

MiguelCardoso — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:32:50 -0800

Very good - thanks, Fat Elvis. Here's Mark Irwin's A Cultural History of Cunt: it's quite well known but some people may not have heard of it yet.

By: mokey

mokey — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:34:59 -0800

we swear because it's cool to swear. swearing wins you the respect and admiration of friends and colleagues. everybody loves a talented swearer.

By: wendell

wendell — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:42:26 -0800

I'm disappointed that his References do not include any mention of George Carlin, although there are two citations to "Dong, Quang Phuc".

By: wendell

wendell — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 16:57:51 -0800

Umpteen years ago, I was encouraged to try stand-up comedy, and started doing the 'open mike' nights at one club, owned by the well-regarded former partner of a more famous club. After changing my material every week and doing it totally clean the first five times, I came up with a bit of sex/relationship humor using the straight line (uttered by an ex-girlfriend): "Where did you learn how to fuck?" The well-regarded owner took me aside afterwards to talk to me about my choice of language. "But the guy before me said 'fuck' a dozen times in five minutes!" "Yes, but he said it as an interjection. You used it as a verb". After umpteen years, I can finally publicly say: What a fuckwit! BTW, this is the first time I've ever noticed 'fuck' is not in the MeFi Spell Check dictionary...)

By: quonsar

quonsar — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 17:17:38 -0800

holy. florking. schnit.

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 17:37:45 -0800

fucksocks wankbadger twatmonkey bumtwanger cuntymints porchtosser mungbishop mingebracket arsebadger

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:16:53 -0800

...Fudgepacker...

By: Jimbob

Jimbob — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:23:56 -0800

Australian swearing is a wonderfully diverse language. Action: Open fridge, discover a full carton of beer: "Faaaaauck!" Action: Open fridge, discover no beer: "Fuck!" (Downward inflection) Action: Slam one's finger in fridge door: "Fuck!" (Upwards inflection)

By: drstrangelove

drstrangelove — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:29:22 -0800

I personally like words that sound bad, but aren't, like muckluck. Or futtbuck. Or bass-ackwards. Or sockcucker. Or clunt.

By: pedantic

pedantic — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:55:22 -0800

I personally love television edits. The best I've heard so far was "frogging ashpole."

By: Pretty_Generic

Pretty_Generic — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 18:57:00 -0800

just for drstrangelove

By: whatzit

whatzit — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 20:19:46 -0800

Another profane paper: Better Living through Swearing: Repitition Blindness and Profanity. This is from the same grad student as the Discovery channel crop circle episode from October or so.

By: goddam

goddam — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 20:49:51 -0800

cunting fuck

By: wendell

wendell — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 21:39:48 -0800

"With a name like Smucker's, it HAS to be good."

By: dg

dg — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 21:42:26 -0800

everybody loves a talented swearer. Ah yes, but there is a fine line between being talented and being just plan foul-mouthed. This is something that movie producers should think about before they leave all the foul language in just for shock value, when a single, well-placed "fuck" would provide a much better effect for anyone other than 12-year-old boys.

By: kirkaracha

kirkaracha — Sun, 06 Apr 2003 23:09:05 -0800

This sounds like a job for Johnny Dangerously: "You lousy corksuckers. You have violated my farging rights. Dis somanumbatching country was founded so that the liberties of common patriotic citizens like me could not be taken away by a bunch of fargin iceholes...like yourselves. "

By: drstrangelove

drstrangelove — Mon, 07 Apr 2003 21:35:22 -0800

Thanks Pretty_Generic!

By: Tlogmer

Tlogmer — Tue, 08 Apr 2003 03:51:03 -0800

The relative status of cursing and swearing in America and Australia has already been discussed (Section 1.1.1), but other examples can also be adduced. For instance, both Australian and American English allow the use of the word shit as a noun for personal abuse, but only American English allows the use of fuck in the same way. (13a) You stupid shit! (American) (13b You stupid shit! (Australian) (13c) You stupid fuck! (American) (13d) *You stupid fuck! (Australian) Construction (14c) would not be possible in Australian English; the nearest possible equivalents might be You stupid fucker!, You stupid fuckwit! or You stupid fucking idiot!

It seems to me that this may be due to the american R, which is somewhat more unweildy than the australian or british R, rendering fucker more difficult to say in moments of stress.

By: languagehat

languagehat — Tue, 08 Apr 2003 08:45:34 -0800

Tlogmer: You've got it the wrong way round. It's not that Americans don't use "fucker" (we do), it's that Aussies don't use "fuck" (referring to a person). I don't think there is any explanation other than habit. They may eventually pick it up from American movies, the way everybody picked up "OK."