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Of cuss! Why F-bombs and C-words are not as bad as you think
Swearing, expletives and profanity have been around as long as language has. Just effing embrace it
In 2021, Nicolas Cage hosted a cheeky series on Netflix about the origins of profanity in the English language. History of Swear Words brought in experts on etymology, history and pop culture to discuss why some of us say f***, d***, and p**** with such relish, while others are horrified that we even used them in this sentence.
The short version: There’s no running away from swear words. They exist in every language and have evolved alongside regular words. Yesterday’s ear-burning profanity will eventually become today’s not-so-bad grumbling. A few lucky phrases may even become terms of endearment. Get over it, b****.
Expletives serve a kind of car-horn function for language – we use them for emphasis or to get the listener to pay attention. Devina Krishna, who teaches English Language at Patna Women’s College and has completed a PhD in Linguistics from Delhi’s Jawaharlal Nehru University, has been studying etymology closely. “Taboo language has revolved around religion right from the beginning,” she says. “ ‘Damn’, which originated in 17th century France, can be traced back to the Middle English word ‘dam’ and even further back to the Latin word ‘damnare’, which means to condemn.”
A 2018 study in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise suggests that letting out a few choice words during a workout can actually make you stronger. Participants in the study, who cursed aloud while gripping a vise, were able to squeeze harder and longer.
Around the world, swear words are getting soaped up and are entering regular parlance faster than ever. Spain-born Blanca Dean has lived in India for 20 years, teaching Spanish and training teachers. She now creates Spanish study materials at Hispanic Horizons, Mumbai. Even Spanish cussing is losing its bite, she says. “Swear words that used to be considered offensive are now less so,” she says. “One example is the word ‘joder’, which means ‘to have sex’. Over time, it came to be used as a vulgar expression to convey annoyance, frustration or surprise -- much like the English word screw. While still considered vulgar,it’s accepted in certain contexts and is often used colloquially among friends.”
Bring out the Excel sheet if you’re really worried about putting a foot wrong. “The acceptability of swear words even within the same language can vary widely based on cultural, regional, and social factors,” Krishna says. Words that might be okay in Australia (where locals playfully address close pals as c****) are a no-go in Canada (where they’re so nice, they use hoser as a synonym for loser).
Expletives, however draw from the same wellspring regardless of language. “Studies show that the language of swearing is composed of mostly plosive consonants [the hard sounds associated with the letters p, t, k, b, d, g],” says Krishna. “The sounds in lullabies, on the other hand, use sonorant consonants [y, w, l, r, m, n, and ng].” And most terms cover the usual suspects: Genitalia, bodily functions, sex, anger, dishonesty, drunkenness, madness, disease, death, dangerous animals, fear, religion.
The words aren’t bad by themselves – it’s the meaning one ascribes to a douche, a turd, your mother and your sister that turn them into something else. And as always, there’s also change for good. The Gaali Project is a crowdsourced initiative to build a glossary of non-hateful insults that still have plenty of plosive power (we love baklol or dokya cha). Draw from the list, contribute some of your own. Or just f*** it.
