Profanity is a word choice or usage which its audience considers to be offensive. The original meaning of the term was restricted to blasphemy, sacrilege or speaking God's name in vain (profane speech, or swear word), especially expressions such as "God damn it", "go to Hell", and "damn you". The word bloody may belong in this category. They are sometimes made mild, resulting in less recognizable forms, such as the minced oaths. English grammar is the study of grammar in the English language. ... Blasphemy is the defamation of the name of God or the gods, and by extension any display of gross irreverence towards any person or thing deemed worthy of exalted esteem. ... Blasphemy is the defamation of the name of God or the gods, and by extension any display of gross irreverence towards any person or thing deemed worthy of exalted esteem. ... The term God is used to designate a Supreme Being; however, there are other definitions of God. ... Medieval illustration of the Mouth of Hell Hell (according to many religious beliefs about the afterlife) is a place of torment and pain. ... The word bloody is the adjectival form of blood but may also be used as a swear word or expletive attributive (intensifier). ... Minced oaths are corrupted forms of (usually religion-related) swear words that originally arose in English culture sometime before the Victorian Age, as part of the cultural impact of Puritanism after the Protestant Reformation. ...

However, the meaning has been extended to include scatological, sexist, derogatory, racist, or sexual terms (in English, primarily fuck, shit, cunt, nigger, and frequently, bitch and bastard). Also when used "in vain", or to express discontent Jesus, Christ, Jesus Christ, and God damn are considered profanity. The list includes words that are merely vulgar as well as those thought obscene. Compare the concept of the four-letter word. Scatology, or coprology, in medicine, biology and paleontology, is the study of feces. ... Look up Sex in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The members of many species of living things are divided into two or more categories called sexes (or loosely speaking, genders). ... Fuck is among the strongest, most controversial expletives in the modern English language and probably the most well-known vulgarism in the world. ... Look up Shit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Shit is a vernacular word in Modern English denoting the feces, the solid byproduct of digestion. ... Cunt is an English term that refers to the human female genitals. ... The word nigger is a highly controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ... Look up Bitch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word bitch — originally used for the female members of the canid species, specially dogs — is more often employed in a figurative sense as an insult for a promiscuous woman, or a malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, and/or mean person. ... For an illegitimate child, see Illegitimacy. ... This 11th-century portrait is one of many images of Jesus in which a halo with a cross is used. ... Christ, from the Greek in english known as Χριστός, or Khristós, means anointed, and is equivalent to the Hebrew term Messiah. ... For the album by the Swedish band Opeth, see Damnation (album). ... The term vulgar originally meant of the common people, from the Latin vulgus. ... Obscenity has several connotations. ... The phrase four-letter word refers to a set of English words written with four letters which are considered profane, including common popular or slang terms for excretory functions, sexual activity, and genitalia. ...

Definition

There has always been great difficulty in defining profanity. The U.S. Federal Communications Commission, in response to complaints about a 1973 broadcast comedy routine by George Carlin called Seven words you can never say on television, ruled that such language could not be broadcast "at times of day when there is a reasonable risk that children may be in the audience." The Supreme Court of the United States upheld this act of censorship in 438 U.S. 726 (1978). The words occurring in Carlin's monologue were: shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker and tits. Carlin's routine using these words has since been broadcast, however. In the early 1960s, Lenny Bruce had been taken to court for using some of these same words in his own comedy routines. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is an independent United States government agency, created, directed, and empowered by Congressional statute. ... Comedy is the use of humour in the performing arts. ... George Carlin in the film Jersey Girl George Dennis Carlin (born May 12, 1937 in New York City) is an Irish American (I used to be Irish Catholic, now Im an American. ... The Seven dirty words are seven words that were prohibited from use on broadcast media in the United States, including both over-the-air television and radio stations. ... Seal of the Supreme Court The Supreme Court of the United States, located in Washington, D.C., is the highest federal court (see supreme court) in the United States; that is, it has ultimate judicial authority within the United States to interpret and decide questions of federal law, including the... Censorship is the systematic use of group power to broadly control freedom of speech and expression, largely in regard to secretive matters. ... Look up Shit in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Shit is a vernacular word in Modern English denoting the feces, the solid byproduct of digestion. ... Look up Piss in Wiktionary, the free dictionary Piss is slang, one of the seven dirty words, which can mean the following: Piss can refer to urine or the act of urination. ... Fuck is among the strongest, most controversial expletives in the modern English language and probably the most well-known vulgarism in the world. ... Cunt is an English term that refers to the human female genitals. ... The word cocksucker, one of the seven dirty words, is a form of vulgar slang, and is considered by some, along with motherfucker, to be one of the strongest insults in the English language. ... Motherfucker (also contracted forms mother and mofo and, phonetically, in African American Vernacular English, muthafucka) is a common insult and profanity in the English language and is widely considered obscene. ... The word tit has several possible meanings: In biology, there are several birds named tit, including the titmice, long-tailed tits, bearded tit and penduline tits. ... This article provides extensive lists of events and significant personalities of the 1960s. ... Lenny Bruce (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), born Leonard Alfred Schneider, was a controversial American stand-up comedian and satirist of the 1950s and 60s. ...

Profane words with multiple meanings

Some words are profane or vulgar in one context but completely acceptable in another. For example, cock is commonly used to describe a male chicken, and is nonoffensive, and as a verb ("she cocked her head to the side") it is nonoffensive. Dick, as a nickname derived from "Richard", never raises objection. Faggot is also nonoffensive when used in the word's original context— a bundle of sticks— but becomes highly profane when directed at a homosexual person. In these cases, the alternate meanings have no connection to the profanity with, coincidentally, the same name. "Tits" is considered profane, but teats is not. In English outside of North America arse is considered objectionable (in place of ass which still means donkey), while within North America, arse, bugger, and bloody are not. A nickname is a short, clever, cute, derogatory, or otherwise substitute name for a person or things real name (for example, Nick is short for Nicholas). ... A cow udder with 4 teats Teat is an alternative word for a nipple or breast. ... World map showing location of North America A satellite composite image of North America North America is the third largest continent in area and fourth in population after Asia and Africa in area and population and Europe in population. ... Binomial name Equus asinus The donkey or ass (Equus asinus) is a domesticated animal of the horse family, Equidae. ...

A great many words that were originally non-offensive often become taboo in all circumstances after an offensive meaning is acquired. This can be seen taking place with the aforementioned cock, as well as (especially) bitch. The offensive stigma is such that speakers will seek to avoid using the word, even in a non-offensive context (for example paraphrasing as rooster or female dog). A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. ... Look up Bitch in Wiktionary, the free dictionary The word bitch — originally used for the female members of the canid species, specially dogs — is more often employed in a figurative sense as an insult for a promiscuous woman, or a malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, and/or mean person. ... Paraphrasing is the act in which a statement or remark is explained in other words or another way, as to clarify the meaning. ...

Some vulgarities have emerged from nonoffensive words that become offensive in a particular context. The word broad is decidedly nonoffensive, but when applied to a woman (potentially connected to the idea of a broad chest) becomes vulgar. The slang word sucks emerged from a nonoffensive word for suction, and became a serious profanity as "sucking" became a euphemism for fellatio. As sucks grew in popularity, and was prolifically used in nonsexual contexts, and alternative nonsexual expansions of sucks emerged ("that sucks like a vacuum", "that sucks zucchini") it became decidedly less offensive, and is today considered a "PG"-phrase. Slang is the non-standard use of words in a language of a particular social group, and sometimes the creation of new words or importation of words from another language. ... See suction for the meaning of sucking (e. ... A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. ... Oral sex consists of all those sexual activities that involve the use of the mouth, tongue, etc. ... The MPAA film rating system is a system used in the United States and instituted by the Motion Picture Association of America to rate a movie based on its content. ...

History

Terms of profanity have historically been taboo words. Some words originally considered profane have become much less offensive with the increasing secularity of society, while others, primarily racial or ethnic epithets which can be considered part of hate speech, have become increasingly taboo. A taboo is a strong social prohibition (or ban) relating to any area of human activity or social custom declared as sacred and forbidden; breaking of the taboo is usually considered objectionable or abhorrent by society. ... Hate speech is a controversial term for speech intended to degrade, intimidate, or incite violence or prejudicial action against someone based on their race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, or disability. ...

The word cunt maintains much of its taboo status at least partly due to the influence of feminism, though other feminists are attempting to "reclaim" a neutral or complimentary status for this word. Shakespeare hinted at the word in Hamlet and Henry V: Hamlet quips about "country matters" when he tries to lay his head in Ophelia's lap; and the French Princess Katherine is amused by the word gown for its similarity to the French for cunt, con. Feminism is a body of social theory and a political movement primarily based on, and motivated by, the experiences of women. ... Wikipedia does not yet have an article with this exact name. ... The Tragedy of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark is a tragedy by William Shakespeare and one of his most well-known and oft-quoted plays. ... Henry V is a play by William Shakespeare based on the life of King Henry V of England. ... Ophelia is the submissive daughter of Polonius, a chief advisor to the new King Claudius, in the play Hamlet by William Shakespeare. ...

In the U.S. today, terminology considered to be racist is often seen as much more offensive than sexual or scatalogical terminology; this is most clearly shown in the attention given to use of the word nigger, now effectively banned in American public discourse. So strong is the social disapproval aimed at this word, that it has affected use of the unrelated, but similar-sounding, word niggardly (meaning "stingy"). For example, in a highly publicized incident in 1999, the mayor of Washington, DC, Anthony A. Williams, pressed for the resignation of his staff member, David Howard, because Howard used the word "niggardly" in a private staff meeting [1]. As with other types of profanity, context is very important; thus, Americans of African descent might use the word nigger, or the related nigga, in informal situations among themselves, without being considered offensive. For other uses, see United States (disambiguation) and US (disambiguation). ... An African-American drinks out of a water fountain marked for colored in 1939 at a street car terminal in Oklahoma City. ... The word nigger is a highly controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ... Niggardly is a word for stingy, often mistakenly associated with nigger, a racial slur against Blacks. ... Anthony A. Williams (born July 28, United States politician who has served as mayor of Washington, DC since 1999. ... Africa is the worlds second-largest continent in both area and population, after Asia. ...

Psycholinguistic studies have demonstrated that profanity and other taboo words produce physical effects in people who read or hear them, such as an elevated heart rate. Psycholinguistics or linguistics of psychology is the study of the psychological and neurobiological factors that enable humans to acquire, use, and understand language. ...

This fact is seen by some as evidence that reclaiming of words such as queer is a valid way to remove its power. See also the article on nigger. Queer has traditionally meant strange or unusual, but is most often used in reference to lesbians, gay men, bisexual women and men, and other sexual minorities. ... The word nigger is a highly controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ...

The offensiveness or perceived intensity or vulgarity of the various profanities can change over time, with certain words becoming more or less offensive as time goes on. For example, in modern times the word piss is usually considered mildly vulgar and somewhat impolite, whereas the King James Bible unblushingly employs it where modern translators would prefer the word urine (2 Kings 18:27; Isa 36:12) or urinate (1 Sam 25:22, 25:34; 1 Kings 14:10, 16:11, 21:21; 2 Kings 9:8). The King James Version (KJV) is an English translation of the Holy Bible, commissioned for the benefit of the Church of England at the behest of King James I of England. ...

Severity

The relative severity of the various English profanities, as perceived by the public, was studied on behalf of the British Broadcasting Standards Commission, Independent Television Commission, BBC and Advertising Standards Authority; the results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called "Delete Expletives". It listed the profanities in order of severity, the top ten being cunt, motherfucker, fuck, wanker, nigger, bastard, prick, bollocks, arsehole, and paki, in that order. 83% of respondents regarded cunt as "very severe"; 16% thought the same about shit and 10% crap. Only about 1% thought cunt was "not swearing"; 9% thought the same about shit and 32% crap. Cunt is an English term that refers to the human female genitals. ... Motherfucker (also contracted forms mother and mofo and, phonetically, in African American Vernacular English, muthafucka) is a common insult and profanity in the English language and is widely considered obscene. ... Fuck is among the strongest, most controversial expletives in the modern English language and probably the most well-known vulgarism in the world. ... Wanker is profane slang for a contemptible person, meaning literally one who wanks (masturbates). ... The word nigger is a highly controversial term used in many English-speaking countries, including the United States, Canada, Britain, and Australia to refer to individuals with dark skin, especially those of African descent who previously were racially classified by the now outdated term Negro. ... For an illegitimate child, see Illegitimacy. ... The penis (plural penises or penes) or phallus is the external male copulatory organ, and, in mammals, the external male organ of urination. ... Bollocks is a slang term meaning testicles in British English, but more often used figuratively. ... This article is about the literal anatomical structure of the anus. ... This page is a candidate to be moved to Wiktionary. ...

Interlanguage

The situation is rendered more complex when other languages enter the picture. Merde in French, and Scheiße in German (both usually translated as shit) are also quite common. It is also interesting to note that while German and other languages' profanity seems to focus on elimination, English profanity tends to be sexual in nature. Likewise, in European Spanish, coño (usually translated as cunt in English) is very common in informal spoken discourse, meaning no more than "Hey!" or "Christ!"

Some scholars have noted that while the French and Spanish are comfortable hearing native speakers use these words, they tend to hear the "stronger" meaning when the same words are spoken by non-native speakers. This may be similar to the differences in the acceptability of queer or nigger depending on who is saying the words. Or it may be an example of how it is easier to learn swear words in a new language or dialect than to learn the fine shades of intensity which accompany their use.

A profane word in one language often sounds like an ordinary word in another. Fuck sounds like the French words for seal (phoque) and jib (foc), as well as the Romania word for do (I do = eu fac); shit sounds like the Russian for "to sew". Even names in one language may appear as vulgar words in another linguistic community, which causes many immigrants to change their names (common Vietnamese personal names include Phuc and Bich). A particular coincidence is the Hungarian and Spanish words for curve: Spanish curva sounds like a Slavic and Hungarian kurva meaning "prostitute", and Hungarian kanyar sounds like coño, mentioned above. In Romanian curva means "prostitute". See another example in Laputa. Additionally, puta is genitive and accusative case of two often used words in south Slavic languages; but in Portuguese, means "prostitute", and filho da - is an offensive word, similar to son of a bitch. subfamilies Otariidae Phocidae Odobenidae Pinnipeds are large marine mammals belonging to the Pinnipedia, a family (sometimes a suborder or superfamily, depending on the classification scheme) of the order Carnivora. ... See also: Jib (television) A jib is a triangular staysail set ahead of the foremost mast of a sailing boat. ... The Slavic languages (also called Slavonic languages), a group of closely related languages of the Slavic peoples and a subgroup of Indo-European languages, have speakers in most of Eastern Europe, in much of the Balkans, in parts of Central Europe, and in the northern part of Asia. ... Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gullivers Travels by Jonathan Swift. ...

Quebec French can string a few basic terms from Roman Catholic liturgy into quite impressive strings of invective of up to a minute or more. This is known as sacre. Note: This page contains IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. ... The Roman Catholic Church, most often spoken of simply as the Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with over one billion members. ... The literal translation of the French verb sacrer is to consecrate. However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. ...

Russia

Profanity took a very interesting form in Russia where there exists a language of sorts called mat, most of its words based on four basic profane roots -- nouns penis, whore, cunt and verb fuck. At least two hundred derivative words exist in this language, plus countless word combinations. It is possible to sensibly communicate using just these four basic roots. Due to countless very fine nuances (stress on a different syllable changes the meaning of certain words etc.) it is not easy to master that language which is very widely used in Russia, especially in rural areas. Before the 1990s these words never appeared in print (except special articles published in universities) and they remain officially banned on TV and in the movies. Mat (Russian мат) is Russian slang, revolving particularly around the use of specific generally unprintable vulgar words. ... Events and trends The 1990s are generally classified as having moved slightly away from the more conservative 1980s, but keeping the same mind-set. ... An American family watching television in the 1950s. ... Film refers to the celluloid media on which movies are printed Film is a term that encompasses motion pictures as individual projects, as well as the field in general. ...

Japan

Japanese is occasionally cited as an example of a language with little or no profanity, but this myth is mostly due to a misunderstanding of the complex system of politeness levels in the language. Common verbs, like "to do" or "to give", have multiple forms conveying various levels of respect, and depending on the context the choice of verb can be offensive: for example, the condescending verb yaru for "to give" is perfectly acceptable when giving food to a dog or watering a plant, but cannot be used towards an equal or superior without serious offense. Similar levels of politeness apply to pronouns, with some pronouns for "you", including kisama (貴様, lit. "my Lord"), temae (手前, "in front") and otaku (お宅, "honorable house") having gone through the euphemism treadmill and become extremely offensive. These make it entirely possible to unintentionally gravely insult someone without using any profane words in the Western sense. In English, an otaku (plural usually otaku, since Japanese words are not pluralized using an s) is a variety of geek (or an overly obsessed fanboy / fangirl) specializing in anime and manga. ... A euphemism is an expression intended by the speaker to be less offensive, disturbing, or troubling to the listener than the word or phrase it replaces. ...

However, Japanese does have a number of patently offensive expressions which are banned in all broadcast media and frequently censored in text: examples include manko (マンコ, "vagina") and chinpo (チンポ, "penis"). If used, these and other offensive expressions are commonly printed with the central character replaced by the placeholder sign maru (〇), so manko becomes ma-ko (マ〇コ). This is directly equivalent to writing "fuck" as "f**k". For most parts, these terms carry only their literal meanings and cannot be used as insults per se, but some words like kusottare (糞っ垂れ, "shit-drip") and yariman (やり万, "whore") are strong invective on par with anything found in English. Milder exclamations allowed on TV include baka (バカ, "stupid"), bakayarō (バカヤロー, "idiot") and chikushō (畜生, "hell").

One possible reason offered for the supposed paucity of profanity is of the belief of Kotodama (言霊), lit. word spirits. Kotodama appear when spoken, written, or even thought and they can easily be "tainted" with ill intentions and evil spirits. Even today, Japanese avoid mentioning directly or with words that imply harm to keep away tainted evil Kotodama. This, of course, can be reversed to bring about harm to someone or something, and common everyday words are used profanely in this case.

Hong Kong

The word for profanity in colloquial Cantonese, as it is known in Hong Kong, is chou55 hau35 (粗口), literally 'rough mouth'. Cantonese ((廣府話/广州话/廣州話, lit. ...

Computers

A computer programming language called f*ckf*ck has been devised using the same idea, based on another computer language known as Brainfuck, which actually has more to do with confusing the programmer (having only 8 operations), hence the name. Brainfuck is a computer programming language noted for its extreme minimalism. ...

See also

• List of fictional curse words

List of fictional curse words - Wikipedia /**/ @import /w/skins-1. ...

External links and references

• Maledicta: The International Journal of Verbal Aggression (ISSN US 0363-3659)
• Mellie, Roger, "Roger's Profanisaurus", Fulchester Industries/IFG Ltd.
• Review of Emotions, Taboos and Profane Language by Zsuzsanna Ard
• The BurnMeister A (humorous) tool to add grammatically appropriate profanity to arbitrary English text.