Hi,

This week, I want to delve into a topic inspired by an episode of Freakonomics I listened to recently: swearing.

As a prolific swearer, I was pleased to learn some new facts about the art of swearing, some of which I'll share with you here, along with my own ramblings…

The 3 eras of swearing

Originally, swearing was religious in nature. And the term "swearing" was literally that.

In pre-literate times, you used to swear to God that you would do something. When you didn't really mean it, you were swearing in vain, which was disrespectful. So when you weren't being sincere, instead of "Dear God!" you would use substitutes like "Egad!" and "Gadzooks!", words that you probably didn’t even realise were once offensive.

Hence that Commandment about taking the Lord's name in vain is not about calling God a d***head, but rather how you shouldn’t swear you are going to do something if you don't really mean it.

God was telling Moses "I want people to stop trying to bulls*** me".

The second evolution came during the Renaissance when people stopped defecating, bathing and having sex wherever they felt like. It used to be common to see people pooping in the street or out the window.

There was no sense of privacy for centuries - in fact, spending time on your own could even be interpreted as suspicious.

But during the Renaissance and then the Reformation, people started to do many things alone, thus making more intimate and vulnerable acts more taboo. The flush toilet was invented in 1592, which helped. This period was when referring to ordinary things like your genitals suddenly seemed like oversharing.

The third evolution is the phase we’re currently in. This era is marked by the way racial and discriminatory slurs that went unchecked in earlier times have become increasingly offensive and taboo.

Think about old UK sitcoms like Love Thy Neighbour and It Ain't Half Hot Mum. They were considered inoffensive family entertainment back in the 1970s, but definitely not anymore.

Progress or regress

We have these three progressive layers of swearing still swimming around in our lives. Famed linguist John McWhorter characterises this progression as "the intellectual and moral development of our society":

The important trend to remember is that the perception of words changes with time.

During the Victorian era, the word "trousers" was considered offensive.

Some swear words even used to be incorporated into the names of animals until they were renamed due to changing perceptions.

For example, kestrels used to be called windf**kers.

That’s enough of the history. Now for some sociological “insights”.

Swearing = a sign of intelligence

There is a common stance that using swear words is somehow a lack of intelligence, a lack of sophistication. But studies have repeatedly shown that the richer your vocabulary, the richer your swearing.

This is definitely true in Polish as well as English. Although we love creating phrasal verbs in English with swear words, like "f*** off" or "f*** up", the vast range of swearing you can create with prefixes in Polish is staggering - there are at least 20 different versions of Polish's equivalent F-word all meaning completely different things. It just goes to show that you ought to be a linguist if you want to swear properly.

Whatever the language, you will surely remember how you quickly familiarised yourself with some choice swear words when you first started to learn a new one. This curiosity is a fun start to many people's language-learning journeys.

(I still remember as an 11-year-old being confused about how French’s F-word is the same word used for “kiss”.)

Prudishness instead of logical argument

But when it comes to "intelligence", the worst complaint against swearing is, of course, the one you hear in the middle of an argument. I'm sure you've been there.

You're having a lively debate, and somebody drops a swear word as a particularly juicy adjective to highlight their emotion. Another person feigns shock and immediately starts complaining that the first person has used a swear word.

They’ve underhandedly changed the topic for no apparent reason.

In fact, it's usually an indication that the complainer has no more valid points to raise and is clutching at straws to shut down the battle they're clearly losing. The sneaky b******.

Back me up, Fry

To close off this section about the intelligence of swearing, here's Stephen Fry, the man the UK looks upon as the most intelligent man in light entertainment. Fry has spoken repeatedly over the years about his fondness for swearing:

Swearing = emotional emphasis

Other than IQ, swearing is also related to EQ.

There is no more efficient way to convey the depths of your emotions than adding some emphasis with a swear.

As many of my closest friends will tell you, I am a deadened emotional husk. This means I tend to swear liberally, unconsciously reminding others that I am not an automaton.

And this isn't just in my personal life.

In quiet office environments, my co-workers can often hear me muttering strange offensive phrases as I came across small irritations in my workflow. A quick low-volume swear tends to allay my frustrations and let me get on with my work.

But since the overuse of swearing removes emotional thrust, my long-time co-workers always realise my mindless mutterings, no matter how ludicrous the combinations I blurt out, are ultimately inoffensive and boring.

Succumbing to the dark side...

But despite all you’ve read here, I have a confession to make.

Although I am pro-swearing, it’s not a stance I can keep up anymore.

As the parent of young children, I am now having to learn to kowtow to more prudish views, to become a Victorian.

I've already heard my 1-year-old son repeat the F-word twice after I blurted it out in exasperation about something. Although this was kind of amusing, it was also mortifying. The thought of him repeating the word in front of the wrong strangers and getting into trouble isn’t something I want to put him through.

So how am I progressing in cutting down my swearing?

Pretty f***ing badly at the moment. 😔

But with time, I'm sure I will batten down my emotions and self-censor like all parents do.

Because of society.

AI site recommendation of the week

The kestrel and other memes used above were all created by a silly little AI site called MemeCam.io. Give it a picture and a couple parameters and it will make a shareable meme for you.

Whether it’s funny or not, there’s little guarantee. But at least it’s understandable - unlike the site LiterallyAnything.io which threatens to create “literally anything” for you but always seems to return useless results whenever I try it.

That’s it, we’re done here. Thanks for reading. You should feel good about yourself.

Adam

p.s. For more on swearing, don’t forget to listen to the Freakonomics episode I mentioned at the start.

Adam Zulawski
TranslatingMarek.com / Procrastilearning.com / More stuff

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