Cecil’s assertion that “most” foreign languages employ a curse word indentical in meaning to our “f-word” is way off-base. Actually, I’ve found in my linguistic studies that, with the exception of French and the few obscure languages Cecil mentions, that English cursing is unique on this point. German doesn’t commmonly use any such swear word, nor do any of the Scandinavian languages, or Russian. The harshest, and most common curses used in these languages, are the old-fashioned (to english ears,) variations on the devil and hell, e.g., “Faen” (devil) or “Helvete” (hell) in Scandinavia, “Chert” (devil) in Russian. To attempt any variation on “f**k” as a curse in these languages would in most cases sound absurd to native speakers.