Okay, so exactly what makes a cuss word a cuss word? I mean, how long have these words been around and who decided they were so bad? It seems to me that it’s just as bad to replace a cuss word with another word or a bleep or something, because it’s still expressing the same emotion. Although, I’m sure using alternate words wouldn’t offend as many people. And what about cuss words in other languages? Are there equivalents to the English words or do they mean completely different things?
Well, I was fucking thinking about responding to this stupid-ass post, but then decided that I could shit out a better motherfucking topic.
What? Did I say something?
winks
A cuss word is a word in a language that is basically deemed offensive, vulgar, and something you wouldn’t want to say to your grandmother. Swear words vary from mild to that which would make a polite society dowager faint- damn vs. fuck being the big example.
They’ve been around for a long, long time- I would venture to guess that languages have had swear words since their early beginnings when some club-wielding ancestor of ours named Morg dropped a rock on his foot and decided that * that rock was going to pay!*.
As for if replaced words such as “shoot” or “frick” are as offensive- well, it’s a matter of semantics, really. By design, they are supposed to be milder. Alternate words, regardless of how they sound, are nonetheless replacing the original swear word and will still have some “colorful metaphorness” going on.
Many languages have swear words that are equivilent to those in English. “merde” means “shit” en Francais, for example. English being primarily a bastard child of Romance and Germanic languages, you will often find English swears that can be directly translated into French, German, ect. Once you step outside of those languages, though, it can become more of a conceptual thing.
Go amuse yourself for hours.
http://www.notam.uio.no/~hcholm/altlang/stat.html
Uncle Cecil said it well. “Observe the snow. It fornicates.”
Many English cuss words used to be Anglo-Saxon words. The Latinate words became proper and the A/S ones were vulgar.
ex:
copulate–fuck
expectorate–spit
menstruate–bleed
perspire–sweat
vagina-cunt
defecate-shit
urinate–piss
Ass is a donkey, bitch is a female dog, and bastard means ‘of indeterminate birth.’
–John
Oh, you ain’t kiddin’, andygirl. Thanks for the link!
I can’t wait for Christmas dinner with my German in-laws 
Good question, flynnstone. One thing that I have always found interesting is how different gestures are considered obscene by different cultures. Like in America giving the middle finger is obscene. I have been told although I don’t know if this is true that the thumbs up in Australia means Up yours, mate. In Dante’s Inferno, an occupant of Hell makes figs with his hands to mock God. According to my copy, the fig is made by sticking the thumb out between the 1st and 2nd finger while making a fist. It is a sign for the vulva, and is still used in Italy.
Isn’t that an “n” in sign language?
Actually, it’s the letter “t”, which is made with the palm of your hand facing as if you were waving. The fig is made with the ridge of your hand pointing downwards.
“n” is between the second and third fingers.
It’s possible that the concept of cussing is very deeply embedded. I recall an anecdote that I believe was told by Penny Patterson, the trainer of Koko the gorilla, who was taught to communicate using sign language. According to Patterson, Koko hated a certain monkey and would sometimes refer to it by combining the signs for “feces” and “monkey.” Shitty Monkey!
mongrel_8
It must be fifty years or more since the thumbs up was insulting in Australia. My father used to do it occasionally, and he’d be 85 if he were still alive. Up until the late seventies it was ‘the forks’, a reversed peace sign that was insulting. Now as a resuult of increasing Americanisation we use use ‘the bird’ just like y’all.