Close. It’s ‘dadgum it!’
If one of you, my trusted new friends, uses it, you will know, I find it that offensive. I won’t call you a gendered slur back though because however will it ever end.
I’m gonna take a piss.
Excuse me, I need to use the restroom.
Which one is acceptable to you?
All those are fine and at least, if not more, elegant than I would use.
Old night nurse here, we’re the worst. We hung around with the security guys who were taking guns and knives off of people. Big inner city public hospital, colorful nights those were.
Same here. I usually explain to people that we had special training in profanity in the Navy. When I let one slip around mixed company I say that it’s a nautical term.
My own limit is with blasphemy–I don’t mind other foul language though, since many tasks can be only completed with a mild application of profanity. Fixing a broken lawnmower comes to mind.
I swear my fucking head off all day long. And now that we wear masks all day, I do it even more!
Do people in corporate environments in Germany use profanity around each other, or around customers/vendors?
In my current workplace (pharma) that is pretty much unheard of. In a previous workplace (insurance) professionalism was often a thin veneer of civility, with open loud cursing the rule, and people treating each other rather nastily.
Depends on the kind of business, but mostly yes. One of my last jobs was writing software for the timber industry, and when installing a new system at saw mills, you could bet there was cursing galore, from regular timber workers to engineers and even the bosses.
I can behave when I have to, but fuck is my favorite word.
I almost never curse in real life. I figure that someday, I’ll need to express that I am in serious fucking pain or the like, and if I cursed all the time I’d be reducing the dynamic range of my speech. Like music that’s just equally loud all the time instead of quiet in some parts and loud in others–you lose the sense of emphasis.
At least that’s how I behave because that’s how I see others. I don’t care if people curse all the time, but if they do then I can’t tell when they’re really trying to tell me something important.
All this stuff matters less online, so I don’t police my speech so much.
I invoke les sacrés on occasion, though never in a professional context, obviously. If I’m angry at the code I’m writing, you’ll know it by the variable names.
Just for context, “les sacrés” is the peculiar-to-Quebec form of swearing that generally uses elements of the Catholic religion (chalices, baptismal fonts, tabarnacles and christ are popular ones but this list isn’t remotely exhaustive) as cussin’ words, sometimes chained together into a great voltron of profanity.
Do not attempt this at home unless you are a trained professional…
I curse vociferously. Casually and in anger.
I think fuck is one of the most visceral, versatile, sexy words in the English language.
My only challenge is now that I have a baby I’m having to remove a lot of casual swearing from my vocabulary post-haste. I still get to vent in my online conversation and writing, but in the household I’ve got to lock it up.
Feel free to suggest good cursing replacements for little pitchers. Currently I’m a fan of “heckin’”
I don’t know how to say this without sounding weird, but that’s part of the appeal to me. I like the idea of (consensual) sexual aggression.
I learned the hard way on the internet that if you swear in casual speech, many people will think you’re yelling at them.
I keep it clean around children and I mostly swear at myself when I do something stupid or very wrong.
I curse all the time but am very conscious of what situations make it inappropriate, which is more than the ones where it is appropriate. I curse fairly casually, not just if I’m angry about something. “Where the fuck are my keys?” My wife gets on me about it so I try not to in her presence. Actually, I don’t curse when I get really angry. I have never called anybody a bitch, asshole, or any other epithet in anger. I believe that name-calling is an admission of losing an argument.
I never curse at work unless I am in a one-on-one with my boss, who is worse than me. Once I had to chastise him for getting in a crowded elevator and saying, “I have to take a piss.” Not cursing exactly, but coarse and it was one of George Carlin’s Big Seven. I think cursing in a business meeting is very bad form, except maybe the word “bullshit” in the right context.
I used to absent-mindedly curse around my kids when they were young and the first time I heard my three-year-old say “Goddammit!” that came to a screeching halt. I did not curse in front of my kids again until they were adults and I started hearing them doing it first.
I am not offended by cursing per se but I am offended in situations where it’s inappropriate, such as if I don’t know someone well and they curse around me, or throw it out in a social situation where it doesn’t fit. I have heard young adults cursing in casual conversation in public places, like “What was that shit?” in the middle of Starbucks, which I do find offensive. It seems that the prohibition against cursing in public is now relegated to older generations.
Elephant Talk.
I used to be much worse until my daughter was about two and I dropped something. She picked it up and told me “Say dammit, Daddy.” I queried her about the meaning of the word, and I appeared to mean “I dropped this”. Since then I had to clean up my language just a bit.
I never once heard my mother swear. I don’t believe my father did either and it was just understood that those words would not be used in our house.
I’ve used no-no words on occasion, but it’s always been deliberate - I don’t think it’s ever just slipped out. I make a real effort to watch my language, especially now with a toddler granddaughter - there’s a potential minefield of mimicry!
I’m not offended by cussing, but if you want to really impress me in the worst possible way, go ahead and drop fuck in as every third or fourth word when you’re speaking. I remember back in my early Navy days, waiting in line yet again, there were a couple of young Marines behind me, and they peppered every comment with multiple fucks. I guess they thought they were tough or something, but they came across as childish at best.
Similarly, when I hear so-called comics relying on blue language to get laughs, I just don’t get it. There was one bit Ron White did that, first time I heard it, ended with “I don’t think so, Scooter!” Cracked me right up! Then I heard it another time, but it ended with “I don’t think so, Fucker!” Not so much funny as asshole-ish.
So, yes, I curse, and no, I’m not offended by cursing. But I do think the language a person uses can tell more about that person than what they actually say.
I curse in my head about a thousand times more often than I do aloud.
mmm
I get some good mileage out of “flippin’”.
Cursing to me is variable according to the customs of the crowd I’m around at the time. For example, around jazz or rock musicians, cursing usually is fine; around classical musicians, no. In the classroom, no; talking privately to other teachers I work with, yes (usually). In a couple of bands I’m in, I’m the one talking to the audience between songs. I work clean, no cursing on stage.
Nobody’s mentioned The History of Swearing on Netflix yet. Highly recommended. It’s hosted by Nicholas Cage, who can get some serious mileage out of cursing. Funny show. It has comedians, lexicographers and historians on.
I’m a very ordinary person, so I curse a very ordinary amount.
When I was a kid, cursing was treated as a horrible crime in my family. My brother and I were constantly telling on each other. Finally one day, my stepbrother and sister had had it with us, and they told us to just cuss in front of each other, not tattle, and then we could cuss all we wanted to. My brother said, “Shit!” I said, “Fuck!” and then it was off to the races.
When my kids came along, I told them that some words were rude and would always be inappropriate with certain people or in certain situations. However, I didn’t make it out to be a big deal if they cursed in my presence. (If they cursed at me, it would have been a different story).
My husband’s son is one of those guys that has to drop multiple f-bombs in every sentence. When he’s around, we’ll start doing it just so he can fucking hear how he fucking sounds all the fucking time.