The last 3 times that I have been wrote up at work was due to my “colorful language”. I guess I was supposed to say “pretty please, oh pretty please, come back over to the production line and do your assigned job instead of looking/talking at/on your phone so” instead of the adjectives I added to get my point across.
I love the Quebec “sacrés”. Hostie de tabarnaque de caulisse d’hostie de saint ciboire de calvaire de crisse!!!
I cuss a bit in English, but not left and right, mainly just when I’m pissed off. In Czech, I cuss significantly more. Often just to myself, though, and I adapt my language to who I’m around. I very often use the exclamation “ty vole” (“you ox”), which you wouldn’t use in very polite company, though many people use it a lot around friends.
I have no problem with people using swears around me. Why would I? It’s just words. As long as you don’t overdo it or use it to attack somone (who doesn’t deserve to be attacked). Avoiding all swears for the purpose of pure etiquette is just another of these pointless societal rules we need to get rid of…that said, I have avoided using cuss words around a friend who I know doesn’t like it.
I’m rarely, if ever, offended by curses (but see below). Myself, I curse sometimes; I go through cycles of swearing a lot, and then trying to cut back on it. I work at an ad agency; I like to say that agencies “run on caffeine and foul language,” and when I was actually working in the office around my more-profane colleagues, it tended to rub off on me.
When I become aware that I’ve been swearing a lot, I make a conscious effort to cut back on it – not because I find it offensive (or that I particularly worry about other adults being offended), but because I feel like using an F-bomb on every third word makes me sound like an idiot. At my previous job, where I had several young people working for me, they noticed that I didn’t swear often, but when I did, I meant it – they called it “cursing for effect.”
I’ll sometimes use nerdy replacements for swear words, too, like “frak” (from Battlestar Galactica) or “pudu” or “kriff” (from Star Wars).
Also, I try hard to limit my swearing to scatalogical curses (f***, s***, etc.), rather than blasphemous ones; one of my best friends called me out on that about 15 years ago, and I try to toe the line on that.
The other exception: I am offended by, and won’t use, curses that are particularly offensive or demeaning to particular groups of people, like the c-word (for a woman).
What’s the point in swearing if not for breaching etiquette? Without that, they aren’t swear words at all. They just become fairly dull synonyms for stuff we already have words for.
I usually try to be mindful of others’ faiths and don’t swear unless I know people are cool with it, but I consider my Facebook page my own personal space and will curse up a storm if I feel like it. The day of the attempted insurrection on our Capitol, I just posted two words: Jesus Christ.
Cuz those are the only words I really had.
I work a nonprofit office job and we curse up a storm in there, including our leadership team. I’ve definitely referred to certain projects as complete clusterfucks. We’ve had shitstorms, too. We even had a lengthy conversation with our Senior Director of Programs about the c-word. But when your water cooler conversation revolves around rape and domestic violence and all related issues, I guess you get accustomed to speaking with a certain kind of candor.
Swearing is full of purpose. It can be a class marker. It can also be a form of intimacy. For me it’s a reminder of where I came from.
And that old canard about cursing as a negative indicator of linguistic prowess is demonstrably false.
If someone swears with fluency and creativity, I completely agree. As Jean Shepherd said in A Christmas Story, about his father:
It’s the unimaginative curser, or the person who simply uses an f-bomb three times in every sentence, who usually comes across as an idiot. IMO. 
Those are all some variants of etiquette. You don’t speak with colleagues the way you speak with close friends. You don’t say stuff in public that you would say in the bedroom. You don’t speak with “outsiders” the way you speak with “your kind”. If you throw away all these distinctions, the purpose is lost. “Fuck” only has special meaning in the bedroom because it is considered, to some degree, distasteful elsewhere.
I’ve been working on decreasing my usage. I originally started using them online because it was a quick way to convey an angry tone, but there was a bit of curse inflation. Plus I’m trying to work on my anger in general. I find the words work best when they aren’t used all the time.
I will admit there is also a bit of a religious motivation, too, though. And I did run into an issue where the words would slip out in situations where I would not want them to.
I don’t think the words themselves are dirty or bad, but they can be part of talk I would prefer not to do, so that’s another reason to reduce them.
As far as being offended by them? I’m pretty well inoculated.
Note, this is the traditional curse words: “fuck,” “shit,” “damn,” and variations. I will not use ethnic, racial, or otherwise bigoted slurs. Not because the word itself is bad, but because bigotry is. I also tend to avoid “cunt” because of it’s quasi-slur status.
And I’ve never been the type to use profanities–even “damn” is something I rarely use. I don’t find them useful.
Yes, I was trying to add to your point, not refute it. The violation of social norms is the point.
Ah. Then we are in violent fucking agreement.
Damn straight.
No ‘quasi’ about it.
“Cunt” is a misogynist slur in the US, but not necessarily elsewhere. But I avoid it just in case.
I believe you’re thinking of Andrea Dworkin
/old-school-feminist
Now, back some heckin’ swearing.
(Number Two Daughter still loves heck, heckin’,heckface and heckity-heck … despite now being fifteen and knowing All The Words. It’s frickin’ and heckin’ adorable)
it is not used in that way at all in the UK. It has no mysogynistic baggage for us.
Good to hear. That would be quite a good development if it could be instituted in the US.
Professionally and around people in public I am generally very polite and avoid swearing, also around my older (16 and 18) kids I also avoid and try to get them to avoid cursing in general conversation.
That’s said when with friends or work friends in closed settings I am often back to rig speak and when working on my own I may be mumbling my opinion of people that may involve cursing.
I disagree. If the reason you’re swearing is to violate social norms, you’re thinking like a child, using a dirty word and grinning as the scandalized adults gasp.
The reason to use a swear word is because the swear word has a particular intensity attached to it, in a way your average word doesn’t. Does this intensity arise from the fact that the word used to give people the vapors and make them fan themselves? Sure! But that’s largely irrelevant; people swear because of the effect, not the lost-to-history cause. They swear to express their intense feeling, not necessarily to offend. Even people who pepper their speech with swear words are leaning on this - the real intensity is diluted by overuse, but the swear words still add a bit of color to otherwise even speech.
I swear. A lot. I say I learned to swear at my mother’s knee.
When I reached my teens, she even took the time to teach me the differences between bullshit, chickenshit, and horseshit. Excellent knowledge!
I generally shy away from the f-word. That’s just a personal decision. However, within the past week, I had two occasions that warranted usage of such.
Occasion #1, i dropped a skillet on my big toe. Not cast iron, thankfully, but cast aluminum isn’t much lighter. My toe is a glorious rainbow and I’m still walking funny. The f-word upon impact was most appropriate.
Occasion #2, I dropped a freshly-cooked chicken breast on the (not so clean) kitchen floor. Somehow, “dammit” didn’t suffice. I took the piece of chicken to the sink and gave it a bath in running water. Then I served it.
~VOW