# Expletives in the Service of "Toughening Up" **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [July 11, 2025, 12:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733 "2025-07-11T12:09:33Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dandan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a87d85/32.png) [@Dandan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dandan)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 1:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/21 "2025-07-12T13:50:59Z")
> [@Slithy\_Tove](#): > > Anthony McCauliff’s reply to the Germans’ demand he surrender “nuts!” wasn’t bowdlerized: I’ve always imagined that what he said was “Balls”, or some embellishment thereof: the translator was only trying to keep HIS ass from being chewed. Dan ---
**Author:** ![bob\_2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bob_2/32/3341_2.png) [@bob\_2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bob_2)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 2:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/22 "2025-07-12T14:36:28Z")
Pencilled in neatly in the margin of a Foreign Office memorandum was the expression: “Round Objects!” The memorandum circulated, finally reaching the Permanent Under Secretary himself, who wrote underneath: “Who is Round, and to what does he object?” ---
**Author:** ![Moriarty](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/moriarty/32/49_2.png) [@Moriarty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Moriarty)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 3:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/23 "2025-07-12T15:10:43Z")
> [@Crane](#): > > General Washingtons order at Valley Forge: > > “The General regrets to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American Army, is growing into fashion, he hopes that the officers will by example as well as influence endeavor to check it, and they will reflect that we can little hope for the blessings of heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly.” > > Probably took the form of Jiminy Cricket, zounds or Gad more than WTF. That’s interesting, since Washington famously quipped with a bit of swearing when remarking to Henry Knox, while boarding the boats that crossed the Delaware on Christmas Eve > [@](#): > > Shift your fat ass Henry, but slowly, or you’ll swamp the damned boat [https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/washington-crosses-the-delaware-dec-25-1776-217067](https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/washington-crosses-the-delaware-dec-25-1776-217067) Perhaps the perils of war invariably engenders salty speech ---
**Author:** ![LurkMeister](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/3da27b/32.png) [@LurkMeister](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LurkMeister)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/24 "2025-07-12T16:45:51Z")
I seem to remember a George Carlin routine in which he explained that “scumbags” were guys and “douchebags” were girls. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/25 "2025-07-12T18:38:52Z")
> [@Moriarty](#): > > > [@Crane](#): > > > > General Washingtons order at Valley Forge: > > > > “The General regrets to be informed that the foolish and wicked practice of profane cursing and swearing, a vice heretofore little known in an American Army, is growing into fashion, he hopes that the officers will by example as well as influence endeavor to check it, and they will reflect that we can little hope for the blessings of heaven on our arms if we insult it by our impiety and folly.” > > > > Probably took the form of Jiminy Cricket, zounds or Gad more than WTF. > > That’s interesting, since Washington famously quipped with a bit of swearing when remarking to Henry Knox, while boarding the boats that crossed the Delaware on Christmas Eve > > > [@](#): > > > > Shift your fat ass Henry, but slowly, or you’ll swamp the damned boat > > [https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/washington-crosses-the-delaware-dec-25-1776-217067](https://www.politico.com/story/2015/12/washington-crosses-the-delaware-dec-25-1776-217067) > > Perhaps the perils of war invariably engenders salty speech 18th century cursing was a lot different than today. Profanity is now a catch all for naughty words, the “profane cursing” Washington referred to was most likely religious swearing. Washington probably would find “God damn” to be 100 times worse than “ass.” ---
**Author:** ![Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmer_j.fudd/32/1211_2.png) [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elmer_J.Fudd)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/26 "2025-07-12T18:45:50Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > he wonders “Did someone here have a Dirty Mind?” Not at all. The profanity in the armed services is by design. It’s an immediate “You’re not in Kansas, anymore.” wake up call to recruits. Wholesome and devout boys would be welcomed with a hundred “God damns” a day to let them know the Bible is no longer the requisite field manual (especially that “Thou Shalt Not Kill” nonsense). It soon becomes ingrained that they now live in a world separate from “civil” society. They now have their own manners, principles, ethics _and_ language that sets their new tribe apart from the one they were raised in. ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/27 "2025-07-12T18:48:44Z")
Still, vulgarity (vs profanity) nonetheless carried weight. Instead of “Les noix!” General Cambronne yelled “merde!” at Waterloo, his meaning not diminished by the quantities of the actual substance present (given the surfeit of men and horses yet dearth of port-a-johns) ---
**Author:** ![SCAdian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scadian/32/3292_2.png) [@SCAdian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SCAdian)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/28 "2025-07-12T19:24:24Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#): > > SNAFU – Situation Normal, All Fucked Up > JANFU – Joint Army-Navy Fuck Up > FUBAR - Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition JAAFU – Joint Anglo-American … SUSFU – Situation Unchanged - Still … ---
**Author:** ![Slithy\_Tove](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slithy_tove/32/18248_2.png) [@Slithy\_Tove](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slithy_Tove)\ **Post date:** [July 12, 2025, 10:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/29 "2025-07-12T22:18:41Z")
I remember years ago when we were discussing this topic @Nava informed us of the long-standing tradition in the Spanish military _against_ foul language. Since the Counter-reformation they’d considered themselves as an army primarily in the service of God, and so sinful language had no place there. ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 1:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/30 "2025-07-13T01:28:15Z")
> [@Elmer\_J.Fudd](#): > > Not at all. The profanity in the armed services is by design. It’s an immediate “You’re not in Kansas, anymore.” wake up call to recruits. As Sherman makes clear in the next paragraph, that was precisely his point. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 8:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/31 "2025-07-13T08:44:34Z")
Actually, it’s supposed to be an army of _gentlemen_. Gentlemen do not use foul language, so neither do Spanish soldiers (where “Spanish” refers to the flag they serve, and not to their nationalities). My classmates and I were very confused when “An Officer and a Gentleman” came out because the idea that commissioned officers are expected to be gentlemen and the rest of the troops are not just didn’t fit in our brains. Note that it is perfectly possible to be a complete gentleman and still kick the shit out of your oponents; if they didn’t want their shit kicked out, they shouldn’t have done whatever they did. Hi, I’m alive! Hope y’all are doing well and all that. ---
**Author:** ![ricepad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/b38774/32.png) [@ricepad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricepad)\ **Post date:** [July 13, 2025, 12:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733/32 "2025-07-13T12:26:17Z")
Profanity is the crutch of inarticulate motherfuckers. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/expletives-in-the-service-of-toughening-up/1020733.md?page=1)