where do swear words come frome?

Question

why were swear words invented? who invented them? where were they invented?

just curious...

Answer 1

MY ANSWER
Probably in the old days it was taboo to even mention anything about your "poop" or about your sex life. Women would probably gasp.. Drunk bums in the street probably wandered around saying these words and the upper class would freak out.. Thus it became a vulgar word to say and this carried on for hundreds of years.

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These articles define their meanings and their origins:

F.U.C.K.
http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2%5F268b.html

http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/****.htm

"In plain English, this means the term's origin is likely Germanic, even though no one can as yet point to the precise word it came down to us from out of all the possible candidates. Further, a few scholars hold differing pet theories outside of the Germanic origin one, theories which appear to have some holes in them.

'****' is an old word, even if it's been an almost taboo term for most of its existence. It was around; it just wasn't used in common speech all that much, let alone written down and saved for posterity. Likely its meaning contributed to its precise origin becoming lost in the mists of time — scholars of old would have been in no hurry to catalogue the growth of this word, and by the time it forced its way into even the most respectable of dictionaries, its parentage was long forgotten.

The earliest cite in The Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1503. John Ayto, in his Dictionary of Word Origins cites a proper name (probably a joke or parody name) of 'John le ******' from 1250, quite possibly proof the word we casually toss about today was being similarly tossed about 750 years ago.

Spurious etymologies such as this one satisfy our urge for completion — we want to believe such a naughty word has a salacious back story, something replete with stocks and adulterers, or fornication permits handed out by a king. How utterly prosaic to find out '****' came to us the way most words sneak into the language — it jumped the fence from another tongue, was spelled and pronounced a bit differently in its new home, and over time drifted into being a distinct word recognized by everyone. Takes all the fun out of it, it does. "


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http://www.takeourword.com/et%5Ftemp.html

The Etymology of Some Obscenities
Damn, perhaps suprisingly to some readers, entered English in the 13th century. It derives by way of Old French damner from Latin damnare. The Latin verb's predecessor was the noun damnum, which originally had the meaning "loss" or "harm", and such meanings are reflected in the English relative damage. However, damnare soon came to mean "pronounce judgment upon", in legal parlance and in the theological sense. This meaning also appears in another relative, condemn. The legal sense was lost in the 16th century, but the theological sense remains and gives the word its obscene or vulgar attachment.

****, which is sometimes described as an Anglo-Saxon word, is in fact not that old in its current form. It does not appear in writing until the early 16th century. However, there is a personal name which pops up in records from the late 13th century (according to John Ayto), John le ******, which indicates that the word was around at least at that early time in some form. It's possible that it was not recorded in writing prior to the 16th century because it was in fact considered obscene. No matter what its written status, few etymologists disagree that the word is of Germanic origin, although no one can say precisely whence it came. The word first appeared in Scotland, perhaps indicative of a Scandinavian source; there is, after all, the Norwegian dialectical fukka "copulate" along with the Swedish dialectical focka "copulate, hit" and fock "penis". Oh, and by the way, this word is simply not an acronym; the widely popular explanations that the word derives from Fornication Under Consent of the King or For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge are absolutely incorrect.

The verb **** started out in Old English as shite (from *scitan, where sc- is pronounced sh-). It probably attained its current form by influence of shite's past participle, shitten. It goes back to the proto-Germanic root *skit-, which gave birth to German scheissen, Dutch schijten, Swedish skita, and Danish skide as well. *Skit- derives from the Indo-European root *skei- "split, divide, separate" (which also gave English schism and schist). The sense here is of "separating" excrement from the body. This word is NOT an acronym formed from ship high in transit.

Answer 2

Swear words are such by social convention. We are taught that certain words are either rude, insulting or otherwise disgusting and that a certain response should be evoked by the use of these words. When someone uses a swear word they do so with the intention that it will cause offense and the person who hears it understands that it is intended to cause of fence. These social conventions therefore charge certain words with emotion agreed on by all. If you decide that you will not react to swear words they loose their effect.

Answer 3

****: The word **** did not originate as an acronym like most people think: Fornication Under Consent of the King. It crept, fully formed, into the English language from Dutch or Low German around the 15th century (it's impossible to say precisely when because so little documentary evidence exists, probably due to the fact that the word was so taboo throughout its early history that people were afraid to write it down). The American Heritage Dictionary says its first known occurrence in English literature was in the satirical poem "Flen, Flyss" (c.1500), where it was not only disguised as a Latin word but encrypted - gxddbov - which has been deciphered as fuccant, pseudo-Latin for "they ****."

Answer 4

I think a "swear word" is in the attitude

Answer 5

Pirates from the high seas- that's where swear words and cuss words come from.

Answer 6

Slang words that were condemned by some religious group because they considered them vulgar.

Answer 7

Tasksgirl, gave you the best answer. Now, give her 10 points and a big thumbs up.

Answer 8

slang words that have become socially common.

Answer 9

from people who hate their jobs.

Answer 10

they come right from my mouth