"Bad" words. What do you think?

Question

I've seen several questions asking why people must place positive or negative labels on words. These suggest that the shock value of the words is an indication of how "anal" the hearer is. Some even suggest that those who don't want to hear about this f'n thing and that f'n thing are closed-minded and stupid.

I once got a preacher (at some weird encounter group or other, many years ago) to shout the F word over and over, so I'm hardly unfamiliar with the concept.

I'm older now, and quite certain that if all the current cuss words became a standard part of the formal language over night, most young people (and some who are not young, but haven't grown up), would immediately start searching for words to freak out the previous generations, in order to prove to themselves what rebels, and how open-minded, they are! It's a necessary part of becoming an adult to prove that you aren't your parents!

What do you think?

Answer 1

This has nothing to do with new generations finding words to freak out their elders. For example, c(u)nt has been used since at least the 13th century. None of our curse words are new.

An English Lit professor told my class one year that the whole concept of "swear words" or vulgarity came from when the speaking of germanic languages in (I believe, I'm pulling this from memory) post 1066 England, when to use the tongue at all was considered vulgar (from Latin vulgus, the "common folk"). So, the categorization of making some words good and some words bad is inherently racist.

Words are words. If I caught my child calling someone a f(u)cktard c(u)ntrag, I'd be just as angry if they called them poopiepants. They're being rude, regardless of language.


MAJOR EDIT:
Ken is Absolutely FALSE when it comes to the etymological history of F.U.C.K. That word, like S.H.I.T. NEVER started as an acronym.

"The fact is, however, that very few words actually begin their life as acronyms, and most of these are proper nouns like NATO...forming words fromacronyms is a distinctly twentieth- (and now twenty first-) century phenomenon."

Now oto the word F(u)ck (a synopsis):

"Popular etymologies agree, unfortunately incorrectly, that f(u)ck is an acronym meaning either Fornication under Conset of the King or For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge... Tracing the etymology of f(u)ck is difficult, as it has been under taboo for most of its existance and early citations of the word are rare. The earliest known use is from ca. 1475 in a poem written in a mix of Latin and English.... Translated it reads "They [the monks] are not in heaven/ because they f(u)ck the wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge]."

"Shakespeare is the source for the origins of many words, but he does not use this one, although he does hint at it from time to time for comic effect, letting us know the word was well known in Elizabethan times.... The taboo was so strong that for 170 years, from 1795 to 1965, f(u)ck did not appear in a single general dictionary of the English language As late as 1948, the publishers of "The Naked and the Dead"persuaded Norman Mailer to use the euphemism fug instead."

It goes on from there and really is very fascinating, but I think I've made my point that it did NOT start as an acronym!!!!

Answer 2

You got it by the balls. I am a few years older than most people and have seen the changes over the generations. The young find new words and phrases thinking that makes them different. The hippy days when so many of the young professed they were non conformists and at the same time they all began to look alike and do the same things and becoming more conformist than the generation before it. The young in England now have used the F word so much that it is just another word and very few pay any attention to it now. By the way that word has not been around as long as most think. It came out of the first world war. It is an acronym for French Unauthorized carnal Knowledge. The F U C K books were not even as reveling as playboy is now. It did not mean the act of fornication at that time. Words do change in their meanings. When I was young if i said I was gay it sure did not mean I was homosexual. Yes the young Will always look for ways to be different and end up alike.

Answer 3

I think that swear words are just that ...words. It is society's reaction to them that makes everyone believe they are bad. Yes, I do believe there is a time and a place for these words but when they are used by younger generations, it is normally for the SHOCK value and thats about it.

Answer 4

I completely agree with you, and I think Ken's answer is right on the mark.
My son tried to give me that same baloney about f... just being a word that shouldn't offend anyone. He'll grow up some day.

Answer 5

There are some words that shouldn't be said. Yes I know that we have all heard them and sometime or another in our lives have probably said them but you must refrain. It's not pleasing to God to hear us curse each other.

Answer 6

I think words are just that ... words.
Being appalled or offended by a word or words comes from within. It's a choice.

Answer 7

Are their really "bad words". I didn't realize words had free will. Anyway seems like you are rather anal to ask this

Answer 8

There are no bad words, only bad intent.........