Where did all the cusswords come from, and who decided they were bad?

Answer 1

In English, they're mostly body functions (piss, f... etc...), vulgar words for body parts or religion-related words (Damn, Hell, etc...)

My guess is it has to do with the puritanical protestant attitude, that these things were all taboo.

Answer 2

They're as old as speech. It's as much a part of human psychology as humor. There does seem to be a connection between what is considered taboo or sacred or despicable and cusswords. An interesting thing to look into.

Answer 3

In the 19th century if someone told you to go to blazes, they were telling you to go to hell.

Words you couldn't use in polite company in the 1800s included damn, hell, and the usual body functions swear words. You also couldn't say "I swear," so they had other variations.

Oh, and it was illegal in some states for males over a certain age to cuss in the presence of a female.

Cuss words were determined by the religious mores and education values of the time. People with good education did not use such words so they became a no-no for the middle class and upper lower class as well.

Even today there are places where you may cuss and places where you may not. Most of us have sense enough not to cuss in a church or in front of a teacher, but there's always a few who push it. I think it's good to arm mothers with bars of soap myself.

Answer 4

They sometimes vary from time to time through history, since ancient times. They are decided as swearwords by the society of the time, according to their moral and social values.

Answer 5

freya,the sun goddess whose chariot was drawn by calico kittens.in the eyes of christian reformers and prosteletyzers became the hag of a witch surrounded by black cats,an evil and dark prescence!!tuat was an egyptian goddess of the dawn,life and fecundity yeilding the curseword"****"!!fertility goddess and their preistesses who had once reign all of mankind were relegated by the supremacy of men in both medicine.childbirth and religion;as women and the mystery of birthing,feminine fertility cycles and child rearing were significantly siezed over time by males!!this began when battles began to occur over increasingly less returns were available from hunting and foraging for foods probably as early as cro-magnon and neanderthal times and continues today !!curse words involving repellant biological functions remains a compeeling though now repugnant linguistic form!!if you listen carefully to certain streetwise patois,without the word "sh@#$$$%%t" very little if anything would be communicated at all ...word for word!! it's a standard;it is generally the last thing one says in life,in immediate prospect of death/injury/harm or impeding danger;besides calling on a diety, as in "oh!god!" or "mother" whether this be "moms" who love us or the pagan deity
of old!!ebonics could not exist without the curseword!!b'lieve dat!! names for reproductive organs that were once so revered in egypt as to have their own hieroglyphic symbols;which were used as nouns and in complex compound words are now curse words of the first order"dolt","prick","****","pussy",dick","slut"and so forth ad infinitum!!where one would be reverentially the prime generator organ of his people and regarded with pride!!this has became defaced by pimp,gangsta,player and worst!!where some one was once "THEE" organ one is now the seller or purveyor of someelse's organ!!

Answer 6

we like to adhere to slightly elevated standards when communicating with fellow citizens.We - decided those words dont belong in the living room.

Answer 7

Ignorant people made them up. It is also ignorant people who use them in everyday conversations with people. I think people also use them b/c they can't find the proper adjective to use when describing someone or something.

Answer 8

I imagine during a war , they came in handy .

Answer 9

U SHOULD NOT KNOW THIS BUT I BELIEVE GOD CHOSE THIS B/c DAMN MEANS CONDEMN 2 HELL AND WELL THATS BAD.