What makes curse words taboo and any different from other words?

Question

Why are curse words "curse words"? Wh are they so bad? They are just words like anything else verbal right?

Answer 1

The answer "society" is most UN-helpful, since one could say that about ANY word. Not surprising since language is a SOCIAL activity, not a private one. Its main purpose is to communicate with other people.

You seem to begin with the assumption that a word is "JUST a set of sounds". But in practice you know this is not so. It is part of a system -- human language-- and IN that system (for the system to WORK) it must have a meaning.

Think about it: What makes ANY word "good" or "bad" ? It is all based on the agreed upon meaning of the word in the particular language--the very thing that makes language possible.

So it's not making the sounds themselves that is at issue, nor is it (usually) about what's in one particular person's head. It is that you CHOOSE to make sounds (that is, speak a word) that you KNOW are used to convey that particular meaning in the language you are speaking.

In other words, o if someone chooses to use a "bad word" BECAUSE they understand that this linguistic symbol has been agreed on as a way to express something offensive. (So it usually isn't correct to say "it is offensive because the listener chose to take offense". No, ordinarily, the SPEAKER chose the word --whether in a moment of anger or after some consideration, precisely with the intent of expressing something offensive.)

I'm sure you know this, or you would calmly, even joyfully, cuss out a small child or someone you love deeply.

In the same way, "Fire!" is just a set of sounds too -- but if you holler it, willy-nilly, in a crowded theater, it will have an effect for which you are morally, and probably legally, answerable.


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The point is that language is a SOCIAL activity -- to work, it depends on people's sharing an understanding of what the symbols will mean.

And so, we don't simply pick an arbitrary word (or 'set of sounds') and claim "well *I* meant something ELSE by it". This would make communication utterly impossible!


My favorite illustration of this point comes from *Alice through the Looking Glass*:

""There's glory for you!"
"I don't know what you mean by 'glory,' " Alice said.
Humpty Dumpty smiled contemptuously. "Of course you don't—till I tell you. I meant 'there's a nice knock-down argument for you!' "
"But 'glory' doesn't mean 'a nice knock-down argument,' " Alice objected.
"When I use a word," Humpty Dumpty said, in rather a scornful tone, "it means just what I choose it to mean—neither more nor less."
"The question is, " said Alice, "whether you can make words mean so many different things."
"The question is," said Humpty Dumpty. "which is to be master—that's all.""
http://www.wordspy.com/words/HumptyDumptylanguage.asp

Answer 2

Society

Answer 3

You should listen to George Carlin's bit about the Seven Words You Can't Say on Television. He explains it all quite well -- and he did that stuff back in the 1970s.

Answer 4

Society declared it as such; otherwise "radish!" or "Megaphone!" would be curse words