mryoop789: Fark you, biatch!

grunthos: That's a load of bullshiat! You can take that survey and stick it in your ass!

I thought the article was about profanity, why are you guys using obscenities?

/Goddamn Jehovahs

I guess it depends were you take the poll,

In the urban environment, people have higher density, which means more crazies, and lowered morals. hece, more swearing on a day-to-day basis.

Living out in the country (i have witnessed) people blush around some words.

/lives in baltimore
/used to live in Middle of Nowhere
/sweartacular here.

The grammar police are coming after you submitter.

Bravo Sloth DC, that must be some pretty good coffee you just had to come up with that wisdom. But true indeed, good job.

/Cookie with that cup 'o Joe?

I don't understand the big deal, quite honestly. Anytime I want to compliment my woman, I'm all like "Hey, ya dizzy biatch, you're looking good. Come over here so I can stuff that c**t."

Probably doesn't help that I scream this out in the middle of Wal-Mart, but I don't see the problem with profanity!

Major_Tom_In_Space: Bravo Sloth DC, that must be some pretty good coffee you just had to come up with that wisdom.

Neh - just rolled out of bed. No coffee or other caffeine product has yet ambled across my palate.

/Cookie with that cup 'o Joe?

Please, sir, I'd rather ye didn't drink a cup 'o Me.

this thread has gone off its motherfarking tits old chum!

With English not being my native tongue, I feel linguistically challanged by your following statement Sloth DC:

Please, sir, I'd rather ye didn't drink a cup 'o Me.

Care to elaborate?

/chocolate chip or caramel?

*&#@!

Please, sir, I'd rather ye didn't drink a cup 'o Me.

Major_Tom_In_Space: Care to elaborate?

My name being Joe, I'm always alarmed when the non-breasted speak of drinking a cup of me. Drink a cup of somebody else - I don't even care if it's another guy, but leave me out of it, mmkay?

Admiral Linguica: this thread has gone off its motherfarking tits old chum!

Also obscenity, not profanity.

Fool_Marquis: /lives in baltimore

B'lieve in your power to profane, hon.

"Get these motherfarkin snakes off this motherfarkin plane!!!!!"

OK thanks Sloth DC, at least it wasn't because of my shortcomings in understanding the English language!

/Bit of a lingo nut myself
//Regular or decaf?

Hmm is that bartender a farker?

"Do you have any idea how many times you've just said that?" he reports saying from time to time. "I mean, if I take that out of your vocabulary, you've got nothin!'"


/got nothin

attractive and successful African-American!

Obscene language can by definition be considered profanity.

Go to the library and check out "The Mother Tongue." Not only is it a fascinating book about the English language, it also has a great appendix about profanity. I remember it said that in the 19th century, "puppy" and "cad" were particularly naughty words.

Crunch61: Obscene language can by definition be considered profanity.

Sure, if we don't give a damn about the language.

What usually gives me a chuckle is some names in Dutch that have a whole other meaning in English:

- Ex colleague of mine was named Di*k Titshoff
- One of my neighbours is called Freek Kok
- One of my friends last name is Fukker

It's a shame really. Does it have to be done in public so everyone around you can hear it? I know people are trying to put on some act like they are hardcore or don't care about what others think but get over it. Sit in your house and cuss all day long just don't do it in public. You're not impressing anyone and it makes you look like an idiot.

p.s. Same goes for the stupid bumper stickers.

Just because the nature of profanity has changed over time and is socially constructed doesn't mean that contemporary profanity is stripped of meaning and impact in the everyday lives of people who hear and use it. Call me intellectually regressive, but I still believe that linguistic acts have meaning for the person they are directed at.

The F-bomb is much more prevalent than even 20 years ago, btw. It used to be that cursing like a sailor was a class marker, but now even the upper-middle-class kids are potty mouths. Go figure.

According to ye olde dictionary...

profane

1. Marked by contempt or irreverence for what is sacred.
2. Nonreligious in subject matter, form, or use; secular: sacred and profane music.
3. Not admitted into a body of secret knowledge or ritual; uninitiated.
4. Vulgar; coarse.

And if you strinking don't like it, you're a doody-head who can go to H-E-double-hockey-sticks!

My rule of thumb is:

1. Don't do it around the young'uns.
2. If the elderly say one first, all are fair game.

/yes, those are 2 rules

I weep for this country

I'm afraid you just have to deal with it schpaetzle and alfredromeo. I am not going to change my vocabulary just because some uptight conservative is too sensitive to absorb a couple of swearwords. I am offended by street evangelists, marketing calls and dogshiat on my doorstep - sometimes you just have to deal with stuff.

alfredromeo: Just because the nature of profanity has changed over time and is socially constructed doesn't mean that contemporary profanity is stripped of meaning and impact in the everyday lives of people who hear and use it.

Actually, that's exactly what that means.

I like saying coont. It's the new fark and it freaks people out. Brits say coont all the time.

Sometimes, just sometimes, a swear conveys the message and meaning quickly and concisely.

Example: Just the other day I was making a p/u. (part time truck driver) someone was doing something totally inappropriate. When I tried to be informative and diplomatic the person in question called me an "asshole". (no shiat). I started to get really pissed but thought better of it. Instead I stayed calm and quietly asked the gentleman if I could say something "off the record". (my p.t. job dictates that I use a certain level of decorum) when he "shut the fark up" and leaned in I calmly told him to "GO FARK YOURSELF". I am 6'4" and over 250lbs. I wanted to squash him like a bug. I didn't have to. When I dropped the f-word on him he almost swallowed his tongue in total surprise. So, swearing sometims works to get the point across very quickly.

The comic value of a few well placed swears is truly invaluable. Used in the right place and time.

"Spock, where the hell's the power you promised me?"
"One damn minute, Admiral"

wookalar

Anybody that thinks that the Japanese language doesn't have a very wide array of swear words doesn't speak much Japanese.

I disagree. An "endless variety" might be pushing it. Also, their curses tend to be kind of silly. "Kono boke-nasubi--!!" Wow. Stupid eggplant. "Now you've gone too far."

Kisama is an interesting one though. Probably as close to sarcasm as Japanese usually get, since it literally is very polite, though it's taken on an exclusively disrespectful meaning over time.

But you're right in that profanity depends mostly on context--i.e. speaking colloquially to someone to someone who should by Japanese etiquette's rules be spoken to with formal language... Has a lot to do with tone and vowel slurring, too.

It has to do with common decency and couth. If people have a hard time expressing themselves without the use of cuss words then that is just sad. You want to stand around the shipyard or motorpool and smoke and joke that's cool, just don't do it on the sidewalk around kids and the like.

I think you are the first person to ever call me an uptight conservative too. I must be getting old ;)

Bob Sagget!

/there, said it

This seems to be a poorly researched, casually written article article about something very subjective.

Did the same percentages say the same thing 20 years ago?

What about the Rest Of The World (tm)? (Yes, America, there IS a rest of the world.)

And...speaking of the ROTW, why is this in the Yahoo! Asia news, but doesn't mention anything but Americans?

I'm surprised no one has asked these folks yet:

Sorry for the "Uptight conservative" bit there schpaetzle, but you see I use strong language.

Now kids, there's the exception right there. Kids have to learn from their parents what's wrong and right, not some schmoe in the street, I agree. But being around only adults? I indeed talk like a sailor. Maybe it's cultural differences as well. Here in Holland it's much more accepted to use swear and curse words. The only thing not so accepted is the whole range of illnes related words we have here. Not going down well.

Why is profanity is ok when you change the spelling? Instead of the real spelling of the f-word we get 'fark'. That doesn't really change the meaning. We all know what it means. Is it really less offensive when it's only implied?

Frak You.

/BSG

alfredromeo: Just because the nature of profanity has changed over time and is socially constructed doesn't mean that contemporary profanity is stripped of meaning and impact in the everyday lives of people who hear and use it. Call me intellectually regressive, but I still believe that linguistic acts have meaning for the person they are directed at.

Agree with Sloth, that's exactly what it means.

Words change in definition all the time as a language evolves, I would even go so far to say that the word "attractive and successful African-American" (I know the fark filter catches it, but you know what word I meant) will have a vastly different meaning and context come 100 years from now.

That is if were not all speaking some version of mandarin by then.

As a Brit, I can't agree with the guy who said European words aren't based around sex, but instead god. Off the top of my head:

Wanker - sex
coont - sex
Tosser - sex
Tosspot - sex
fark - sex
Cockboy - sex
Dickhead - sex

OK, some of those are Americanisms that we've adopted, but in the main it relates to masturbation and sex rather than god. I can't think of a god related swear word you can't say on TV before the watershed, but only recently can you say shiat and crap. And then it's only in a non-literal sense (i.e. "it's a shiatty day" is OK, "I just took a shiat" is not. At least that's what my college radio presenting mate told me).

/Prefers creativity in swearing
//You camel foreskin cleaner

It's worse in Holland JetSetWilly, we almost always combine a profanity with an obscenity (in that particular order)in a single sentence.

Just wanted to add, I heard "bollocks" said on Radio 4 the other day, freaked me out!

OMG, the brits are soo much worse than americans. People curse everywhere. And people who are bothered by it need to get over it.

i wonder if poopie-head will ever come back into fashion? that was quite popular when i was 4 years old. how times have changed.

Profanity is a crime in the eyes of Xenu.

Profanity is a crime in the eyes of Xenu.

Yeah? Well you can suck my Thetan.

fark those motherfarkers