Questions tagged [profanity]
The profanity tag has no usage guidance.
12 questions
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Replacements for swear words
Is there a term for the following phenomenon or the words that are used in this way: One starts to utter a swear word, but continues to form an innocent sounding word. Examples from German are Sack ...
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Why do swear words mean the same thing in both English and Spanish (possibly more languages)
Earlier today, I was talking about swearing in other languages with some friends (this is a serious question, bear with me), so I decided to look up some lists of Spanish swear words for fun. This ...
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Why does saying the word "fuck" help vent frustration?
I have observed a good number of people muttering "fuckfuckfuck" under their breath when nervous. It somehow seems to vent the frustration out, and calm the person down. Why does this happen?
I found ...
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What are cognates of "fuck" in other Indo-European languages?
I am not asking for translations, but how the word itself is related to words in other languages and what those words have come to mean like how "shit" is related to "science". I would really ...
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Why do we censor vowels, rather than consonants?
My first question on this site, so please be somewhat lenient :))
My question, put succinctly: Why do we asterisk the vowels in profane words, rather than the consonants?
Now, just a disclaimer, ...
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Offensive words over time in other languages
This may or may not be true, but it's my perception of it.
In English there seems to be a phenomenon where we need a word for something that might be considered offensive, e.g. body parts, certain ...
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Do all cultures have "taboo language"?
In english, taboo language may be realized as swear words--though I could see some languages not having "swear words" in the english sense, while maintaining "vulgar expressions". All cultures have ...
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Is there a reason behind the phenomenon of English becoming more vulgar with time?
In the last few years I have noticed both with colleagues and from online discussions a tendency for English language writing and speech to become more and more vulgar. That is, I see explicatives ...
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Do we know if the Dutch vulgar/slang term "stront" is related to the Italian vulgar/slang term "stronzo"?
I have for years known that there was a Dutch bad word "stront" meaning "shit" but I expected it was spelled "stroent" until I looked it up just now.
I have also known the Italian bad word "stronzo" ...
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Analysis of 'fuck off has he', 'bollocks do they', and the like
Is anybody aware of published analysis of this interesting construction, which seems to require what I will loosely term swear words to work? I believe I've only heard it in British English:
A1 - ...
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Influences of the origins of the phrase "Mother-fucker"
We should presume that the phrases "fuck your mother", "fuck your mother smelly cunt", "mother-fucking bastard" existed in the Chinese alt-cultural vocabulary for centuries in various dialects, having ...
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When do abbreviations of profanity like WTF and RTFA cease to be profane i.e. socially acceptable?
Discussing recently abbreviations such as WTF, TFA, and OMG as being more commonly used in American English writing (or messaging) as forms of expression. There seems to be some debate over if or ...
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