(no subject)
Reading the not all that great book, "A Year Living Biblically", about a guy who decides to spend said time living said way, I came across one interesting part, about blasphemy, and how a lot of words that are really minor now used to be considered really strong. For example, about 300 years ago "gosh" and "golly" used to considered curse words, as they respectively respresented "God" and "God's body". "Jiminy Cricket" and "Gee Whilikers" both stood for Jesus Christ, (which makes you wonder about Disney movies), "Tarnation" comes from "eternal" and "damnation", and apparently "heck" was little better than "hell".
I find this interesting because apparently there seems to be the reverse trend here for personal pronouns. Words like "omae", "kisama" and "temae", all of these used to be normal, perfectly polite words, but over time became quite rude. Wonder what that says about our two cultures...
I find this interesting because apparently there seems to be the reverse trend here for personal pronouns. Words like "omae", "kisama" and "temae", all of these used to be normal, perfectly polite words, but over time became quite rude. Wonder what that says about our two cultures...