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[illustratedjai]

Last semester, I took a socioling course at my Uni (low level, easy credits and GPA booster, as well as being my field of interest) and ended up doing a presentation on swearing. As a point of interest, and just for flavour, I'd done an informal online survey of as many people as I could find. One of the questions was "What's the worst swear word

Comments

[miss_next]

I'm not really sweary. I tend to say "bloody" as a very last resort. However, my best friend is a most creative user of profanity and can come out with some tirades worthy of Mark Twain, especially when he's behind the wheel of a car.

His favourite swear appears to be "arse biscuits!", which always makes me laugh. I'm not sure that's the effect it's meant to have. :-)

[illustratedjai]

I've heard that one before, and it always makes me laugh as well - it sounds almost like those replacement swears because of the food connotations (fudge, sugar, &c), and is softened a bit by the colloquial 'arse,' rather than the harsher, more American 'ass'. It makes me happy. 8DDD

[miss_next]

I'm quite interested in the differences in profanity between British and American English. It always cracks me up when my American friends say "bloody", because that is a word I strongly associate with BrE and AusE. Also, some words are considered a lot worse in the USA than here - "damn" being the classic example; it's barely swearing in BrE, but quite bad in AmE - and vice versa, for instance "crap".

It occurs to me now that "arse/ass" is a bit different too, and not just in the form of the word. My best friend often says "Oh, arse!" to express annoyance. I'd say that was a minority usage over here, but nonetheless he's not by any means on his own. However, I've never heard of an American saying "Oh, ass!" - though I'm sure someone will correct me if I'm wrong there.

[switchercat]

Also, some words are considered a lot worse in the USA than here - "damn" being the classic example; it's barely swearing in BrE, but quite bad in AmE

I'm not sure where you got this information, but it's not right (or, at least, too generalized to be right). The word "damn" is rare in the dialect of American English I use, but that's not because it's "quite bad" -- I'd say it's actually so mild that it's almost ceased to pack any kind of punch whatsoever, and is disused because of that.

On the subject of the post itself: to me, a lot of compound swear words (things like, I don't know, "douchenozzle" or "asshat") sound so contrived that they don't feel like actual serious insults in the same way as other swear words do. I don't use them. I also see them online much more often than I hear them in speech.

One compound swear I virtually never hear in my dialect is "cocksucker," which seems to me very bad/insulting -- not because of the language, but because of what I perceive as serious, malicious homophobia packed in its meaning.

[miss_next]

Thanks for that! I'm going by the Americans I've encountered online, who are mainly from the east coast, though one or two come from other areas, including one from Washington DC who occasionally says "dayum" instead. Those who try to moderate their language - and not all of them do - tend to euphemise "damn" in a similar way. Possibly the most creative damn-substitute I've heard from an American was a young woman aged about 18 who suddenly decided she was swearing too much and needed to control it, so she started saying "spam" instead. I loved that. "Spam" should definitely be a mild swear word. :-)

Could I ask which part of America you're from, for reference? I try to keep pace with AmE but still fall over it occasionally, so it would be worth knowing.

Also, ICON LOVE. :-) I have a T-shirt with the wug test on it.

[switchercat]

In my experience, people who use such euphemisms are a lot more likely to use words that are milder to start with. People who shift "damn" and "hell" to "darn" and "heck," for example, are a lot commoner than people who use euphemisms like "fudge" or "sugar" for "fuck" and "shit."

I don't actually regularly speak with anybody who uses euphemisms for swear words; most people I know use the full words with varying levels of frequency. For example, when I'm with my parents' friends there's not a lot of swearing going on, and in many conversations it will never happen. But if someone was to want to say "what the hell," which could totally happen, it would not become "what the heck."

I'm from a suburban city near Boston, Massachusetts, and I'm eighteen.

[miss_next]

Ah, thanks! That clarifies things a good deal.

[switchercat]

You're welcome!

[illustratedjai]

Just popping in to say, also Icon Love and this conversation was interesting for me, too~ (Tho' I was very concerned when I had fourteen new messages!)

[duckodeath]

I'm from Washington, DC (which is the East Coast) and I can assure you "damn" and "hell" are the mildest of mild swears. You might think they are naughty words if you are six years old, but not if you are older. "Dayum" is, if anything, a far more emphatic way of saying "damn," but it is kind of funny to see it spelled out because it's usually just said.

[dncingmalkavian]

+1

[miss_next]

Thanks!

[illustratedjai]

The Brit/NAmerican divide is super interesting for me, as my Fiance is a Brit, and I got to spend last summer in Yorkshire (which, let me tell you, is hard to get used to as a West Coast Canadian!) and heard some amazing examples. (One of them responded to my informal survey thing, and their worst swear was (pardon if this is insulting) "Jesus Cunting Christ On A Bendy Bus." Which just made me giggle.)

Yeah, the posterior is a pretty rarely invoked curse as far as I've experienced. It's more often used as just a more 'adult' version of 'bum' or 'butt,' both of which sound a bit kiddish.

[miss_next]

I live in Yorkshire, so I'm not at all surprised! The syntax isn't far removed from my own "merry hell on little green wheels"; "hell on wheels" is fairly common, but I believe the qualifiers are all my own. :-) For the record I don't blaspheme myself and tend to twitch when other people do it, but I don't mind you quoting.

Curiously enough I'm planning to emigrate to Canada, but it's the east coast, not the west. Nova Scotia has the perfect climate for me. :-)

[illustratedjai]

....!!!! (My Fiance, who was leaning over my shoulder, commented that he'd heard people using "Oh, arse," and wondered if you might be from Yorkshire. I AM AMAZED AND HAVE NEW FOUND FAITH IN HIS ABILITY TO LOCATE PEOPLE BY CURSING HABITS.)
And read and understood! I'll avoid using it myself, then! (I tend to curse using "Balls" or some variation on, so.)

There's some sort of trend in Brits moving to Canada right now, I think - and vice versa. I met someone while I was in Yorkshire who'd gone (several years previous) to the university I'm currently studying at. Strange coincidences~
Nova Scotia is absolutely beautiful from what I hear - I've never had the chance to visit myself, tho'. The farthest east I've made it is Quebec.

[miss_next]

Oh, now that's interesting! My best friend has lived in the south of England for most of his life, but he was born in Barnsley, so that may be where he got it from.

I'm not originally from Yorkshire. I'm from the other side of the Pennines. I'm a Lake District girl. Having said that, my mum is from Sussex and I talk more like her than like someone from the Lake District. All the stuff you read about children picking up their accent/dialect/general mode of speech from their peers rather than their parents may be true in most cases, but it doesn't always apply.