Worldbuilding: Cussing!

[sartorias]

Come talk about curses and cusses--what works, what doesn't, and why.

Comments

[queenoftheskies]

Thank you. I have trouble with devising curse-words in novels. It was enlightening to read your post and also the thoughts of those who commented.

[sartorias]

:-)

[marfisa]

One use of worldbuilding/setting-specific risqué language that stuck in my head was in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Darkover series. In that society "singer" had come to connote "prostitute" even more strongly than "opera dancer" did in Georgette Heyer's version of Regency England. So the proper way to refer to an actual female singer was by the euphemism "lyric performer." Any character who slipped up and referred to a respectable woman who sang as a singer was uttering something horribly offensive.

[sartorias]

Oh, I have forgotten that!