this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
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Yeah other languages normally get their swears from words for things that are considered taboo but english just has such a variety. We have swears/slurs that are related to:
But also not all words from those categories are swears and not all of those swears are always swears. We also have words that sound/look like swears but aren't.
edit: it would appear that I am incorrect
A typical take by a monolinguist. All of the examples you mention are typical in most other languages as well. English is not exceptional in that regard whatsoever.
I'm Dutch, we do basically all of these with the exception of go to hell. But we also curse with diseases such as typhoid and cholera.
I'm sorry to say but your curses aren't anything special.
Aw man :( You mean we english-speakers aren't the only ones with overly sensitive ancestors?
Exactly! You immediately came up with several categories that I completely forgot about, when I was listing categories of swear words. And yeah, the different levels of swearing are fascinating. And then, of course, the whole levels-of-familiarity-and-politeness-and-formality thing that other languages have? English still has that shit, it's just not built into the formal structure of the language, the way it is in, say, Japanese.
Those politeness and familiarity levels are just based on the context of every individual, and their particular social group. Some people swear a lot in their own family setting, some people NEVER swear within their nuclear family group. Some workplace environments are RIGIDLY anti-swearing, while others are totally informal, and everyone has a potty-mouth, all the time. And any of these contexts can have their own specific house rules, in terms of which categories of swearing are more taboo.
Like: "hey, fuckface! Don't say the fucking R-word around here, or I'll break my foot off in your ass." Totally a thing that I can imagine someone saying.
You neglect the versatility of our tabboo language, too!
Take English's favorite swear: Fuck.
Fuck is:
It can be used to express:
And that's just scratching the surface!
much useful
so versatile
My English teacher was right. Fuck is lazy. Lol
Fucking hell, this fucking fucker has fucking fucked it.