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cussing

G

geekydragon

beacuse dragons are awesome and im a geek.
what makes a cuss word a cuss word? how is a cuss word different from any other world on the planet? is censoring your cusses just as bad as cussing?

i dont cuss, but i do wonder what make a cuss word different from a regular word?
 
It's just the connotations that word holds that make it a swear word. Similar to how it's generally kinder to say someone's an enthusiast towards something than a fanatic. The words just gain a stigmata overtime that make them more unacceptable to use overtime.

For example and according to my British Literature teacher, the word fuck originated from, focker, the title animal breeders had back in the day. At that time, focker didn't have the negative connotations that fuck has now. People probably used focker as an unflattering term for sex, as animal sex tends to be viewed as dirtier than people sex. It's just how language evolves! (This just might be the first time I've ever written fuck in a post. What an accomplishment! Hahaha.)
 
Actually the connotation of to breed is exactly what that word still has in Dutch, hahaha...

Cursing's a bit silly, but you can render emphasis quite colorfully with it. Cursing in English is quite limited though, English is a terrible language to curse in because you have like three options.

Dutch cursing is pretty inventive but also quite disgusting at the core (cursing with diseases? wtf?) so I tend not to curse in Dutch.

From what I know German cursing just sounds angry (I know some curses in German), French cursing is... gross...

and in Russian you can replace any word with a curse if you know the five basic words and you prefix/infix/suffix them enough. It's a cursing language called mat.

It sounds pretty uncivilised if you overuse it, but I personally don't find cursing to be that big of a deal. People that get all uppity about it unnerve me a little.
 
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Chinese cussing is amazing.

You can say thinks like
  • Turtle egg
  • His mother's
  • Grass mud horse
  • Wolf's heart, dog's lung
  • Screw your ancestors up to eighteen generations
 
chinese does have a lot of colourful curses based on insulting ancestors and descendants, yes. comes with the culture, perhaps? would amuse to consider.
 
I just remembered another one, which is like... um, little ground up pieces of human? Dunno, put 人渣 into google translate or something.

I think "human powder" sounds good.
 
this is less of a debate and more of a history/language lesson guys :unsure:

dont you get more upset that when someone calls you a cuss word then when they use other insults? why? if not, then do they not bother you? why?
 
I tend not to take swearing too seriously, seeing as it's so overused and I have a fairly thick skin. I mean people who over use it just sound silly to me! And seeing as I really haven't been sworn out by anyone too close to me, it doesn't carry the same level of impact. Yeah, I think I would be kind of hurt if a friend of mine seriously called me a bitch, a douche, or something, but that hasn't happened.

A few of my friends curse a lot, but it's not at people, which is a big difference. I hardly curse at all in real life. Partly because I was told there was words that you should never ever say, so I didn't. I'm older now and realize that I can actually curse now (and do on occasion), but since I didn't for so long, I usually feel silly doing it. Some of my friends have told me that they almost feel bad cursing in front me, like they're just doing something "morally wrong." And it's also kind of a 'friend achievement' to hear me curse, so perhaps my views on cursing are a bit unconventional.

On the other hand, I've been chewed out swear-free, and it feels absolutely and utterly awful. It's the meaning behind the words that have impact, not the words themselves. Swearwords are great for emphasis when used effectively, but I think that skillfully worded insults can work just as well.

But! I've been told that I'm not all that easily offended, so perhaps being sworn at for other people makes them more upset.

Oh yeah! I use potato fritters as a swear substitution, but I just find the phrase inherently funny and nonsensical and it gives me an excuse to chuckle rather than stay angry. I'm really fond of potato frittering jerkface and cotton-headed yarn baller! :D!
 
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I don't curse as much online as I do in real life. I'm not sure why. I think it's because I'm able to think what I'm saying more clearly. In everyday life I curse more than I say "umm". I don't even curse when I'm angry or upset, I curse more just in regular conversation. It's like it's just... how I accent my speech.

If I'm upset I can't even think of using actual cuss words, instead I turn whatever pops into my head at the time as a curse, usually sonofa followed by random words that I have no idea got in there, that or random grumbling. It's gotten to a point where my friends keep a list of my extreme curse monologues for future generations.

I am making a conscious effort to use curses less, but half the time I don't even know I'm using them.

It's just weird how online if I swear and it's not like 'wtf' or something. Like using it in a sentence is weird. Depends on the sentence.

Otherwise I curse worse than a fucking sailor.
 
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geekydragon said:
dont you get more upset that when someone calls you a cuss word then when they use other insults? why? if not, then do they not bother you? why?
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not... really? I dunno maybe it's because swearing here is like water to fish, but swearwords just seem like a really crass thing to call somebody and they're not so much hurtful as they are kinda rude? Like I'd be way more upset if someone said I was selfish or ignorant or something than if they called me an asshole.

I swear a lot, and I think because of that a lot of them just don't hold very much gravity anymore? When I swear it's usually just casually in speech ("I really need to get some shit done") instead of like, in exclamation or as an insult thrown at someone. I try to swear less at work or in front of my grandparents, though, because it's not really appropriate I guess. :B

I wish Australia had some cool swears, but we really don't. I like making new curses out of swearwords and other words ('fucknoodles' is the current favourite). 'Cunt' is considered probably the most offensive swearword here - which says a lot, I guess - and not a lot of people say it, myself included.

edit: oh also, I have kind of poor enunciation and I stumble over words a lot! swearing kind of helps for some reason, they sort of anchor my speech.
 
ultraviolet said:
I wish Australia had some cool swears, but we really don't. I like making new curses out of swearwords and other words ('fucknoodles' is the current favourite). 'Cunt' is considered probably the most offensive swearword here - which says a lot, I guess - and not a lot of people say it, myself included.

edit: oh also, I have kind of poor enunciation and I stumble over words a lot! swearing kind of helps for some reason, they sort of anchor my speech.
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Fucknoodles is sort of awesome. Shinizzle is one my old softball team uses. 'Cunt' is sort of kept away from here too.

Swearing helps, for me, create emotion in a sentence. Swearing doesn't always need to be a negative. Think of how much a difference there is in the feeling from "That's awesome!" and "That's fucking awesome!". Feels completely different. Like whatever is ' fucking awesome' is way more impressive.

Funny story involving swears. Friend of mine with a dirty mouth was getting owned in soccer. The ref threatened to red card him if he swore again. Very next play he hits the ball out of bounds, starts yelling "SHI-" then catches himself and finishes "-TAKE MUSHROOMS!" He got red carded.
 
I find it really noticeable when people don't swear? I swear all the time, and the people around me swear all the time - it's a cultural thing, I ~guess~, but it's just weird. I have a friend who very, very rarely swears, and it's always been something I pick up on.

But yeah I don't put much stock into the words themselves. They're usually just an intensifier or a placeholder in conversation! The only one here that bristles people is 'cunt', and even then there's plenty of people who use it regardless.
 
I never really understood swearing to emphasise. I rarely swear, so when I actually do, people who know me realise that I feel that strongly about it. But when people do swear, and not even that much, I find that any emphasis they carry loses meaning and it just causes the sentence to feel bloated.
I do get that it comes naturally so some people, like saying 'um' and that it's not really a conscious thing to decide to swear. So I guess it bothers me more online since you have more time to think about what you're saying.

I can see myself using some as insults, if I ever needed to do so. For instance 'asshole' is the highest level of 'mean' I can think of. If I ever come across someone that mean, I probably would use it. (Perhaps not to their face, but to complain about them to others, because I'm a coward like that :P)

As for censoring, bleeping out I think doesn't affect much since in the context of the video/radio it's on, the original swear was said and would have the desired effects on the other people in it. Asterisking out (when it's not done automatically by a program) or saying "frick" doesn't have the exact same impact since there's an effort not to swear, but almost swear.
Though people like me who rarely swear might use words like 'frick' out of frustration as naturally as people who do swear would swear. Do I don't know about that - it depends on the person who's saying it and how well you already know them I guess.

Tarvos said:
People that get all uppity about it unnerve me a little.
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I get more unnerved by people who get uppity about people not swearing. (they exist) They're both the extreme ends of the spectrum though, so what're you going to do!
 
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It's funny how different everything becomes when you switch to a different language. I don't swear nearly as much in English as I do in Swedish. Probably because it's just much less fun. Satfläsk just has no good equivalent.
 
I tend to prefer English cursing to Dutch because 99% of Dutch cursing is disgusting. The prevalence of cursing with cancer... ouch.

My Swedish cursing is limited to "jävlа" whatever and för helvete. so.
 
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Well, I don't curse. I guess it sort of isn't programmed in my mind. When I'm angry or feel particularly unpleasant, I make weird hiss/growl sounds. There was also a time when I said "holy seashell" when I was surprised. The "cursing for emphasis" word I tend to use in my mind is "eldergoddamn".

I guess it's an upbringing thing, with the stuff I do use coming from my interests.
 
To be fair, one of the most used English swear words does too.

English seems to have a fascination with genitals.
 
Hmm, I guess while I was growing up my father swore quite frequently, and so it seems commonplace to me. I tend to be receptive of when people get upset with me swearing, but when I'm just with friends or family, I very often use swear words for emphasis, i.e "I have a lot of shit to do" or "You've got to be fucking kidding me". Of course this varies greatly with the mood I am in and the people with whom I am talking. Yes, sometimes I'll just exclaim nonsensical words like "fuckmuffins" or "dickbiscuit". Swearing can be very therapeutic.

As for censoring on TV, I think it has just the intended effect, if not more. If someone is trying to say something and uses a swear word just for emphasis, the high-pitched noise you hear in place of it seems to draw even more attention than the word itself. Using it in writing is quite different. It's like the person using asterisks simultaneously wants to vent their frustration but doesn't want to say the actual word.

I guess certain words are just so ingrained into my vocabulary that using them seems very natural to me. I'm kind of annoyed by the people who think saying the word "fuck" is worse than murder. I had relatives who let their kids see extremely violent films, but if there was a single swear word or a single innuendo in a movie, they would forbid it. I really don't understand that logic at all.
 
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