THE F-BOMB AND SUCH PROFANITIES

 

In Tokyo 2020 Swimmer Kaylee McKeown dropped F-Bomb on live TV after her Olympic gold medal and the hell broke loose. McKeown uttered an expletive before covering her mouth after realizing what she had said. Her mother told Australian media: "Swearing on TV! I will have to have a word to her later." Politicians have done it, news anchors have done it, professionals have done it and the common public does it all the time even without realizing it. So why are cuss words so popular? Why are these words which are considered unspeakable, spoken such a lot?

Profanity or Curse words, also known as swear words, bad words, or expletives or insults, are for most people considered taboo when teaching and learning English. For a word to qualify as a swear word it must have the potential to offend, crossing a cultural line into taboo territory. These are involuntary verbal ejaculations but on occasions they are used very purposefully to make a point and used as intensifiers. Teachers will definitely cringe at the thought of their students learning English curse words but when it comes to adults learning English after they have nailed hello and goodbye, I’ll bet that f**k wasn’t far behind. Similarly the first few Punjabi words the overseas Kings XI Punjab players managed to master were all Punjabi galis or expletives. It seems that there is no established consensus as to how children learn to swear, although it is an inevitable part of language learning, and begins early in life

 

History:

 

The term profane originates from classical Latin profanus, literally "before (outside) the temple", "pro" being outside and "fanum" being temple or sanctuary. It carried the meaning of either "desecrating what is holy" or "with a secular purpose" as early as the 1450s. The history of curse words and profanity was part of spoken words in the medieval era. The word f**k was likely first used in English (borrowed) in the fifteenth century, though the use of shit in English is much older, rooted in the Proto-Germanic word skit-, then evolved in Middle English to the word schitte, meaning excrement and shiten, to defecate. Another profanity, damn, has its origins in Latin with the word damnum meaning to damage, hurt or harm.

 

Swearing was considered a serious business in the past. They would take oath of office and our Presidents, Ministers and Justices are still sworn in to their offices. The first taboo words were all about God but they were modified to suit the need of expression. Thus ‘golly’ and ‘gosh’ were used in place of God and jeepers creepers and gee whiz in place of Jesus Christ. These did not count as swears though. The earliest swear word is f**k and was used by monks in 1528, on the margins of a Cicero text about morals. It has never looked back ever since and remains popular even today!

 

 

Why do we swear?

 

Author Steven Pinker in his book ‘The Stuff of Thoughts’ (Viking Press) in 2007 suggested that there are five possible functions of swearing:

Abusive swearing, intended to offend, intimidate or otherwise cause emotional or psychological harm

Cathartic swearing, used in response to pain or misfortune

Dysphemistic swearing, used to convey that the speaker thinks negatively of the subject matter and to make the listener do the same

Emphatic swearing, intended to draw additional attention to what is considered to be worth paying attention to

Idiomatic swearing, used for no other particular purpose, but as a sign that the conversation and relationship between speaker and listener is informal

 

Swearing performs certain psychological functions, and uses particular linguistic and neurological mechanisms; all these are avenues of research. Swearing is a widespread but perhaps underappreciated anger management technique. Men generally curse more than women, unless said women are in a sorority. Swearing over time may gain roots as a habit with the involuntary utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks. This has been referred to as coprolalia, which is an occasional characteristic of tic disorders.

 

 

 

Benefits of swearing

 

Swearing can have a truly liberating effect when we’re feeling bottled up with frustration. Saying the F-word, or similar, can have an immediate calming impact on the difficult emotions we might be experiencing. Of late living in a pandemic has given us all cause to express our frustrations, whether from the ongoing confusing restrictions to the fear of what may happen if you contract the coronavirus. Sporadic outbursts of cursing, cussing, swearing — whatever you may call it — are a good way to process the chaos of being human in a world where much isn’t under our control.

 

There are however scientific studies to show that cursing from time to time has definite advantages:

 

·         Studies show cursing during a physically painful event can help us better tolerate the pain.

·         Experts say using curse words can also help us build emotional resilience and cope with situations in which we feel that we have no control.

·         Swearing can also provide a range of other benefits, including as a means of creative expression, relationship development, or simply as a way to allow different identities to harmonize by signaling that you’re relaxed around the other person.

 

There are some social reasons too of learning the cuss words, particularly if you are learning a foreign language:

 

·         Native speakers won’t always use formal expressions; otherwise, it would be difficult to establish a real connection. So it is best to at least learn some curse words and expressions if you plan to make friends, to catch everything during small talks.

 

·         Just like everyday conversations, English television and English culture are filled with curse words or expressions. Without some knowledge, popular culture and informal conversation can be quite confusing.

 

A word of caution

One should be very careful in using these vulgar words because they can make one look like a fool, uneducated and disrespectful. These words, used in wrong context, can be offensive and make one look rude and mean. One must pay attention to understand the context and the cultural sensitivity and use them with caution, if at all.

The same swear word may have different meanings in different contexts. They can be brilliantly diverse depending upon glints, tones and shifts. Just giving you few common examples:

 

F**k

 

Used on its own, it usually signifies annoyance: ‘Ah f**k, the kettle’s broken, how am I going to make tea?’. 

F**k can be joined to other words to change its meaning. F**k off for example can mean get away from me, or it can be used to signify surprise or shock. It all depends on the context and how you say it – e.g.

‘Nice lips.’

‘F**k off.’ (Leave me alone, you sad, lonely creep.)

‘I’m pregnant and it’s triplets.’ 

‘F**k off!’ (Shocked reaction from friends.)

‘I just won 5 crores on the KBC.’

‘F**k off!’ (A nice surprise, probably.)

 

This phrase makes you sound like an overexcited teenage boy, so mature adults should use it very carefully, only amongst close friends.

 

Bloody hell

This is another very British swear word. Bloody hell is actually quite mild and it’s used to express anger. 

‘Bloody hell, Ramesh lost the tickets to the T-20 final.’

‘Ramesh, what the bloody hell have you done?’

 

Piss off

This is a milder version of f**k off. However, it’s still probably not one to use in front of grandma. It usually means go away, but your tone of voice has a big impact on its meaning. 

‘You look lovely today, Tara.’ 

‘Oh, piss off Rahul.’ (Depending on the tone of voice, Tara is either angry or flirting.)

 

 

The Hindi equivalents:

 

Expletives in Hindi are called ‘gali’ and are very popular among friends but avoided on formal occasions and when conversing with the opposite sex. Girls and ladies rarely ever use them while speaking to boys because our culture expects them to be sober and nice. They trace their origin to the Mogul period because their use in ancient Indian languages is not much talked about.  Over the years languages like Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi have developed some very colourful galis and there are people who are compulsive users of these profanities. 

While some galis are outright offensive insulting someone's relatives who are not even in the discussion, there are some which summarize the character of the subject so accurately that to convey the same meaning you may have to spend 2 or 3 sentences with far many expletives to match. This is innovative linguistic gymnastics which requires practice and only the experts can perform.