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Post by Arivis on Nov 19, 2005 12:00:50 GMT -5
What makes profanity profane ? It is interesting to know the history of words. Words, the medium of conveying feeling or thought has provided me with many countless hours of investigation. So, why are these words such as fuck, ass, bitch , dick considered profane ? Do I have to apologize ? Sorry ? The emphasis on and priority bestowed upon these words as being profane has always sparked my curiousity. Any thoughts..........
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Post by crazycat on Nov 19, 2005 15:33:56 GMT -5
Well that's easy, it's the way that they are used in a sentence that makes them profane. In other words using them as curse words. When they are use in a sentence correctly they are not profane, but since people very seldem use them in a correct manner they have become bad words to be using period.
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Post by Arivis on Nov 20, 2005 7:19:03 GMT -5
I did some digging on this very exciting topic. LOL...hehe....oh...oh....laughed so hard my vertabrae vibrated itself out of place....'crack'...much better...where was I..... The word "Fuck" had its origins amongst 16th or 17th century Englanders purportedly used prevalently by certain dialects. This is one hypothesis of it's history. The other states that it was considered vulgar at this point. With the first one it's meaning was less abusive and actually quite different than what it is now. Back then, it's meaning meant ' to strike', ' to penetrate' but at some point it evolved and rotated itself around this world. It's meaning went through a metamorphosis garnering many definitions based on it's use in a sentence...thnx crazycat.
I had a friend tell me that from his knowledge of the word it did originate during some period in England but was a word used by lower society and because of that it remained a couthless word. With it having the same meaning as above pretty much indicates a upper society being dictators of what was acceptable. Imagine that. His opinion observed that the sound of the word rolled off the tongue like glue on a stick...ahem...oook....something like that. That brings me to the question "what if just the sound of the word gave it it's potential " It actually could've been an invented slang term back then that was used by the lower class resulting in it's unacceptability. Could it be because the word was a word that was prevalent among the lower class and with it's harsh sounding nature it was determined to be unacceptable. If this word originated with an acceptable meaning way back when then could it not be true that just the sound of this word may be the soul cause of it's distinction as the most profane ? Although one could argue with part of it's definition from above, citing that " to penetrate " might have helped it generate it's start. Maybe it's sheer randomness, and the words form, style, structure has made it the culprit of it's transformaton into what it is today.
Am I rambling too much ? Does this make any sense ?
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Post by andin on Dec 3, 2005 20:24:11 GMT -5
It makes total sense to me. I always wondered what made certain words profane and others not. Especially since most of the words if used one way is considered profane, but if used in a different way is not.
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