I have been wanting to write this
post for years, but other posts kept taking priority. As any reader of this
blog will know, I love words. I love language. I love meaning. And I have
always been fascinated by the history of words and how meaning evolves over
time and place.
This post was also inspired in
part because of my upbringing. As a good Fundamentalist kid, “bad” language was
strictly forbidden. And I mean strictly. Sure, in plenty of families,
you couldn’t say “fuck” without punishment. But in ours, even the most finely
minced of oaths was verboten.
We were, for example, not allowed
to say “gee” or “golly” or “crap” or “gosh.” Even “darn” got the side
eye.
On the one hand, this made for
some fun moments, like my brother adopting “bat barf” as his favorite
expletive. And also, unlike in other households, we were not permitted to use
slurs of any kind, or lob verbal insults. That was a good thing, and something
I have retained in my own household.
On the other, policing of language
all too often becomes a self-righteous, judgmental thing, encouraging one to
look down on others who have different rules.
In any case, the reason I wanted
to write this post was to take a look at the varieties of forbidden words,
where they come from, why they are used, and why they came to be seen as
forbidden, or at least transgressive.
In writing this, I will also
correct what I see as imprecise use of language in describing forbidden words -
cue Inigo Montoya.
Interestingly, people in the past were far more careful in
their use of terms, so understanding what each means can actually help in
understanding the writings of the past, or in different places.
I also intend to talk a bit about
how language policing is often a distraction from more important issues, and
explain my thoughts on how I use and experience language.
***
First, some words. Depending on
your era and place in the world, terms can vary a lot. For example, if you,
like me, read old literature from the British Isles, you have run across
references “the vilest oaths,” or “curses too foul to even utter” and stuff
like that. So what is an oath, and what is a curse?
In the neighborhoods I grew up in,
forbidden language was “cussing,” while a rung or two higher on the
socioeconomic ladder would say “swearing.” What do those mean?
In point of fact, all of those
refer to specific kinds of forbidden language, none of which are
typically the ones we would now be referring to when we say “oath,” “curse,” or
“swear.”
To assist in understanding this, I
want to take a look at each classification of forbidden language, how it was
originally used, and how to understand it.
***
Profanity
Ah yes, another constantly misused
word.
Saying “fuck” is not being
profane. Rather, it is being vulgar (and possibly obscene), but it is not
profanity at all, or even close.
Profanity is using words in a
profane way. What does it mean to be profane?
Profane is the opposite of holy or
sacred. In the non-pejorative sense, anything that is not sacred is by
definition profane. But in the sense we mean in language, to be profane is to
use something holy in a debased, irreverent, or vulgar way.
So, using words in a way that goes
against their holy meaning is profanity.
In the most common usage these
days, profanity is found in using the name of God (or gods) and things
connected to them in irreverent ways.
So, obviously, “God!” or “Jesus
Christ” or “Holy Mother of the Flying Spaghetti Monster” qualify.
So too do “damn” (profane
reference to the place of eternal punishment) and “good heavens” (the polar
opposite.)
Add in the “minced” versions -
gosh, darn, etc. - and that is about as far as it gets these days.
In the past, people were FAR more
creative.
For example, did you know that
“zounds” is a profanity, and used to be considered a particularly bad one? It
is a contraction of “god’s wounds” - a vulgarization of the crucifixion. Same
for “gadzooks” - “god’s hooks” - that is, the nails.
If you go back in time, you will
find pretty much every body part or element of Christ’s life and death used as
a profanity.
I should also mention the typical
British profanity, “bloody.” I have had to explain to a lot of Americans why
it is a profanity, and why it isn’t just a fun Britishism.
There are some fun wrinkles to
this category too.
For reasons I do not understand,
“hell” is considered far worse than “heaven” as a profanity. And yet,
“God” is universally considered a profanity while “Satan” isn’t. Back in the
day, “Beelzebub!” was one of the naughty ones, after all, so what
happened?
One final thought here: I was
taught as a kid that using profanity was “taking the Lord’s name in
vain.”
That was a lie.
As I came to understand as an
adult, reading Jewish interpretations of the Decalogue, and thinking more
carefully about meaning, this interpretation misses the point. The Ten
Commandments (the most familiar version, at least), isn’t about idle words or meaningless
language sins. It is about specific behaviors that cause harm.
In the book of Ezekiel, this is
most clearly spelled out when the prophet condemns the false prophets who
justify greed, theft, murder, and general oppression of the poor and powerless
by claiming God justifies that evil.
Her prophets whitewash these deeds by false visions and lying
divinations, saying, ‘This is what the Lord GOD says,’ when the LORD has not
spoken. (Chapter 22 - the whole thing is worth reading.)
Enlisting the name of God to
justify evil behavior IS what it means to take the Lord’s name in vain.
And it is also the favorite sin of white Evangelicals. (On a personal note, my
mother, who recoils in horror from “gosh,” constantly claims to speak for
Almighty God about how everyone else should live their lives. Which is a
significant reason we have no relationship.)
In my opinion, then, whether you
use words for the sacred in a profane way is really between you and your god.
It is perfectly defensible to avoid those words. But expecting non-religious
people to do the same is just being an Asshole for Jesus™.
***
Cursing and Oaths
Ah, here we come to two
interesting cousins of profanity. These two are rarely used these days, but you
find them all the time in literature.
A curse is just that: a curse. You
are calling down horrible things on someone else.
You can find these throughout the
Bible, of course. Starting with The Curse - where God curses humankind for
eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And proceeding through to
the Gospels, where Christ curses the fig tree.
As I said, you find curses all
throughout literature. Usually with the thwarted bad guy spewing vile curses at
the hero and heroine who thwarted him.
Personally, I find curses to be an
artifact of past ways of thinking. And by “past” I mean distant past. Even in
Proverbs, you find “Like a fluttering sparrow or a darting swallow, an
undeserved curse does not come to rest.”
So, on the one hand, curses are
ineffective against those who do not deserve them. And on the other, doing evil
tends to bring its own consequences, and adding a curse won’t change
that.
One reason I believe curses are
ineffective is that if they worked, Trump would have been dead a decade
ago.
In fact, the way curses have
worked, is that a person known to be cursed would be shunned. And I am
definitely in favor of shunning sociopaths. Or maybe putting them in prison.
Let’s start with Trump and Elon.
Related here, of course, is the
word “cussing,” the vernacular for “cursing” that has lost its original
meaning.
The flip side of a curse is an
oath.
Again, these are all over the
Bible, including this one from Ruth: “Where you die I will die, and there will
I be buried. May the Lord do so to me and more also if anything but death parts
me from you.”
In this case, you wish bad things
on yourself if you do not fulfil your promise.
When we talk about “oaths” or
“swearing,” this is what we mean. Oaths and curses are often combined with
profanity, as defined above.
Both oaths and curses have fallen
out of style. Except perhaps for the fun of “creative” curses - the best of
which, in my opinion, are Yiddish.
I should probably use “may you turn into a blintz and be eaten by a cat!” more
often in daily life.
I think one reason that oaths have
fallen out of favor is that in general, people believe less in curses, and
specific divine retribution. In addition, the people who do retain that
belief are at least even odds to also take Christ’s admonition against oaths
seriously. Their yes should be yes. (In theory at least.)
This is reflected in the law as
well. I technically took an “oath” when I became an attorney:
“I, (licensee name) solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will
support the Constitution of the United States and the Constitution of the State
of California, and that I will faithfully discharge the duties of an attorney
and counselor at law to the best of my knowledge and ability. As an officer of
the court, I will strive to conduct myself at all times with dignity, courtesy,
and integrity.”
I affirmed, as do most people in
my experience. And no, there is no need to put one’s hand on a Bible or a Koran
or even a copy of Blackstone. (IYKYK)
Ditto for “oaths” in court. These
days, the clerk will just say “do you solemnly state that the testimony you are
about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth?” No
need for a formal oath or a reference to a supreme being.
In real life in our times, I
really don’t see much that would qualify as either an oath or a curse. There
are insults, and threats, and general expressions of contempt, but not really
what the people of the past would have understood as curses or oaths.
***
Vulgarity
Here we come to the words that are
usually what people mean by “cussing,” “profanity,” and
“swearing.”
What they really are is vulgarity.
What is considered vulgar? That’s a good question, isn’t it?
It clearly isn’t about the meaning
of the word. If I were to say “feces,” “phallus,” “sexual intercourse,”
“vulva,” or any number of other words that have forbidden equivalents, they
wouldn’t be considered objectionable. So what makes these ones that way?
A clue is in the term. “Vulgar”
comes from the Latin term for the common people. So, to be vulgar is to be
common, low, part of the rabble. Definitely not sophisticated, aristocratic,
etc.
Another clue is in the fact that
you can find all of our common vulgarities in fairly recognizable form in The
Canterbury Tales. And you find them used, not by the aristocratic
characters, but by the commoners. Read “The Miller’s Tale,” for example.
This led me to looking into what
words are the “bad” ones when it comes to bodily functions and body parts.
And guess what? The issue is
one hundred percent about classism.
Sinclair Lewis memorably put it in
Elmer Gantry: “the nine Saxon physiological monosyllables.”
Simply put, the “bad” words are
the ones the commoners - who spoke Anglo-Saxon (aka “Old English”) used. The
“good” words were the ones in French (the Norman conquerors - the aristocracy)
or Latin (the language of the clergy.)
So, “shit” is bad because the
rabble used it. “Excrement” is fine because it is French. Likewise “poop” (from
the child word “popo”.)
“Fuck” is bad. “Coitus” (Latin) is
fine.
You can go down the list, and the
“bad” ones are really just common, non-forbidden terms from an old language
that became “vulgar” because the common people used them.
They also are all physiological,
as Lewis points out, and humans have weird taboos surrounding genitals,
excrement and its organs, and bodily functions. This combination led to
labeling some words as bad.
To me, this is, well, bullshit. It
is an artifact of classism, and remains so in our culture. Hence why I am not
mourning the change toward more common use of these very old words.
***
Slurs
As I mentioned, one good thing
about my upbringing is that I was taught to never use slurs.
And I don’t mean the obvious
racial ones. For that matter, my parents did say the n-word out loud
when reading from a book that used it (See: Huckleberry
Finn) as accuracy to the original - but with obvious discomfort and the
explanation that it was wrong to use the word.
We also learned not to use
“retard” or “moron” or ableist slurs. Ditto for gendered slurs. And homophobic
ones. I give full props to my parents for this - they were ahead of a lot of
their peers - and I have duplicated this in my own family.
The issue here is punching down.
It is harming humans, reinforcing stereotypes and systemic injustice, and
otherwise causing bad things. So don’t do it.
This leads me to an interesting
observation. There has been a huge shift in what language is considered
forbidden in our culture. This has happened during my lifetime.
On the one hand, the “nine Saxon
physiological monosyllables” have become a lot more commonplace. This means
Fundamentalists have their panties in a constant state of wad simply walking
around in our world. But ultimately, what it really indicates is that
sex and bodies and bodily functions are becoming less taboo and less forbidden.
And also that these particular words no longer serve as an indication of social
class.
On the other hand, using slurs has
(mostly) become more forbidden. I know that the MAGA crowd is eager to
bring back the n-word and other racial slurs, but even this is a reaction to a
clear cultural shift.
Just as one example, my late
great-uncle, who was a good, decent man, was of an age. And in that age, it was
fine to call Brazil nuts “n-----r” nuts. His children would never have
used that term. My generation find it puzzling that anyone ever said that,
because by the time we came around, it was considered inappropriate, and only
senile old people forgot and used the term.
I have found some terms have
changed too since my childhood, generally as a response to marginalized groups
demanding change. Even some longstanding sports team names are finally
changing.
This is a good thing, in my
opinion. It reflects what I think is a great life adage, which is to never
punch down. We should take into account the effect our words have on those with
less power than ourselves.
***
Note that I haven’t made a
definitive statement as to the value of forbidden words, except for my
condemnation of the use of slurs.
With the exception of slurs, which
are harmful in any culture, the rest are culturally-based taboos, not moral
absolutes.
The question of what language is
profane depends on religious beliefs. Because power in the Western world has
largely been held by purported Christians, our common profanities are all
directed in the direction of that power.
In another world, “By Grabthar’s Hammer, you
shall be avenged!” would be the profanity (and oath) of choice,
perhaps.
Had world events gone differently,
perhaps we would be using “scheisse” instead. (Hey, common language
root!)
I am pretty sure, however, that
fart jokes would be popular in any timeline.
***
I know this post is a bit
different from my usual faire, but I had fun writing it. And if you didn’t like
it, I am all out of fucks for today.
