Profanity


Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion, as a grammatical intensifier or emphasis, or to express informality or conversational intimacy. In many formal or polite social situations, it is considered impolite, and in some religious groups it is considered a sin. Profanity includes slurs, but most profanities are not slurs, and there are many insults that do not use swear words.
Swear words can be discussed or even sometimes used for the same purpose without causing offense or being considered impolite if they are obscured or substituted with a minced oath like "flip".

Etymology and definitions

Profanity may be described as offensive language, dirty words, or taboo words, among other descriptors. The term originates from classical Latin, literally, pro meaning and fanum meaning. This further developed in Middle English with the meaning to desecrate a temple. In English, swearing is a catch-all linguistic term for the use of profanities, even if it does not involve taking an oath. The only other languages that use the same term for both profanities and oaths are French, Canadian French, and Swedish.
English uses cursing in a similar manner to swearing, especially in the United States. Cursing originally referred specifically to the use of language to cast a curse on someone, and in American English it is still commonly associated with wishing harm on another. Equivalents to cursing are used similarly in Danish, Italian, and Norwegian. The terms swearing and cursing have strong associations with the use of profanity in anger. Various efforts have been made to classify different types of profanity, but there is no widely accepted typology and terms are used interchangeably.
Blasphemy and obscenity are used similarly to profanity, though blasphemy has retained its religious connotation. Expletive is another English term for the use of profanity, derived from its original meaning of adding words to change a sentence's length without changing its meaning. The use of expletive sometimes refers specifically to profanity as an interjection. Epithet is used to describe profanities directed at a specific person. Some languages do not have a general term for the use of profanities, instead describing it with the phrase "using bad language". These include Mandarin, Portuguese, Spanish, and Turkish. Colloquial English terms include potty-mouth, defined by the OED as "A tendency to be foul-mouthed; a foul-mouthed person".

History and study

Historical profanity is difficult to reconstruct, as written records may not reflect spoken language. Despite being relatively well known compared to other linguistic mechanisms, profanity has historically been understudied because of its taboo nature. Profanity may be studied as an aspect of linguistics and sociology, or it can be a psychological and neurological subject. Besides interpersonal communication, understanding of profanity has legal implications and is related to theories of language learning.
In modern European languages, swearing developed from early Christianity, primarily through restrictions on taking God's name in vain in the Old Testament. Invocations of God were seen as attempts to call upon his power, willing something to be true or leveling a curse. Other mentions of God were seen as placing oneself over him, with the person uttering a name implying power over the name's owner.
Modern study of profanity as its own subject of inquiry had started by 1901. Sigmund Freud influenced study of the topic by positing that swearing reflects the subconscious, including feelings of aggression, antisocial inclinations, and the broaching of taboos. Significant activity began in the 1960s with writings on the subject by Ashley Montagu and Edward Sagarin, followed by increased study the following decade. Specific types of discriminatory profanity, such as ethnophaulism and homophobia, came to be described as part of a broader type of profanity, hate speech, toward the end of the 20th century. Another increase in the study of profanity took place with the onset of the 21st century.

Subjects

Profanities have literal meanings, but they are invoked to indicate a state of mind, making them dependent almost entirely on connotation and emotional associations with the word, as opposed to literal denotation. The connotative function of profanity allows the denotative meaning to shift more easily, causing the word to shift until its meaning is unrelated to its origin or to lose meaning and impact altogether.
Literal meanings in modern profanity typically relate to religion, sex, or the human body, which creates a dichotomy between the use of highbrow religious swears and lowbrow anatomical swears. Languages and cultures place different emphasis on the subjects of profanity. Anatomical profanity is common in Polish, for example, while swearing in Dutch is more commonly in reference to disease. Words for excrement and for the buttocks have profane variants across most cultures. Though religious swears were historically more severe, modern society across much of the world has come to see sexual and anatomical swears to be more vulgar. Common profane phrases sometimes incorporate more than one category of profanity for increased effect. The Spanish phrase me cago en Dios y en la Puta Virgen invokes scatological, religious, and sexual profanity. Other swear words do not refer to any subject, such as the English word bloody when used in its profane sense.
Not all taboo words are used in swearing, with many only being used in a literal sense. Clinical or academic terminology for bodily functions and sexual activity are distinct from profanity. This includes words such as excrement and copulate in English, which are not typically invoked as swears. Academics who study profanity disagree on whether literal use of a vulgar word can constitute a swear word. Conversely, words with greater connotative senses are not always used profanely. Bastard and son of a bitch are more readily used as general terms of abuse in English compared to terrorist and rapist, despite the latter two being terms being associated with strongly immoral behavior.
Some profane phrases are used metaphorically in a way that still retains elements of the original meaning, such as the English phrases all hell broke loose or shit happens, which carry the negative associations of hell and shit as undesirable places and things. Others are nonsensical when interpreted literally, like take a flying fuck in English as well as putain de merde in French and porca Madonna in Italian.

Religion

A distinction is sometimes made between religious profanity, which is casual, and blasphemy, which is intentionally leveled against a religious concept. It was commonly believed among early civilizations that speaking about certain things can invoke them or bring about curses. Many cultures have taboos about speaking the names of evil creatures such as Satan because of these historical fears.
Religions commonly develop derogatory words for those who are not among their members. Medieval Christianity developed terms like heathen and infidel to describe outsiders. Secularization in the Western world has seen exclamations such as God! divorced from their religious connotations. Religious profanity is not inherent to all languages, being absent from Japanese, indigenous languages of the Americas, and most Polynesian languages.
European languages historically used the crucifixion of Jesus as a focal point for profane interjections. Phrases meaning "death of God" were used in languages like English, French, and Swedish Christian profanity encompasses both appeals to the divine, such as God or heaven, and to the diabolic, such as the Devil or hell. While the impact of religious swearing has declined in the Christian world, diabolic swearing remains profane in Germany and the Nordic countries. Islamic profanity lacks a diabolic element, referring only to divine concepts like Muhammad or holy places.
Words related to Catholicism, known as sacres, are used in Quebec French profanity, and are considered to be stronger than other profane words in French. Examples of sacres considered profane in Quebec are tabarnak, hostie, and sacrament. When used as profanities, sacres are often interchangeable.
The Book of Leviticus indicates that blasphemous language warrants death, while the Gospel of Matthew implies condemnation of all swearing, though only the Quakers have imposed such a ban. Islam, Judaism, and Brahmanism forbid mention of God's name entirely. In some countries, profanity words often have pagan roots that after Christian influence were turned from names of deities and spirits to profanity and used as such, like perkele in Finnish, which was believed to be an original name of the thunder god Ukko, the chief god of the Finnish pagan pantheon.

Anatomy and sexuality

Profanity related to sexual activity, including insults related to genitals, exists across cultures. The specific aspects invoked are sensitive to a given culture, with differences in how much they emphasize ideas like incest or adultery. Certain types of sex acts, such as oral sex, anal sex, or masturbation, may receive particular attention. Verbs describing sexual activity are frequently profane, like fuck in English, foutre in French, fottere in Italian, jodido in Spanish, and ебать in Russian. Words describing a person as one who masturbates are often used as terms of abuse, such as the English use of jerk-off and wanker. Terms for sexually promiscuous women can be used as profanity, such English terms like hussy and slut. Reference to prostitution brings its own set of profanities. Many profane words exist to refer to a prostitute, such as whore in English, putain in French, puttana in Italian, kurwa in Polish, блять in Russian, and puta in Spanish. Some languages, including German and Swedish, do not see significant use of sexual terms as profanity.
Profanities for the penis and vulva are often used as interjections. Penile interjections are often used in Italian, Russian, and Spanish. Vulvar interjections are often used in Dutch, Hungarian, Russian, Spanish, and Swedish. Such terms, especially those relating to the vulva, may also be used as terms of abuse. Profanities related to testicles are less common and their function varies across languages. They may be used as interjections, such as in English, Italian, and Spanish. Dutch uses testicles as a term of abuse with klootzak.
Words for the buttocks are used as a term of disapproval in many languages, including English, French, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. Similar words for the anus appear in languages like Danish, English, German, Icelandic, Norwegian, and Polish. Excrement and related concepts are commonly invoked in profanity. European examples include shit in English, merde in French, Scheiße in German, and stronzo in Italian. An example in an East Asian language would be くそ in Japanese.