While reading DM’s blog post Reading From The Book Of Fulghum- Maybe (Maybe Not) and the comments I found myself truly shaking my head. There is much to be said about a person reading another’s blog and then castigating them about a swear word. Low and behold if that person should ever find this blog… phew!
In my opinion if you don’t like something someone wrote just leave it and move on. Meaning, if someone used the word shit for instance and you didn’t like it then that is your problem, not the authors, especially if there was a disclaimer first off.
So here with is your disclaimer. There are a lot of swear words in this post, if you feel they might pollute your mind please refrain from reading any further. Thank you.
SHIT
Word History: The word shit appeared about 1,000 years ago and can be traced back to Old Norse origin ’skíta’. It first leaked into Old English as ’scitte’ and from there forming into Middle English as ’sch?tte.’ Anglo-Saxon books use ’scittan’ as a reference to when the cattle had diarrhoea. For most of its history it was spelled ’shite’ though evidence of its now modern spelling can be found in books dated as far back as the mid-1700’s. Even today we find remains of the world in the Icelandic language. The words ’skítur’ (noun) and ’skíta’ (verb) are still used.
Extensive slang usage; verb meaning “to lie, to tease” is from 1934; that of “to disrespect” is from 1903. Noun use for “obnoxious person” is since at least 1508; meaning “misfortune, trouble” is attested from 1937. Shat is a humorous past tense form, not etymological, first recorded 18c. Shite, now a jocular or slightly euphemistic variant, formerly a dialectal variant, reflects the vowel in the O.E. verb (cf. Ger. scheissen). Shit-faced “drunk” is 1960s student slang; shit list is from 1942. To not give a shit “not care” is from 1922; up shit creek “in trouble” is from 1937. Scared shitless first recorded 1936.
Shit is now a very common and not so frowned upon swear word
The image on the left is the definition of “Shit Happens”
FUCK
Word History: The word fuck, much like shit (and actually the majority of common curse words), came from languages with a Germanic background. It is believed that it came into our language from the Dutch around the 15th century. The word was so taboo that a small amount of documents remain that would allow us to have a better understanding of its origins. The reason that little evidence remains was that people at the time were too afraid to write the word down.
The obscenity fuck is a very old word and has been considered shocking from the first, though it is seen in print much more often now than in the past. Its first known occurrence, in code because of its unacceptability, is in a poem composed in a mixture of Latin and English sometime before 1500. The poem, which satirizes the Carmelite friars of Cambridge, England, takes its title, “Flen flyys,” from the first words of its opening line, “Flen, flyys, and freris,” that is, “fleas, flies, and friars.” The line that contains fuck reads “Non sunt in coeli, quia gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk.” The Latin words “Non sunt in coeli, quia,” mean “they [the friars] are not in heaven, since.” The code “gxddbov xxkxzt pg ifmk” is easily broken by simply substituting the preceding letter in the alphabet, keeping in mind differences in the alphabet and in spelling between then and now: i was then used for both i and j; v was used for both u and v; and vv was used for w. This yields “fvccant [a fake Latin form] vvivys of heli.” The whole thus reads in translation: “They are not in heaven because they fuck wives of Ely [a town near Cambridge].”
It is thought to be an Acronym for Fornication Under Consent of King. This acronym was placed on placards to be posted on doors of couples who had permission from the King to have sex.
Fuck is still gaining in normality but we shall see
ASSHOLE
The word asshole is from the word arse, which according to the Oxford English Dictionary has been in use since the 11th century to refer to the ass of an animal. Starting roughly around 14th century it was used to refer to a person’s buttocks.
Around 1500 the combined form ‘arsehole’ was first used in its literal form to refer to the anus. The metaphorical use that refers to the worst place in a region (e.g., “the asshole of the world”) is first attested in print in 1865. Its use to refer to a despicable person is first record in 1933.
To the rest of the English speaking world, the word ass is still interpreted as donkey.
CRAP
The word “crap” comes from the last name of the person who invented the toilet, Thomas Crapper. He was a Brit.
BITCH
Bitch is a term for the female of a canine in general. It is also frequently used as an offensive term for a malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, or unpleasant person, especially a woman.
This second meaning has been in use since around 1400. When used to describe a male, it may also confer the meaning of “subordinate”, especially to another male, as in prison.
Generally, this term is used to indicate that the person is acting outside the confines of their gender roles, such as when women are assertive or aggressive, or when men are passive or servile. More recent variants of bitch are bitchy, ill-tempered (1925), and to bitch, to complain (1930).
Since the 1980s, the term “bitch” became more and more accepted and less offensive. After the word was widely used between rivals Krystle and Alexis on the drama Dynasty, it gained usage, in malicious contexts or otherwise, and is now very rarely censored on television broadcasts. Prior to the term’s general acceptance, euphemism terms were often substituted, such as “gun” in the phrase “son of a gun” as opposed to “son of a bitch“. More generally the term has also acquired the meaning of something unpleasant or irksome, as in the expression “Life’s a Bitch”.
I know I will never be the same again either *shrug* – there were so many more but I didn’t want to bore you and they do tend to go down the sliding scale from here on … Do you know that calling a person a pig in some lands is considered a swear word worse than any of the above? Yet we can use it daily…
There is a time and a place for anything and everything – I do not condone swearing but will use many of the above words when walking into things. I am not ashamed, I swear and you were warned right.
Thank you to Wikipedia, Dictionary.com and Profanisaurus
