Profanity

What a touchy subject! I’ll try to be gentle, balanced, and academic, but some biases may show through. Please don’t curse at me if that’s the case.

Profanity, cursing, swearing, or “bad language” is universal and ancient. It’s also the most poorly understood area of language study.

To begin with, the blanket term “profanity” actually refers to at least two entirely different classes of words or expressions. There are those which have religious connotations, and those which refer to bodily functions or parts. At least that’s the case in English and any other language of which I have a passing acquaintance.

The use of profanity is extremely nuanced. What you can say in the welding shop is not what you can say in the courtroom, or certainly not in church. I still recall the reaction to one young preacher who exhorted the flock to “give a damn”. The first time he uttered the words, the colour drained from every face, and the place went deathly quiet. After he said it the second time, several stern-faced individuals got up and walked out. Notwithstanding the importance of his message and the sincerity of his conviction, his point had clearly been missed, and I took a lesson in communication. (I will come back to this parable later.)

Adding to the confusion is that we are careless in our labeling, and hence imprecise in our rule making. Just to be clear, cursing actually means pronouncing some kind of spiritual or karmic ill upon another person, swearing (or taking an oath) really has to do with invoking the name of a higher power to evidence sincerity, and “bad language” is bad because “they” have said so.

Our heritage and cultural backgrounds can have a lot to do with whether certain words are permissible or not. In North American English, those with a Catholic background are generally at ease with an occasional “God!” or “Jesus!”, while Protestants, especially Evangelicals, are horrified. “You just took the Lord’s name in vain!” they will tell you, which may explain their thinking, even if it’s factually incorrect.

It’s useful to use the experience of one cultural group to see what makes sense in another. For example, in Canadian French, the most serious cuss words are church-derived, and mostly related to the sacraments. While little Jean-Pierre may get his mouth washed out with soap for saying “Hostie, tabarnac!” in front of his horrified mother, an anglophone visitor will simply be puzzled about what’s the big deal.

For reasons for which nobody has a decent explanation, we’ve categorized such language as total vulgarities, unfit to be spoken with a public audience. To allow some wiggle room, we’ve developed an extensive vocabulary of “minced oaths”, allowing us to vent a little spleen without breaking the rules. “Heck” for “h_ll”, “darn” for “damn”, and so on. Scares the bejeebers out of me, it does.

Some words which have been around our language for a thousand years still haven’t gained citizenship. While it’s ok to say “vomit” in polite speech, you’ll get a frown if you say “puke”. Similarly, we have functional, earthy, long standing words for a variety of bodily functions and parts, none of which you’re allowed to say in “polite” company. Because, well, because, well, they’re just not polite. So, while you can say “caca” or “poo”, you’d better not say the real word. Why? Don’t have a clue.

Our English language may be one of the strangest on the planet, and nowhere more so than in our lists of forbidden words. But, Crikey, what the heck, I don’t really give a darn.