So what's the opinion on profanity?

[scooby074]

In the words of perhaps the greatest mind of our time, Eric Cartman, "****, Fuckity, ****, ****, ****"

 

[Shop101]

Hello Everyone,

As a new guy here, I don't mind a cuss word here and there. It is kind of refreshing. Some sites are too strict. I don't really cuss myself, but I like the idea that I can if I want to.

 

[Merkava_4]

"I'd **** on every square inch of of her body from one end to the other."

There, I finally said it. There's been many times I've had to write it like this -

"I'd [censor] on her [censor] from one end to the other." -

in order to avoid offending some of the more squeamish members on here.

 

[Vinko]

Use it or don't. I don't ******* care either way.

 

[mdall_2002]

Well the profanity does not bother me ...it's the "dirty *****" comment that really gets me. I hate dirty whores...I ONLY like the clean whores.

 

[mdall_2002]

Hey my first post and it's about whores....I love this site

 

[BetterDays]

I'll use profanity if I hit my thumb with a hammer, or if my computer crashes, but I don't use it in regular conversation. It loses its meaning when it's used too much.

Which is what has happened in our society. We are no longer 'shocked' by profanity, but it merely replaces common adjectives.

 

[GeorgiaHybrid]

I might use a few choice words in a PM to another member but I do try to refrain from using profanity in posts on any public forum. Not that I am squeamish or anything, I was raised in a GI welding shop and learned anatomy from the ******* calendars.

I just don't want one of my daughters or their boyfriends reading a post of mine that would contain words that are best reserved for use with the guys in a garage setting, construction site, hunting or fishing trip, etc.

 

[PCO6]

One of my sons is on a lacrosse team of 15 & 16 yr. olds. Their coach is a walking F-bomb. He's embarrassing to be around and I'm disapointed the club hasn't told him to put a lid on it. The kids laugh at him behind his back. They have no respect for him at all and have made it a point to not swear themselves all year. He's not a very good coach but he is teaching them something about life, albeit in a way he didn't intend to.

 

[londonsteve]

Profanity is something that I do not really like to use in front of my family but I do use it at work (construction) and comedians who do use it make me laugh!. Sometimes a profanity is the only word that will convey your feeling on a matter, but at the end of the day "sticks and stones will break your bones but names can never hurt us"

 

[Bull]

Which is what has happened in our society. We are no longer 'shocked' by profanity, but it merely replaces common adjectives.

When were people shocked by profanity, other than the repressive religious epochs of history?

I mean, the Romans embraced both high culture and the absolutely profane.

 

[BetterDays]

When were people shocked by profanity, other than the repressive religious epochs of history?

I mean, the Romans embraced both high culture and the absolutely profane.

I knew my parents were highly upset when the profanity rolled.
"Did he just say what I think he said? We are in t-r-o-u-b-l-e......"

You pretty much never heard it on TV or 'terrestrial' radio, but movies, cable, and sometimes (NOT OFTEN), sometimes music.

Now - not so much. It's everywhere, on everything, and people don't even blink.

 

[Merkava_4]

I don't use profanity on a regular basis; there's no percentage in it.

 

[Vinko]

Which is what has happened in our society. We are no longer 'shocked' by profanity, but it merely replaces common adjectives.

When do you think our language was ever clean? Men among men have often used foul language for emphasis. My grandfather said that during WWII, the word "****" was commonly worked into everyday language (often several to a sentence) by servicemen.

When was the golden age?

What I think isn't right is in public, but I don't really consider this forum public -- more quasi-public as it is a voluntary type of association, not like being in the public sphere where you can't avoid foul language (like a store, or on the street walking with your children, in a restaurant, etc).

 

[BetterDays]

When do you think our language was ever clean? Men among men have often used foul language for emphasis.

Emphasis. Key word.

Not to replace "a", "an", or "the" on a regular basis.

I hear it so much in public that is disappoints me. If it wasn't for the legal side of things, I would be much more likely to explain the finer side of things to these persons who curse like a sailor around children. Especially if s/he has children with them..

But, I am much more refined than that and won't lower myself to that type of level - - that and I don't need to get into a fight with someone in public over something like this.

Perhaps some persons on here need to write "**** YOU" in large letters on your back windows of your daily vehicles and see the responses.

Or watch Idiocracy and see where our society is headed.

 

[mustangmccance]

personally I use profanity rarely. I don't care for it when others use it especially around my kids. I think that is the point of it. if there can be said to be a point. profanity should be, to a certain extent offensive, or it is not profane. I use it when I am very upset, angry or frustrated. when I use profanity those around me know I am upset, it would lose its effectiveness if I used it all the time. just my opinion.

 

[Bull]

Perhaps some persons on here need to write "**** YOU" in large letters on your back windows of your daily vehicles and see the responses.

Or watch Idiocracy and see where our society is headed.

The analogy of the window writing doesn't work very well. People who regularly swear do so when speaking with people whom they know. If they are just walking around the streets yelling "**** you," to no one and everyone at once, then they are mentally ill.

As for "where our society is headed," I'd like you to point to a correlation between swearing and social decay. As I mentioned already, the Romans were bawdy and crude, yet also built and maintained an advanced system of culture that included both low and high elements.

 

[BetterDays]

The analogy of the window writing doesn't work very well. People who regularly swear do so when speaking with people whom they know. If they are just walking around the streets yelling "**** you," to no one and everyone at once, then they are mentally ill.

They may be speaking with people they know, but others can hear them when they speak. Maybe the truck should read something like "**** YOU, MAYOR" or "**** YOU, LEBRON JAMES" so the person knows who it is directed towards..

As for "where our society is headed," I'd like you to point to a correlation between swearing and social decay. As I mentioned already, the Romans were bawdy and crude, yet also built and maintained an advanced system of culture that included both low and high elements.

The movie is not based around swearing, just social decay. I am not the only person who feels this way about the movie.

 

[Bull]

They may be speaking with people they know, but others can hear them when they speak. Maybe the truck should read something like "**** YOU, MAYOR" or "**** YOU, LEBRON JAMES" so the person knows who it is directed towards..

Ok then. I hear all kinds of stuff that I don't like or agree with when I am out in public. But, there's the First Amendment behind it, so that's just how it goes. I definitely agree that you should continue to refrain from lecturing strangers about their language, though.

The movie is not based around swearing, just social decay. I am not the only person who feels this way about the movie.

I am sure you are not.

What I know as a historian, though, is that in every age people claim that contemporary society is in decay and decline, moving away from some mythic halcyon days. I agree that it looks like much of our values are going to ****, but I don't see any language connection of the kind some in this thread seem to be making.

No big deal, though, we can just disagree on this.

 

[Merkava_4]

Does the forum rules say anything about profanity? I haven't even read the rules yet; reading that sort of stuff stresses me out, so I try to avoid it.

 

[Bull]

Does the forum rules say anything about profanity? I haven't even read the rules yet; reading that sort of stuff stresses me out, so I try to avoid it.

Not that I have ever seen, no.

 

[binder man]

Something that always intrigues me about profanity is how many people know where two of the most popular words came from? **** and ****. We'll start with **** this started in the days when manure was being hauled across the ocean in boats for fertilize. They kept the "manure" below deck closed off with a door, now as manure sits it lets off methane gas, so when an unlucky sailor at night walked downstairs with his lantern boom methane caught and exploded. After that all barrells of "manure" had **** written on them Ship High In Transit, ****.
Now for **** in the old times under the rule of a king, a couple had to ask permission to have a child. If granted permission the couple had to hang a sign over their front door saying ****, which stood for Fornification Under Consent of King, ****.

Profanity has never botherd me it has been around for ages and started out in the simplest way.

 

[Lookin4'67Galaxieconv]

Does the forum rules say anything about profanity? I haven't even read the rules yet; reading that sort of stuff stresses me out, so I try to avoid it.

Fortunately, profanity has never been an issue....at least as long as I've been on here.

 

[Bull]

This sounds like urban legend to me. Can you direct me to a source?

I have read a lot of books on European history, and have never come across any information like that for the origin of the F-word.

Something that always intrigues me about profanity is how many people know where two of the most popular words came from? **** and ****. We'll start with **** this started in the days when manure was being hauled across the ocean in boats for fertilize. They kept the "manure" below deck closed off with a door, now as manure sits it lets off methane gas, so when an unlucky sailor at night walked downstairs with his lantern boom methane caught and exploded. After that all barrells of "manure" had **** written on them Ship High In Transit, ****.
Now for **** in the old times under the rule of a king, a couple had to ask permission to have a child. If granted permission the couple had to hang a sign over their front door saying ****, which stood for Fornification Under Consent of King, ****.

Profanity has never botherd me it has been around for ages and started out in the simplest way.

 

[Kevin54]

This sounds like urban legend to me. Can you direct me to a source?

I have read a lot of books on European history, and have never come across any information like that for the origin of the F-word.

Ran across this and it has nothing to do with a ship

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/****

Word Origin & History

****
O.E. scitan, from P.Gmc. *skit-, from PIE *skheid- "split, divide, separate." Related to shed (v.) on the notion of "separation" from the body (cf. L. excrementum, from excernere "to separate"). It is thus a cousin to science and conscience. The noun is O.E. scitte "purging;" sense of "excrement" dates from 1585, from the verb. Despite what you read in an e-mail, "****" is not an acronym. The notion that it is a recent word may be because the word was taboo from c.1600 and rarely appeared in print (neither Shakespeare not the KJV has it), and even in "vulgar" publications of the late 18c. it is disguised by dashes. It drew the wrath of censors as late as 1922 ("Ulysses" and "The Enormous Room"), scandalized magazine subscribers in 1957 (a Hemingway story in "Atlantic Monthly") and was omitted from some dictionaries as recently as 1970 ("Webster's New World"). 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). ****-faced "drunk" is 1960s student slang; **** list is from 1942. To not give a **** "not care" is from 1922; up **** creek "in trouble" is from 1937. Scared shitless first recorded 1936.
"The expression [the **** hits the fan] is related to, and may well derive from, an old joke. A man in a crowded bar needed to defecate but couldn't find a bathroom, so he went upstairs and used a hole in the floor. Returning, he found everyone had gone except the bartender, who was cowering behind the bar. When the man asked what had happened, the bartender replied, 'Where were you when the **** hit the fan?' " [Hugh Rawson, "Wicked Words," 1989]

And the Urban Legend form

http://urbanlegends.about.com/library/bl-s-word.htm

And here is a good explanation on the beloved "F" word. http://www.rampant-books.com/t_origin_f_word.htm

 

[binder man]

Honestly I don't remember where i saw that? thats gonna make me go try to find it. it may not be true but it sure sounds good I have had a old timer tell me the same after I found it online too.

 

[garfunkle24]

I couldn't care less about profanity on the board.

I do get sick of those who say swearing is for the "weak-minded" or whatever.

To be honest, I think the entire concept of profanity is ridiculous. For some arbitrary reason, some arbitrary words are "taboo"? WTF? Why? Do some particular syllables physically hurt people's ears? The only "power" these words have is because we say they're taboo.

I swear fairly often and don't care if others do too. It doesn't mean I have a small vocabulary, it means I'm not going to limit my word choices due to what society views to be "profane".

 

[xJoey Dubsx]

I look at it this way, who doesn't swear in the garage?

 

[rburke65]

I think everyone should be able to express themselves in 4 or 5 lines without swearing....!

 

[porphyre]

I think everyone should be able to express themselves in 4 or 5 lines without swearing....!

I think there should be a chicken in every pot and a Ferrari in every garage....!

 

[Rockerbox1]

I have a local bar with a sign hanging in it that reads
"Profanity is the tool of an inarticulate mother f*cker"

just sayin

 

[nate379]

I don't like hanging around people that swear every other word, but as when anything, there is a time and place IMO.

About a year ago I went to NCO school and we weren't allowed to swear I was fine with talking with most folks but start talking "shop" with a few guys I worked with and it was not long before we were swearing left and right without realizing.