Everything about Profane totally explained
Profanity can be a word, expression, gesture, or other
social behavior which is
socially constructed or interpreted as
insulting,
rude or
vulgar, or desecrating or showing disrespect toward an object of religious veneration.
Other words commonly used to describe profane language or its use include: cuss, curse, derogatory language,
swearing, expletive,
oath, bad word, dirty word, strong language, irreverent language,
obscene language, and
blasphemous language. In many cultures it's less profane for an adult to curse than it's for a child, who may be reprimanded for cursing.
Types of swearing
Steven Pinker's book
The Stuff of Thought breaks profanity down into five categories:
- Dysphemistic swearing - Exact opposite of euphemism. Forces listener to think about negative thing. Using the wrong euphemism has a dysphemistic effect.
- Abusive swearing - for abuse or intimidation or insulting of others
- Idiomatic swearing - swearing without really referring to the thing.. just using the words to arouse interest, to be macho/cool, and express to peers that the setting is informal.
- Emphatic swearing - to emphasise something with swearing.
- Cathartic swearing - when something bad happens like coffee spilling, people curse. One evolutionary theory of it's that its meant to tell the audience that you're undergoing a negative emotion.
Usage
A profanity will have an original meaning (which may change across time and language) which in itself may give some cause for offense. Additionally, many profanities will have applied meanings of their own, usually associated to their context and which therefore may vary significantly depending upon the intended purpose of the word in the sentence. For example, "fuck", a common (often considered strong) profanity in English, is a verb for the act of
sexual intercourse and may be used literally in this sense. It is also used in the context of an
exclamation ("Fucking
hell!") or to refer to acts of
violence ("He really fucked that guy up."), or to an error ("You fucked up again, you're fired."). It can also be used to add emphasis to a sentence.
The diversity of these profanities and their multiple connotations is pointed out to attempted humorous effect in
Troy Duffy's film
The Boondock Saints, in which one character discovers a room full of assassinated Russian Mobsters and uses the word "fuck" as an
adjective, a
verb and a
noun in one
sentence.
Rocco: Fucking... What the fuck. Who the fuck fucked this fucking... How did you two fucking fucks...
[shouts]
Rocco: fuck!
Connor: Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word.
The degree to which a profanity is offensive relies upon how the use of the word affects an individual. Some will consider the original meaning of a word (for example, the sexual act) to be offensive or a subject not fit for polite conversation (cf
Ephesians 5:3 "..it isn't right that any matters of sexual immorality or indecency or greed should even be mentioned among you. Nor is it fitting for you to use language which is obscene, profane or vulgar.") while others will have no objection to these subject matters.
Some will feel that certain words, having an established social
taboo are simply offensive, regardless of any context; others will find profanities offensive mainly when used in a way deliberately intended to offend.
Furthermore, some may be in the habit of using profanity in order to seem
cool. Thus, insults can even be used as
terms of endearment.
A 2007 peer reviewed study by the
University of East Anglia found that banning profanity in the workplace and reprimanding staff for using it could have a negative effect on morale and motivation. According to the study, while swearing in front of senior staff or customers should be seriously discouraged or banned, in other circumstances it helped foster solidarity among employees and relieved frustration, stress or other feelings.
Finally, profanities may cause offense, regardless of context, if they've some religious meaning which may cause their use to offend those who follow a particular religion. The original meaning of the term was restricted to
blasphemy,
sacrilege or saying the
Abrahamic God's name (or an identifier such as
Lord or
God) in
vain. Such religious profanity is referred to as
blasphemy.
As the concept of profanity has been extended to include expressions with
scatological, derogatory, racist, or sexual
interpretations, the broader concept of "
politically incorrect" language has emerged, with religious meaning playing a varying role, and the more vague and inclusive interpretation blurring the distinction between categories of offensiveness. This modern concept of profanity has evolved differently in different cultures and languages. For example, many profanities in
Canadian French are a corruption of
religious terminology (the
sacres), while many English obscenities tend to refer to sexuality or scatology. A term that functions as a profanity in one language may often lack any profane quality when translated into another language.
Western history
Terms of profanity have historically been
taboo words.
Some words that were originally considered profane have become much less offensive with the increasing secularity of society. Others, primarily racial or ethnic epithets, can be considered part of
hate speech and are now considered more profane than they once were.
William Shakespeare hinted at the word
cunt in
Hamlet,
Twelfth Night and
Henry V: Hamlet makes reference to "country matters" when he tries to lay his head in
Ophelia's lap; Malvolio has the salacious line (although the term
cut was an accepted
euphemism for vagina in the early sixteenth century) "These be her very c's, her u's, and her t's, and thus she makes her great p's"; and the French Princess Katherine is amused by the word
gown for its similarity to the French
con. Interestingly, the word
cunt, while retaining its original meaning in America, has changed in meaning somewhat in Great Britain in the past thirty years. Where American usage of the word mostly refers to either female anatomy or (in extreme cases) an ill-tempered woman,
cunt in the UK has attained the status of a
gender-neutral insult.
In the
U.S. today, terminology considered to be
racist is often seen as more offensive than sexual or scatological terminology; this is most clearly shown in the attention given to use of the word
nigger, now effectively banned in
American public discourse, although many
African-Americans use the word
nigga as a casual reference, and in certain social groups, nigger as a casual reference to black people is still in frequent use. Some mistakenly associate the unrelated word
niggardly (meaning "stingy") with 'nigger." As with other types of profanity, context is very important; thus,
Americans of
African descent might use
'nigger' in informal situations among themselves, without being considered offensive.Words such as
faggot and
fag, though incidentally sexual in nature, are considered highly offensive and derogatory toward gay people, yet have undergone similar changes to
nigga when being used by the gay community. The most famous example of this is prominent Sex Advice Columnist
Dan Savage originally having his readers send letters with the salutation "Hey Faggot".
Many of the words now considered most 'profane' are held to be so because they were created to insult and disparage a particular group (see
pejorative terms). Some of the targets of these words have however attempted to reclaim them and reduce their power as insults. Other ethnic slurs like
coon,
porchmonkey,
tar baby,
darkie (African-American),
dottie (Indian/Pakistani),
chink,
gook (Asian),
beaner,
wetback,
spick (Hispanic-American),
guinea,
wop,
dego (Italian),
honky,
gringo,
cracker (whites),
heeb (Jewish),
kraut (German -- used especially during World War II),
sand nigger,
raghead,
towelhead (Sikh, or Arab in the US); and pejoratives like
fattie,
retard, and
redneck or
hillbilly aren't entirely profane at all times, but can be considered very offensive when used in the company of certain people, and not socially acceptable in polite settings or social situations.
The offensiveness or perceived intensity or vulgarity of the various profanities can change over time, with certain words becoming more or less offensive as time goes on. For example, in modern times the word
piss is usually considered mildly vulgar and somewhat impolite, whereas the
King James Bible unblushingly employs it where modern translators would prefer the word
urine (
2 Kings 18:27
;
Isa 36:12) or
urinate (1
Sam 25:22,
25:34;
1 Kings 14:10,
16:11,
21:21;
2 Kings 9:8). The word
cunt has seen a similar evolution; its ancestor—
queynte—was not considered vulgar at all, but the word is now considered among the most offensive in the English language.
Profanity as blasphemy
The original meaning of the term was restricted to
blasphemy,
sacrilege or saying the
Abrahamic God's name (or an identifier such as "
Lord" or "
God") in
vain. Profanity represented secular indifference to religion or religious figures, while blasphemy was a more offensive attack on religion and religious figures, and religious people considered it
sinful.
Profanities in the original meaning of
blasphemous profanity are part of the ancient tradition of the comic
cults, which laughed and scoffed at the deity. An example from
Gargantua and Pantagruel is "Christ, look ye, its
Mere de ...
merde ... shit, Mother of God."
Severity
The relative severity of various British profanities, as perceived by the public, was studied on behalf of the British
Broadcasting Standards Commission,
Independent Television Commission, BBC and
Advertising Standards Authority; the results of this jointly commissioned research were published in December 2000 in a paper called
"Delete Expletives". It listed the profanities in order of decreasing severity, the top ten
being
cunt,
motherfucker,
fuck,
wanker,
nigger,,
prick,
bollocks,
arsehole, and
paki in that order. About 83% of respondents regarded
cunt as "very severe"; 16% thought the same
about
shit and 10% about
crap. Only about 1% thought
cunt was "not swearing"; 9% thought the same about
shit and 32% of .
International languages
International auxiliary languages are often assumed to have little or no profanity, but this varies from one language to another. The basic criterion for
inclusion in
Interlingua is widespread international use, and this can be as true of a profanity as any other word or phrase. Thus, expressions such as
cunno (cunt),
mierda (shit), and
pipi (pee-pee) may be used in Interlingua.
Culo (ass or butt) and its derivative
incular (to butt-fuck) are also Interlingua expressions.
Fottar (to fuck) is used much as in English, for example, "Fotta te!" ("Fuck you!") or "Mi auto es fottate!" ("My car is fucked!").
Profanity in different languages and religions
For reasons of differing cultural, linguistic and historical backgrounds, the profanities of different languages place emphasis on different subject matter. Here is a list showing the main emphases for some languages:
Arabic: sacrilege/blasphemy, excrement, sex, homosexuality, gender identity, insulting female family members, animals, and reproductive organs.
Chinese: sex, insults to family members, cursing (for example, the Cantonese "Hum Gah Chan", which literally means "Hope Your Entire Family Dies").
Czech: equating people with animals (ox, cow), reproductive organs, sex, prostitution, blasphemy
Dravidian languages: Cursing (saavugiraaki implies that the recipient is about to die), questioning one's parentage.
Dutch: reproductive organs, excrement, homosexuality, equating people with animals (most notably pig, dog and cow), diseases, racial and ethnic hatred, prostitution, mental illness and blasphemy supplemented with English swearwords.
English: sex, excrement, homosexuality, religion, incest, bigotry, racial and ethnic hatred, prostitution, reproductive organs, and questioning one's parentage.
French: prostitution, homosexuality, excrement, racial and ethnic hatred.
German: Equating people with animals, (eg., Schweinehund), sex, excrement, Nazi terms.
Indo-Aryan languages: insults to family members (especially incest).
Indonesian: sex, reproductive organs, excrement, equating people with animals (most notably dog and monkey), racial.
Interlingua: sex, excrement, religion.
Irish: religion (damnation, blasphemy), some sexual terms, some excrement.
Italian: blasphemy, some sexual terms, personal insults (for example "your mother").
Japanese: sex, violations of politeness protocols, discriminatory language, mocking status,[insultingintelligence, suggesting death of another.
Korean: Impolite responses to people (especially family and authority), references to animals, sexual terms.
Hebrew: Yiddish loanwords having sexual meaning, borrowed Arabic, sex, prostitution.
Norwegian: Predominantly religion and blasphemy in the south, more genitals and sexual acts with animals in the north.
Polish: sex, prostitution, homosexuality, diseases, excrement, comparing people to pigs and dogs.
Portuguese: sex, homosexuality, prostitution.
Russian: sex and foul language, excrement, mental illness, equating people with animals, ethnic hatred.
Scots Gaelic: sex, excrement, religion, English-Scottish tensions.
Spanish: religion, incest, homosexuality, excrement, prostitution.
Swedish: sex, excrement, homosexuality, blasphemy, prostitution use of English.
Welsh: sex, excrement, English-Welsh tensions.
Severity of profanity types in European languages
In European languages the three basic types of profanity (religious, sexual, and excretory) have differing levels of severity. The type generally considered worst is listed first, down to the type generally considered least offensive.
French, Italian, Provencal: religious> sexual> excretory
Spanish, Portuguese, Dutch, Polish: sexual> religious> excretory
English: sexual> excretory> religious
Welsh, Swedish: excretory> religious> sexual
Books containing famous uses of profanity
Ulysses by James Joyce
The Catcher in the Rye by J. D. Salinger
Glengarry Glen Ross by David Mamet
Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell
Various books by François Rabelais
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Polish book "Szewcy" (Shoemakers) by S. I. Witkiewicz
Lady Chatterley's Lover by D. H. Lawrence (1928)
Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli (1990)
Hyperion by Dan Simmons(1989) in (External Link)
References
Bibliography - sources
Bakhtin, Mikhail. Rabelais and His World [1941]. Trans. Hélène Iswolsky. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1993.
.
Almond, Ian Derrida and the Secret of the Non-Secret: On Respiritualising the Profane Literature and Theology 2003 17(4):457-471; doi:10.1093/litthe/17.4.457Further Information
Get more info on 'Profane'.
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