Profanity

[nitrofd]

My adult daughters use language that they know would not go over well with Mom and Dad at home. How do I know they do? By reading the social media sites where they post. if I did not need to read these sites to find out what is going on in their lives I would not be reading them at all.

My granddaughters could shock a sailor with what they post on facebook.

 

[nitrofd]

My Mom is on Facebook. And she yells at me on Facebook too.

I will say there is another side to this (isn't there always). Regarding women who swear:

There are men out there ~ not here, as you are all gentlemen ~ who see polite, lady-like behavior and think, "weak" or "easily manipulated". They try to push, prod, cajole. You say, "No" very clearly. They hear, "Not right now, but please, try again later." You can say, "No" several times and still not be heard.

I've noticed that one good F-bomb takes care of that problem.

Bombs away!!!!!

 

[tbuckley]

You must be from Southeastern Pa. Right?

Belmont County, Ohio.

 

[kevikens]

Belmont County, Ohio.

Well, I'll be darned. That Goshen guy really got around.

 

[MHB1862]

Jubal Early and Billy Mahone were said to be gifted linguists of the profane sort.
The speech Mahone gave his division prior to the counterattack at the Crater would make a sailor blush.

 

[highplainsdrifter59]

I remember when the women next door use to come chat with my mom, she would always say, " Excuse my French" then go on and say a curse word. If I was there, I would say, " glad I don't understand French.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

" Excuse my French"

I remember this one well Or, 'Pardon my French'. Not sure the French would be too happy about it, but then they are very 'laissez faire'!

 

[7th Texas Mounted Rifles]

(Speaking of French)

'French Pox' as a euphemism for syphilis is absolutely hilarious.

In my opinion that's the real treasure of that list!

 

[Cavalry Charger]

(Speaking of French)

'French Pox' as a euphemism for syphilis is absolutely hilarious.

In my opinion that's the real treasure of that list!

Makes me wonder why the French came in for all these euphemisms...anybody?

 

[Legion Para]

Camp life can be very boring and monotonous. With that said, soldiers will find ways to entertain themselves. Carving was one way and I have seen some very interesting examples:

-A lead bullet carved into a phallic symbol.

-A US flying double eagle coin carved into a flying pen*s with b*lls.

-A US one cent piece carved into a one c*nt piece.

*Note: The above three items were recovered from Confederate campsites.

I spent my entire life in and around military personnel, and I use profanity on extremely rare occasions. When I do, it is usually in a foreign language.

 

[AshleyMel]

My husband can cuss in Greek thanks to the military!

 

[Burning Billy]

That's was more interesting than I had ever imagined! Amazing so many of these words are still in use today, and the only one that didn't appear (which was asterisked) is the one I dislike the most. I'm glad the authors agree.

The interesting thing about that word is that it originally wasn't considered vulgar at all. It only became so over time. It actually appears in medical texts from the 14th Century, but by the 17th Century had become obscene. Funny how language evolves.

 

[Burning Billy]

Makes me wonder why the French came in for all these euphemisms...anybody?

Britishisms that were transported across the pond, would be my guess.

France had spent many years as Britain's mortal enemy, and the Napoleonic Wars were relatively recent history in the mid 19th Century.

 

[diane]

Sometimes medical matters became awkward due to what one might consider profane for a person of the female persuasion to hear about. A young lady heard her fiance was wounded and came to see about him. As he had been shot in the groin, the doctor was very, VERY careful about dodging around the real nature of the injury. She kept pushing, demanding to know exactly what had happened. Finally the doctor said, "Ma'am, the bullet that hit him would have missed you!"

 

[mofederal]

If I remember right the French called french kissing English Kissing. I encountered that in a book., I will have to recheck for that book.

 

[Cavalry Charger]

If I remember right the French called french kissing English Kissing. I encountered that in a book., I will have to recheck for that book.

Maybe they called Syphilis, English Pox, too! For some reason this is making me think of Monty Python, specifically 'The Holy Grail"

 

[Cavalry Charger]

I think the French won this one!

 

[kevikens]

How about taking 'French leave'?

 

[Josh The Lighthouse Guy]

"Jumping Jehosaphat" is an old one you don't hear much anymore.

My father was in Vietnam so I'm sure he could swear with the best of them, although I don't recall him cussing much around me. My mother went to great lengths not to cuss around me. Alot of "gosh darns", "sugars", but most of all "firetrucking". She was not what I think most people mean when they say "prim and proper", but she certainly tried to set an example of being straightlaced and well-behaved. I suspect that came from her mother; I can't imagine my maternal grandmother cussing if her life depended on it. I don't recall my paternal grandmother cussing either, except that she occasionally casually let the N-word slip. (She grew up on a farm in the rural Appalachians in the depression and in retrospect I should have been more surprised if she wasn't casually racist.)

I worked with a Marine who was the embodiment of "once a Marine, always a Marine" and he was fond of explaining the difference between profanity, obscenity, and vulgarity. I'm sure after two decades in the Corps he could swear with the best of them when he wanted to, but he usually preferred to put his intelligence and discipline first and foremost.

I have never been much of a cusser. There was one amusing incident in elementary school where in the heat of the moment I blurted a statement about an infamous world leader in the middle of class that got me in some hot water. (Funny thing is an adult could have said the exact same thing about the exact same person and pretty much any other adult would have nodded in agreement, then or now.) At one point I was even instructed by someone to write "geez" instead of "jeez" so that it wasn't as close to "Jesus".

I grew up with the idea that excessive use of profanity is not only improper and impolite, but doesn't reflect positively on the individual's intelligence either. "F*** you you f****** ****" is pretty low-brown and unimaginative. Not only that, but "f*** you" has a completely different meaning depending on the context and inflection.

I wholeheartedly agree with the person earlier in this threat who referred to most profanity as overused. Especially since the majority of cussing is either crude sexual references, insulting someone's parentage, or on the shakiest of religious ground (I was taught that taking the Lord's name in vain is a sin, and what good is "goddamning" an atheist or the like, and who am I to make claims or give orders about the fate of someone's soul in the afterline?). My favorite example of creative profanity is Jackie Gleason cussing up a storm in The Smokey and The Bandit movies because growing up I never knew it. Gleason's profanity in the version that aired on TV was replaced with a bunch of nonsense that made him seem far more unhinged that him cussing an actual blue streak.

While I'll let lose with an occasional "dammit!" I'm more likely to let lose with some nonsense like "son of a stone-throwing goat!" Other examples include borrowing profanity from fiction (ex: feth and gak), saying anything in German ("auf machen" means "open up" but when said with a frustrated tone sounds like it has a complete different meaning), or wish for someone to have their testicles gnawed off by rabid weasels.

 

[infomanpa]

...and how about the classic measuring stick of profanity, which would be whether it would "make a sailor blush?" I get nothing from that comparison since I'm guessing that no one is profane enough to do that.