Author Topic: "Bad" Words  (Read 2643 times)

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KoRo

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"Bad" Words
« on: November 22, 2009 05:20 pm CST »
I was thinking about this while taking my morning poo. Or maybe I should say my morning crap? My morning malarkey? What's the difference?

In general terms, why do we as a culture give a select few words negative connotation? What's the big deal behind it? And where did those words even come from?

As I thought about, I began to realize that most of those words don't have any official definition, other than the slang definitions.

Word
F**K
B**CH
N**GER
CRAP
S**T
     Slang Def.
     To fornicate
     A woman
     A black person
     To poo
     To poo violently
     Official Def.
     
     Female dog
     One with Nigerian ancestry? I guess?
     
     

Needless to say, I really don't understand it. It's not like you're saying "That's a sweet red car." Instead it's "That's a sweet forkin car." They're also used as placeholders. Instead of "Uh...I don't know" it's "forkin'...I don't know."

Anyone have any insight on this? Or opinions?

That's my bathroom zen for the day.

Dyre

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Re: "Bad" Words
« Reply #1 on: November 23, 2009 07:08 am CST »
It's a societal thing.  It's a simple matter of certain words being understood as "bad", so therefore they're "bad".

My view on it?  Society can go garfunkle itself with a sniflippen jinple right in their plactoric blork.

If someone mentions that my son has said "a bad word", and "what are you going to do about it?"...  I'll respond that I'll do something once that can give an absolute reason why said word is "bad".
My job is done here!

*woosh*

Kyrie

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Re: "Bad" Words
« Reply #2 on: November 23, 2009 11:38 am CST »
While it's true that swearing is no more than a social taboo, that doesn't mean that treating it as such (and respecting it as such) isn't important. Afterall, even murder is just another social taboo.

While swearing might not be quite as destructive as murder, it can be very destructive to people, which is why it's a taboo. Sort of a 'treat others as you'd like to be treated' mentality.

Common swear words have many meanings and uses within different social references. Some swear words are much more offensive than others. Racial slurs, for example, are used soley for the intent to insult another person on the most personal level. Some find these words are ust as damaging to the mind and self as a physical blow, as many of these words represent tens and hundreds of years of pain, humiliation, and real, physical abuse. Anyone that says mental and emotional abuse from words isn't real, or isn't as damaging, really needs to learn a lot more about it.
The old adage "sticks and stones," while great in theory, doesn't really hold up as well in real world situations where words really can hurt.

The word n***er is actually derived from the Latin word niger, meaning black. This is probably the most common racial slur we all know, and while it is often used affectionately within a particular group of people, even that usage is often frowned upon by others within that same group.


Common swear words aren't as taboo as racial slurs, and are more openly accepted within society, depending on the usage. There are many ways to use swear words and they're generally all acceptable within their proper social construct. When used for emphasis, exclamation, humor, I think they're okay. But when used as an insult, like slurs, they become taboo and unacceptable again. This is why it's forwned upon when children swear: they often use such words without any realization of proper context. A young child running along, tripping and faceplanting and getting up and saying "sh*t!" would be funny because of its proper use as an exclamation of surprise. The same young child's use of the word to call another young child "a little sh*t," while funny in theory, would be offensive and abusive to the other child and that child's parents.

The word crap, which I've never heard referred to as a swear word, comes from Thomas Crapper who popularized the modern toilet. He didn't invent it, but he did heavily market it and was primarily responsible for its popularity (though it probably would have happened anyway). He did invent the ballcock, which is the device inside the toilet tank that prevents it from overflowing when refilling with water.
 
« Last Edit: November 23, 2009 11:41 am CST by Kyrie »







Lidge Farkley

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Re: "Bad" Words
« Reply #3 on: November 25, 2009 04:34 am CST »
Before this post is read, I'd like to mention that the following word definitions are for educational purposes only and I don't endorse the use of said words for any of their perceived meanings or uses.
(also, I wanted to offer my own experiences and interpretations to the thread)

F**k; means "to fornicate"... that's the official definition and has been for as long as I have been able to read a dictionary (probably well before then, too) but the slang means just about anything you might feel like making it mean at the time of use, everything from exclamation to a mindless label of name calling in frustration to the dictionary fornication... and many other things.

N**ger; by slang it currently seems to mean a few different things "a friend", "a minimum wage worker", "a worthless person", "a black person who's lazy" and many more things that get much worse than what's mentioned here.
Allegedly an older English definition meant "a lazy person" in general.
It was applied to black people as an attempt at slander and generally establish blacks as inferior in the social order of that time period whet it was coined as a slanderous term for black people.
Poorly, it still remains as a popular term for black people or people who are perceived as "less than" to certain others who think they are superior despite the insanity of such an idea.

Crap:  Short for "Crapper" who was a dude that installed toilets in the UK, which was learned by US soldiers in WWI and brought back to the US as "I need to go use the crapper" or "I need to take a crap".  Dude's one of the best known businessmen in the US, weather US people knew it or not.

S**t: defecate.  I don't know about the "violently" part... never heard/read that before.

Definitions also vary by location and time period to greater extents.
Example;
B**ch meant "wuss" or "tattle tale" when I was a kid (80's), then meant "mean person" while I was a teen (90's), now it seems to be a general term for any woman you may or may not know (I'm guessing that's due to the slang in pop music and pop culture using it in that formation).  I generally don't use this term, but if I do, it means something along the lines of "a very mean and unjustifiable angry person who was attempting to make things frustrating for others because of x reason [x = anything from thievery to them being bored]" and I really hate having to use this term.

Anyway... I swear a lot, but I keep it to 2-3 words... S**t, F**k, motherf**ker... hell... and attempt to keep it between myself and friends, rather than the general public.  Really I just swear because I think it's weird that it offends people so much and I'd like to have friends that aren't offended by such simple and general terms of exclamation, like sh*t, f**k and motherf**ker.

I steer clear of racial slurs because I do not understand them.  I want to be treated equal regardless of my born appearance, so I do the same for others.  (this does not mean, however, that I use slurs back at people who use them at me.  This means that I don't use them at all, because I would not like them used at me.  I really don't understand them anyway... they don't even make sense!)

uhh.. yeah... I hate this topic... :-/
« Last Edit: November 25, 2009 04:41 am CST by Lidge Farkley »
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KoRo

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Re: "Bad" Words
« Reply #4 on: November 30, 2009 02:29 am CST »
Lidge, most of the definitions you posted I was aware of. However, I doubt you could crack open the nearest Webster's and find F**k in there. By that definition (har har), I considered it to be definition-less, hence why I made this post.

As for the S**t = poo violently, that was satire. But your insight is very enlightening. Remember kids, if you're going to curse someone, do it with intelligence.

Gnight

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Re: "Bad" Words
« Reply #5 on: December 7, 2009 06:56 am CST »
KoRo, crack open a real dictionary and look up these words and you'll find that some of these "slang" definitions are indeed the "official" definitions.  Take the word g-a-y for example, (PCRPG is really retarded for censoring that word), It means having or showing a merry, lively mood or but not limited to be used to describe a homosexual.

Lidge Farkley

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Re: "Bad" Words
« Reply #6 on: January 6, 2010 07:16 pm CST »
F*** is in every dictionary I've ever looked it.  When I was in third grade about 3 of us had to "write sentences" for what seemed like a week because we looked up "F***" in the dictionary and asked the teacher what "fornicate" meant, because "fornicate" was not in that particular dictionary.  At the time, we had no idea what we were doing was "wrong" and I still don't understand wtf the big deal was.

Anyway... uh... Hobbits are G-A-Y, that's why they're always looking on the bright side of life, giving each other hugs and just hanging out.
Lend your heart unto the divine mineral TOPAZ;
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