Re: Points of swearing??

anna.http://particularordinary — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 14:22:36 -0000

hmn.

-enn@j: Morality is a grey area. Robin Hood was a thief, he is celebrated in literature until this day as a hero.

Everything is a grey area. That's my point :)

anonymous: it hurts only if you let it.

MY: swear in front of a kid and he won't understand it. or shouldn't understand it, but television has made it otherwise. television teaches children not the swear word, but the malicious intent behind the profanity.

i would argue that television making swearing look "cool" in the context of rappers isn't as much of a disaster as we think - the intent is different, and it is a common social agreement - even among kids. if they swear to each other, they usually have an understanding of it being playful.

anonymous: you said "Language was never meant to be relative in meaning, which is why there are words which express similar actions but have different emphasis altogether- ie "hear" and "listen". Profanity too, is a word meant for strong emphasis, negative nonetheless; and not merely put to give the sentence "the flow"."

I politely disagree. I think words are relative in meaning. If I don't put these into a context what do i mean when I say "ship"? "park"?(allow me to refer you here and here)

Language changes, language grows. Words that have definite assigned meanings last a long time, like "mother". Other words are more fluid. We hold on to our own ideas about what these words mean, but it's almost like insisting on using a typewriter instead of a PC.

Think of the word "type" even (the verb). it came from "typography", then it got assigned to typewriters (who also got their name from the same root) but why do we assign the same word to keyboards? shouldn't it be keyboarding?

all: let me ask you this. You speak out against profanity as crude and insulting. I argue it depends on context and intent. But let's set that aside, and talk about intent.

Define profanity please.

You can insult someone with the word "gay", you can accept them as one of your own, or you can call someone happy. The meaning changes over time.

If it is an insult its profanity, right?

So everytime we insult someone we are being crude and uncouth, even if we do it using "high class" words? (notice the inverted commas)

Where do you draw the line between profanity and "good words"?

Re: Regarding points of swearing.

anna.http://particularordinary — Thu, 21 Apr 2005 14:43:02 -0000

Hiya sweetie! :):):)

alright, right back atcha:

F.U.C.K. is an acronym for:

Fornication Under Carnal Knowledge

Fornication Under The Crowns Knowledge

Freidship U Can Keep

Friends University of Central Kansas

Frined U Can Keep source

Also, from Wikipedia:

"Early usage

The earliest reference appears to be the name "John Le Fucker", which John Ayto's Dictionary of Word Origins dates to 1278. What John did to earn this name is unknown.

Its first known use as a verb meaning to fornicate is in a poem titled "Flen flyys" some time before 1500. Written half in English and half in Latin, the poem includes the word fuccant, a hybrid of English root with Latin conjugation, disguised in the text by a simple code. It was originally written as gxddbov, and is decrypted by substituting each letter with the letter which precedes it in the alphabet (keep in mind the alphabet that was used at the time).

William Dunbar's 1503 poem "Brash of Wowing" includes the lines: "Yit be his feiris he wald haif fukkit:/ Ye brek my hairt, my bony ane."

Some time around 1600, before the term acquired its current meaning, "windfucker" was an acceptable name for the bird now known as the kestrel.

While Shakespeare never used the term explicitly, he hinted at it in comic scenes in several plays. The Merry Wives of Windsor (IV.i) contains focative case (see vocative case). In Henry V (IV.iv), Pistol threatens to firk (strike) a soldier, a euphemism for fuck.

There are some urban legends postulating an acronymic origin for the word. In the most popular version, it is said that the word "fuck" came from Irish law. If a couple were "Found Under Carnal Knowledge" they would be penalized, with FUCK as the crime. Other variants include the ideas that the word came from "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge," "Fornication Under Consent of the King," or "Fornication Unlawful in the Commonwealth of the King." However, all these explanations are considered to be backronyms and hence recent inventions."

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Re: Points of swearing??

Re: Regarding points of swearing.