Four years ago I hardly ever cussed. I was raised, as most people are, with the notion that cuss words were vulgar, offensive and impolite. As I’ve grown older I’ve grown quite fond of some of these “crass” words. Of course I don’t cuss in front of anyone important or respectable, but I often wonder why?
Why are certain words considered so horrible? They all have synonyms that mean the same thing, but for whatever reason a specific combination of letters, syllables and sounds makes one word a cuss word. I understand that some words, like the “n” word, are derived from racial slurs, but what I’m mainly discussing in this article is what I call the basic sextet of swear words: s—, f—, a–, h—, d—, b—.
I did some research to find the origin of swear words thinking maybe there was a plausible explanation why swear words are so taboo. I ended up finding a lot of ancient origins which all gave the current curse words their meaning, but little to no reason why they were considered more vulgar then their synonym counterparts. But I can infer curse words are not inherently intolerable. Society places negative connotation on them, so in a way society has completely fabricated the entire concept of curse words.
For example, a– is defined as a donkey and then somehow became synonymous with butt. Now I understand that calling someone either a donkey or a butt is not nice. But “Man, he’s such a butt” sounds like something a five year old would say. If you said “Man, he’s such an a–” means so much more. It only means more because we, as a society, says so.
F— is a whole different story. It has so many different meanings it’s hard to keep up with. Traditionally it means to have sex with. But beyond that it’s used as an intensifier, like “these are f—ing delicious nachos”. I don’t know why if I say that some eyes bug out, but if I said “these are really delicious nachos” no one flinches. That just seems a little dumb to me.
What bothers me the most is how some people look at people who curse. Because society says so, if I say that specific words I get condemned for being crass, rude, unladylike, etc. That’s really not fair. THEY MEAN THE EXACT SAME THING.
Sometimes if it seems like if cuss I’m all the sudden this despicable person with no respect for anybody. So untrue. Rarely do I cuss in a way to seriously hurt someone. It is more just to emphasize my own feelings.
I don’t think that we should go around yelling “f— you” or calling people “b——” all of the time, but if a cuss words are the best way to exhibit what you’re truly feeling then what’s wrong with using those words to express yourself? Maybe one day I can write with these words without any dashes or asterisk.
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