We tend to think of the evolution of swear lyric as linear , from risky to “ meh . ” A Bible that was extremely offensive — unspeakable , even — in your grandparents ' generation is now a staple fiber of basic cable TV . But is it possible for tidings to in reality becomemoreoffensive and taboo over time ?
Absolutely , say linguist Randall Eggert from the University of Utah , who latterly wrote a terrific editorial in the Washington Post titled , How the n - give-and-take became the new f - word . In your grandparents ' generation , only the most reprobate pornographers and poets used the f - word , but sadly most people could utter the n - Holy Writ without impunity . In forward-looking America , the two words have officially flip spots on the offensiveness scale .
Eggert teach a democratic class call “ Bad Words and Taboo Terms , ” and has been surveying students for geezerhood about the words they see the absolute worst . Topping the list in 2015 are the n - watchword and coke - word , followed by the other f - word ( the one mention to a gay man ) .
“ Racial and other ‘ aspersion ' are the strongestswear wordsin English today , ” Eggert told HowStuffWorks . “ It ’s been a slow shift . In the early nineteenth century , it would have been ‘ profanity ' — religious - based swears like ' Inferno ' and ' Jesus ! ' — while the Victorian eld shift to taboo about ‘ obscenity ' or sexual swears . "
start out with the civic right victories of the sixties , it has become less and less satisfactory to employ racial slurs and other derogatory terminal figure for women or LGBT individual in public or individual sermon . The degree centigrade - word , which is scandalous to mod capitulum , was once only uncouth — a colorful 17th - century term for a sexual organ . Now it ’s link up with violence against woman .
While the rising multiplication will undoubtedly shock you with its “ potty language , ” it ’s even more interesting to inquire what Book you are using that might shockthem .
