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Profanity
(lemmy.world)
cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/24164810
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this post was submitted on 12 Jan 2025
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I listened to a podcast with a linguist who studied profanity. Please accept my paraphrase here:
Profanity is 'things you cannot say in polite society'. Examples in the middle ages are mostly religious, some of which survive to today like OMG and goddam. The next big stage was Victorian England where anything sexual was taboo. Here you get the body parts, fuck, etc...
Once the large social taboo is removed, the swear words remain as profane because of social momentum, but they do not have the same value as present day swear words.
According to this academic, today's current swear words are 'outgroup identifiers', things like the N word, Jews, Fags... which seems to ring true to me. If I went into work and said shit in front of HR no one would blink an eye. If I said the N word it could easily be grounds for termination.