Has anyone else decided not to swear? (lemmy.ca)

submitted 18 hours ago* (last edited 18 hours ago) by voytek709@lemmy.ca to c/asklemmy@lemmy.ml

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I used to swear a lot. I decided to not swear at all (except for possibly mild swears), instead replacing most swears with minced oaths.

My family is Christian and I would get yelled at for swearing even if it just slipped out. So far, I don’t swear unless I’m feeling a strong emotion or acting impulsively, but I’ll usually say things like “F/eff” or “fudge” instead of the F-word.

I like to be “creative”, so my go-tos are usually “Go fudge yourself”, or “What the cluck?”

I might say “mother lover” instead of MF

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[-] Mr_Fish@lemmy.world 3 points 17 hours ago

My personal rule is "do I know why that word is a swear word, and is that a dumb reason?"

That means Anglo-Saxon words like fuck or shit are fine. They're swear words because of William the conqueror invading England, and making all the nobility speak Norman. Then all the peasants started to use some French words to sound more posh, so the Anglo-Saxon words became 'less pleasant' than the Norman words, and that meant shit, fuck, and similar words just got kicked out.

On the other hand, there are swear words I won't use. Anything with a terrible historical use, an actually bad definition, or any religious connotation (yes, I'm religious, but I'd still keep this if I wasn't). Example, I won't use the word damn as a swear word, since I would never wasn't someone to be sent to hell. No, I don't believe that saying "damn you" will actually damn someone, but I just think it's a swear word for a good reason.

this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025

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