OFF: the truth is out there

[J Strobridge]

Carl E. Anderson writes:

> On mån 1 dec 1997 18.34 +0000 "Ted Jackson jr. 6L6" <tojackso at LIBRARY.SYR.EDU> wrote:
> > I think that society has simply gotten used to more foul language.
> > Blame WWII.  The word 'fuck' was virtually unknown before the war,
> > but got learned by all the draftees who dutifully brought it into
> > society in general...
>
>      Profanity comes and goes (so to speak).  "Fuck" is not exactly a
> new word.  Indeed most of the common "swear words" are of old and
> distinguished lineage.  For example, the vulgar vernacular word
> denoting "posterior" can be traced to a proto-Indo-European root
> "ors-", perhaps 6000 years old, meaning "arse".
>
>      You want some real earthiness in the "recent" past (for English-
> speakers), head for the Elizabethan period  :)
>

Profanity, so my understanding goes, is explicit use of something
considered socially unacceptable by that particular society.  So in a
future world where, say, use of gene manipulation was socially required
to produce medically perfect children then to call someone a "bleeder"
meaning a haemophiliac would be considered the worst possible profanity.

Profanity even differs among cultures today.   You can grossly insult
someone from another country by actions or words considered quite normal
here!

Apart from that Chaucer had a few profanities to offer in his
Canterbury Tales stories and I'm sure I remember Beowulf being a
tad rude to both the dragon, and Grendal not to mention Grendal's
Mum - poor lady.

slainte
jill


> DrinkFeckArseGirls,
> Carl
>
> --
> Carl Edlund Anderson
> Dept. of Anglo-Saxon, Norse, & Celtic
> St. John's College, University of Cambridge
> mailto:cea20 at cus.cam.ac.uk
> http://hea-www.harvard.edu/~carl/
>
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J.D.Strobridge at ed.ac.uk                         eset08 at holyrood.ed.ac.uk
                                                ELIJSA at srv0.arts.ed.ac.uk
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