Kin Swearing! is it a sign of an exhausted vocabulary?

[R1Geezer]

As one who is often castigated for lord mayoring I feel I should mention this quote from the great Stephen Fry: ""Swearing is a really important part of one's life and it would be impossible to imagine going through life without swearing and without enoying swearing
there used to be mad, silly, prissy people who would say swearing is a sign of a poor vocabulary as such; utter nonsense! The people I know who swear the most tend to have the widest vocabularies!"

[Jemisa]

I know where you're coming from Chris, - My old mum was from Suffolk (some say Silly Suffolk) and she talked just like that.

Thanks for the memory.

jem

[ttfn]

That has made me smile Chris - thank you :o)

[Buenchico]

Hi Jem:
The term 'silly Suffolk' was originally 'sealy Suffolk', using an old English word to mean 'holy' (because of the remarkably high number of churches, in relation to the population, found within the county).

(Remembered from my junior school days!)

[ummmm]

The Irish have a nice way of swearing about them as well :-)

[Buenchico]

'Father Ted' got away with using "feckin" in almost every sentence, simply because it sounds so much less offensive than the 'real' word ;-)

[sophie_1003]

I don't like swearing, I wouldn't necessarily say it's a sign of a lack of vocabulary but when people use it in place of any other adjectives it does make me cringe. I also don't really like to swear myself, we were talking about it at uni and one of my friends said she'd never heard me swear and asked me to say the "c word" so I did and she said it sounded odd, also; my boyfriend says I sound too posh to swear properly!

[ummmm]

But they actually do say that....

[andy-hughes]

The point about using swear words is their delivery.

Almost every serious swear word is one syllable, with harsh consonants, so it can be spat out or shouted with appropriate vigour, relieving tension in the speaker, which is the point.

As advised, carefully delivered, a swear word can have the desired effect.

A friend of mine attended a party at the late Freddie Mercury's home, and when approached by a Sun journalist (uninvited of course) Freddie who had an equal hatred of bad manners, and the tabloids, turned to the interloper and advised (you need to hear Mr Mercury's wonderful voice in your mind here) "Oh darling, DO f*ck off ..." and he returned to his conversation with my friend who struggled to keep his face straight as the crushed hack staggered off.

Swearing in its time and place can be acceptable.

I think the 'exhuasted vocabulary' aspect comes from individuals who simply add swear wrods into their speech because they lack the ability to string a sentence together.

This is best illustrated by my overhearing of a teenager groping for the end of his sentence, and filling the space with an obscenity - quote "So I said to her i said I fu*kin' ... fu*kin ... said ..." At that point, having wasted five seconds i will never get back, I moved out of earshot.

I am with Mr Fry - swearing has a time and a place - it's knowing and applying both that is the important bit.

[starone]

I don't like swearing either, but I think that is because I was brought up in a household where swearing was taboo. I have a few rules when the kids come in, one is no swearing while you are in here what you do outside is your concern, not mine. Two others are don't tell me lies because I shall find out and not trust you and don't ever let me catch you stealing or you are out of here never to come back. So far they have listened to me. However, I think that swearing has become incorporated into normal language and so I accept it when I hear it. I don't have to like it, just accept it.

[piggynose]

pinklady.. when the irish swear i find it almost a turn on, have you heard someone from belfast swear?

[ummmm]

Lol...I have. My Nan's from Belfast...

[carlton23]

I can put up with swearing as much as the next man, but when someone swears in front of my wife I have to tell them to "Watch it mate" to which they offer their apologise, but I feel embarrassed if watching TV nowadays and so called comedians find it necessary to swear with every other word. to get laughs.

[starone]

Carlton, my husband was like you - lovely - makes a woman feel protected. I think the same way about unnecessary swearing by comedians just to get a laugh.

[ummmm]

They are only words really. It's the meaning behind them....stubbing your toe and hopping round saying b0llocks...is quite amusing (if it's someone else that is)

[Sqad]

<<<<Kin Swearing! Is It A Sign Of An Exhausted Vocabulary?<<<

That was the question and the answer is clearly.....NO.

I agree with starbuckone and carlteon, but I do believe that it does have it´s place at the right time and not said with....venom.

I am not sure though, what is the right time.

[andy-hughes]

Starbuckone - I have similar attitudes to swearing in the home.

My children didn't swear at home because my wife and i don't, and we have always educated them to respect themselves and us, so it's never been an issue.

As grown women, they obviously know all the words I know, but again, it's simply not the way we talk to each other, so it's still not an issue.

That said, the first time i heard my eldest daughter swear, it was as a result of extreme provocation by my mother-in-law. We were on a family holiday in Florida, and my M-I-L disapproved of the two of us staying up to watch a video, and created enough disturbance to ruin the start of the film for us, before stomping off to bed, but not withoiut stwitching on the dishwasher, which, in an openplan living space, almost drowned out the sound of the TV.

As soon as M-I-L's bedroom door closed 'firmly', my daughter exploded with the confirmatin that "She's doing my f*cking head in!".

I laughed for about five minutes, partly because she was quite right, but also at the look on her face, and the force with which her opinion was expressed, together with the fact that I had never heard her use that word before - and my daughter was 28 years old at the time!

It's a story that still gets a laugh eight years later!

[woofgang]

And that's a good point andy...if the so called really bad words are going to become every day currency, where do you escalate to?