What Makes a Swear, a Swear?

[tintin113]

Society.

 

 

 

Preeety much this. ^

 

 

 

Society defines what's right and wrong, whether it's logical or not, and honestly I would swear quite a lot more than I do at the moment - simply because I find it a powerful way to express one's self - if society allowed it... they don't. (Ironically this is the entire reason that swearing is a powerful way to express yourself, as long as you don't do it ALL THE TIME like some stupid delinquent.) Of course people still do swear, and it's only really a swear because people expect a bad reaction. If people just shrugged and didn't really mind when you said swear words, there'd be no point to them.

[Dizzle229]

To get back on topic, though some words DO derive from anti-religious words, blaming all swearing on the chruch is just flatout stupid.

 

 

 

I think that the statement earlier of "society", though a simple statement, really is correct. If the guy that I quoted had ended his post 1 sentence earlier I would have agreed entirely.

[Omar]

Dizzle check the link I posted. Lots of swear words can be traced back to old old words

 

Here in Quebec/Ottawa, they use words like these:

 

 

 

* baptême - "baptism"

 

* câlice (calice) - "chalice"

 

* calvaire - "Calvary"

 

* ciarge (cierge) - "votive or Paschal candle"

 

* ciboire - "ciborium" or "pyx", the receptacle in which the host is stored

 

* crisse (Christ) - "Christ"

 

* maudit - "damn"

 

* mozusse (Moïse)- "Moses"

 

* ostie (hostie) - "host"

 

* sacrament (sacrement) - "Sacrament"

 

* tabarnak (tabernacle) - "tabernacle"

 

* viarge (vierge) - "the Virgin Mary"

 

 

 

with a really funny accent to swear, it' usually considered stronger than excrement or sex-related swearwords. Like "god damn it!", but much stronger.

 

 

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity

 

 

 

[Edit] I just read the whole article, it's pretty funny when you're from the area.