Swear Words

[EmBee]

**This post contains abbreviations for possibly offensive swear words. It is not my intention to upset or offend anyone with this post.

Every Christmas I flip thru the channels and invariably I land on the A Christmas Story marathon. This hasn’t happened to me yet this year, but I can still pretty much quote the entire movie, including the scene where Ralphie says “THE word, the big one, the queen mother of dirty words …” Well, it got me thinking this Christmas about how odd swear words are. I mean, they’re a collection of (not always) four letter words that our society has attached to some rather nasty connotations. One swear word in particular – or rather, the way people react to one in particular – has always interested me. Perhaps some of you can give me some insight.

At 22, many of my friends swear … a lot. Bleep this, bleep that – it’s a bad habit, and when I’m around them it’s really easy for me to fall into the rhythm of it too. Anyway, these friends who swear a lot will go out of their way to tiptoe around one particular phrase which I will abbreviate: GD. These people say gee dee, gosh darnit, dat gummit, etc. When I ask my friends about it, they usually tell me something to the effect of “Well yeah, I cuss, but I try to never EVER say THAT one!” and I’m left unsure of why “that one” is so different than the rest.

Since I’m probably being (really) stupid, I thought it would be best to ask this anonymously on an online forum instead of badgering my friends about it! But honestly, I really don’t understand the distinction here - what’s the difference between one bleep and another? These are my only working theories:

A: It’s because God’s name is directly invoked in the swear
B: The person swearing is telling God to “D” someone/thing.

Personally, I would be much more offended if someone said “DG” or “D-it, G” because these seem to have a more harmful, literal sense. Like I said, I’m probably being ignorant - hopefully someone can enlighten me on this one? TIA.

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[tmacsrose]

You are completely correct, taking the Lord’s name in vain is the worst possible way to swear. However, I think that for instance “the mother of all swear words” is often thought of in that light because it is taking something sacred and in a sense profaning it. Swearing, save taking the Lord’s name in vain, is not sinful unless it is said in inappropriate company.

 

[BamaRider]

I don’t think its very nice to use *any *of those words, so I don’t. But who knows why some folks like to do all that cursing. I’ve been places where it seemed it was just part of the vernacular.

 

[Nepenthe]

I kinda like making up swearwords instead - nobody even knows what they mean, but we’ve come up with a few that just plain SOUND more offensive than the old standbys, and it can often get people laughing rather than offended!

Case in point: Schween. It just sounds so silly!

I fully admit to harboring an unreconstructed 4thgrader in my cold, tar-coated heart.

 

[Shirley_Bite]

Could it be because of the 3rd commandment? ‘You shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain.’

Also, somewhere in the gospels we are admonished to keep only pure things in our minds and hearts. That is hard enough to do without the habit of swearing. I know, I’ve been there. I’ve cleaned up my language and I feel a lot better about myself. But I still have a difficult time keeping pure in mind and heart.

 

[Dtmccameron]

The ‘G D’ phrase trancends swearing and cussing, it is cursing. And that’s a serious matter. But not, I don’t think, and immoral one if used correctly. Then again, we oughn’t to be going around cursing this and that. We were sent to be blessings to this world. To save it, not condem it.

And personally, there’s some four letter words out there that I find much more offensive, and one five letter word, which sometimes used even in its non offensive literal meaning still makes me cringe. (Refering to dogs, female dogs to be precise)

Some words just carry such spite in them, such hatred…It really is unnatural to see such feeling in the words of a human being. A demon, I could see, and undoubtably thats where these cruel words and blasphemies flow from.

 

[happymommy]

I think some people do it because they are nervous or feel out of their league…my FIL swears, but he gets much worse when around a crowd, almost like he has to use those words to make himself bigger or smarter, sadly it doesn’t work at all.

People take the Lords name in vain all the time, it’s everywhere and is so sad…just watch t.v and you can’t get through a 30 min. show without them saying it a hand full of times…

My husband works with a lady that makes up her own swear words…out favorties are…mother bear and son of a biscuit eating mother lover…

DH husband says “stink” all the time, we are recovering potty mouths he’ll say that stinken stink stink…it’s pretty funny…

My mother always said, fiddlesticks…my daughter couldn’t say it so she said picklesticks…we’ve taken to saying it now…I’ve also been known to, when I’m really upset and ready to blow, say BAD WORD, BAD WORD…

my 2 year old said Cr*p the other day, so that’s just great, everyone I know says it so I’m not sure how I’ll break him of that one.

 

[EmBee]

Thanks for all the replies - serious and humorous.

Happymommy: I also say “son of a biscuit”! But “BAD WORD, BAD WORD” is so much better! Hahaha, thanks for that

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[Ruthie]

Hah! I’m “worse” than HappyMommy! I say it in plural: “Bad words! Bad words!”

Anne McCafferey has some made-up swear words in her books that I like: “Oh, fardles!” and “Snarks in a bucket!”

I think the reluctance of some potty-mouths to use G-d D–n is because the potty words are very common in our culture these days, but there aren’t many people who don’t know that taking the Lord’s name in vain is offensive to a lot of people.

Also, I’ve noticed that TV stations will bleep just the “God” part of ugly language, and the f-bomb, but leave most of the rest of it in there. So it could actually be cultural.

But I *hope that the real reason is that they have a sense of how awful it is to ask God to dmn somebody or something. After all, most of vulgar language is just rude words for normal body parts and functions.

God bless us all,

Ruthie the ex-pottymouth