In last week’s offshoot (no, this isn’t a surprise quiz, settle down), it came up that English is a language that derives its vocabulary from a surprising (and long) list of influences. It has pillaged words from Dutch, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Spanish, Old Norse, Italian, French, Hindi, and many others. It was also mentioned how, despite being classified as a Germanic language, English has surprisingly few words sourced from German.
But funnily enough, most swearwords in English sound very similar to German ones and not French ones (the language that influenced English most heavily after the Norman conquest). Here are some examples of German vs French curse words to prove this point:
Body parts; dirty (German Arsch over the French cul)
Scatological (German scheissen over the French bychier)
Sexual (German ficken over the French baiser)
Biblical (German Hölle over the French enfer)
One can easily guess the English words from their German counterparts.
Why do these similarities exist?
After the conquest, English (get a quick history lesson here) society was split into two along linguistic lines: the commoners and peasants spoke Old English (the ancestor of modern German and modern English) whereas the rulers and nobles spoke Old French (a descendant of Latin). This is one reason for vulgar English words (from the Latin vulgus meaning ‘common people’) sounding similar to German ones.
Besides a perception of the Germanic language as lowly, the story also includes the curious case of register i.e. “the context in which certain words are used and the impression that they convey.” It’s interesting to note that common English words of everyday use share much with German vs. French:
Body parts; clean (Hand, Haar, and Fuss vs. main, cheveu, and pied)
Familial (Vater, Mutter, Schwester, and Bruder vs. père, mère, sœur, and frère)
Even when both German and French words for the same thing have trickled down into English, the context of their usage tells us a lot. For instance, the modest house is related to German haus whereas the luxurious mansion is similar to French maison. Similarly, a sceap (German for sheep) in the meadow becomes moton (French for mutton) when presented on the table for a feast. For similar socio-cultural reasons, the Latin copulate is perfectly respectable while the Germanic F-word is clearly not.
Returning to curse words, while most of them are not as creative as the ones in Veep (refer to the image above), they are considered quite offensive. Until they aren’t. Our idea of what is offensive changes over time. The best example is the word ‘bloody’. In 1914, George Bernard Shaw’s beloved play, Pygmalion was staged in London for the first time and caused a public outcry as one character, Eliza Doolittle, uttered “not bloody likely.” Here’s how the dialogue appears in text:
Freddy:" [opening the door for her] Are you walking across the Park, Miss Doolittle? If so—
Liza: Walk! Not bloody likely! [Freddy reels: Higgins collapses on the divan]. I am going in a taxi. [She goes out].
This was a big enough scandal to not only have people collapsing on divans but also to give London a new euphemistic catchphrase: not Pygmalion likely. G. S. Street of the theatre censorship office, though he approved the play for license, had this to say:
I notice, however, one detail. On Page 46, the word “bloody” slips out of the as yet only partially educated Liza and on the next page a silly young woman uses it under the impression that it is part of the new “small talk”. The word is not used in anger, of course, and the incident is merely funny. I think it would be a mistake to be particular about it, but since the word has been forbidden in other plays– in a different sort of connection, however– I mention it.
Bloody has been on a bloody roller coaster for ages. It was reportedly “respectable” (before the 1750s) before turning scandalous (until the 1920s) and finally settling into its current semi-offensive state (depends on who you ask). There are many theories floating around to explain the shock factor of this word but the truth is unclear. The leading hypothesis is perhaps its imagined evocation of menstruation.
Besides Victorian ladies and modern newspapers, there’s another unlikely set of people affected by profanity: lexicographers. It is well established that dictionary entries are based on a word’s sustained and accumulated use in print. But when unseemly words are continuously masked by f*****g asterisks or effing euphemisms, it complicates their job. In-print appearances of words help dictionary compilers determine a word’s definition, register (how a word is used), and status (where it sits in a language). Remember the italicized labels before a word entry: informal, jargon, vulgar, literary, academic, etc. The in-print appearances give important clues regarding these. So, when the TV news chyron (fancy captions) quotes the President as having said “grab them by the *****,” it’s just missed evidence for lexicographers.
Don’t let autocorrect tell you a ducking thing about profanity, readers. Go wild. Do it for the linguists.