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Science

Cursing as Peephole Into Brain Architecture 394

Posted by Zonk from the keep-it-clean-people dept.
tabdelgawad writes "The New York Times offers this excellent and entertaining writeup on cursing and its role in recent studies of the brain. The article discusses the universality of cursing across time, space, and culture, its varied roles, from linguistic evolution to anger management, and its uses in recent brain research. You can also read all about the sexual effects of uttering obscenities and the swearing habits of sorority women." From the article: "Researchers point out that cursing is often an amalgam of raw, spontaneous feeling and targeted, gimlet-eyed cunning. When one person curses at another, they say, the curser rarely spews obscenities and insults at random, but rather will assess the object of his wrath, and adjust the content of the 'uncontrollable' outburst accordingly." As someone who plays a lot of MMOGs, in my experience this is only mostly true.
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Cursing as Peephole Into Brain Architecture More

Cursing as Peephole Into Brain Architecture

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  • Dag Nabbit! (Score:5, Interesting)

    by jellomizer ( 103300 ) * on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:43PM (#13609752)
    I wonder how Wimpy Curses work vs. Real Curses. I myself don't have a tendency of cursing I tend to use the old curse or wimpy curse words like "Dag Nabbit!", "D'Oh", "Arg!", and "Crappy", and "Cruncy". I tend to shoot them out just as often and with little though like other people shoot off Real Curses.

    • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Ironsides ( 739422 )
      I wonder how Wimpy Curses work vs. Real Curses.

      Depends on how much frustration/anger you have at the time. When I'm mildly frustrated I will say scheise, frell, fraking, son of a (thats it, nothing afterwards), and a few other things that are quite mild. I also say these quite calmly and in a low voice.

      Now, when I get really angry people in the next building/down the hall/next door can hear me and I swear like a sailor. In the second case, I usually feel much better after letting off a string of sw

    • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:5, Interesting)

      by steelfood ( 895457 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:31PM (#13610045)
      Personally, when words like "Freak" and "Darn" are used in place of their vulgar counterparts, I tend to laugh at the person using them. It just sounds wrong.

      The word itself isn't supposed to matter (let's see, I learned fuck meant having sex in the fifty grade, which is about three years after I began using it), but the force, intent, and attitude behind the word. Using an alternate word changes this in the speaker, especially if the speaker is used to the vulgar forms, and thus conveys a different sense to the listener. For me, it's comical, like a turtle on its back trying to flip itself over but can't. But when these alternate words convey the same sense (and I've seen them used in this way), they really are the same as vulgar varieties.

      When I can't use words like fuck, shit, and damn, I use the more subtle facial expressions. Snorting, rolling my eyes, grimacing, clenching my teeth, etc. all serve the same purpose. After all, it's a quick stress reliever for quick stress buildup.

      • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:5, Interesting)

        by NanoGator ( 522640 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @09:12PM (#13610558) Homepage Journal
        "Personally, when words like "Freak" and "Darn" are used in place of their vulgar counterparts, I tend to laugh at the person using them. It just sounds wrong."

        Heh. I read a Dilbert book (err I can't remember the title, but it had to do with things you should and shouldn't do... it had to do with etiquette, I think.) One strip had to do with swearing and how some people (typically older people) would go haywire if you used the wrong words.

        I've seen this happen. I remember one day in high school, there was some stupid play scheduled. The play was going on during the 3rd period. For me, that meant I could stay in the computer class for 3 hours. Neat! So I didn't get the permission slip filled out. Well, I was wrong. They shuffled everybody who wasn't attending the play into study halls. Doh. I was a senior during the peek of my rebellious phase. I was going to do something daring, I was going to skip the study hall. So while everybody was herded to another room, I slipped away. I wandered into a different study hall where one of my friends was. We bs'd for about 20 minutes before I noticed the teacher was taking attendance. Oh... crap. Like a secret agent, I snuck out of the class and started making tracks to where I was supposed to go. I was one floor up from the study hall. If I were caught coming down the stairs, instant bust. So I cooked up a story to the tune of "I had to go to the bathroom. I went up a floor because that level had a bathroom with a door on the stall." Perfect excuse! By the time I came down the stairs, I was anxious. Very anxious. The teacher that saw me spotted me and said "where have you been?!" My anxiety caught up with me and all that came out was "I was taking a dump!"

        The teacher's eyes lit up with anger. In retrospect, I should have expected this. But I honestly didn't see 'taking a dump' as being in the same league as 'shitted in a fucking private stall', but the way he reacted I might as well have said that. He was so mad, he actually ran across the hall and stopped a teacher that was passing by. "I asked this young man why he was late to class, and you know what he said?" The poor teacher disinterestedly shook his head. "He said he was..." he actually held up his hands to signify quotes... "taking a dump." The teacher who obviously wanted to continue to his destination had a blank look on his face. The study hall teacher then asked "Do you think that was appropriate?" He shook his head and wandered off. I was left to write a 4 page report on why the phrase "Taking a dump" is inappropriate.

        By the third revision of my paper I was getting annoyed. He told me he didn't like it and that I should completely rewrite it. So I did. I filled up four pages about how the older generation of people couldn't cope with the cultural changes that had happened over the last couple of decades, so the younger generation had to tread lightly when speaking around them. I fully expected to end up explaining that paper to the vice principal, but instead the study hall teacher shook his head and threw it away. I honestly don't know if what I was saying got through to him or if he realized he was overreacting or if he was just plain bored with the conflict.

        Needless to say, I find cartoons about people swearing so much that other characters catch fire pretty funny. I understand the concept of polite conversation, but it still baffles me how some people get so worked up over 'vulgar phrases'. I think it's a generational thing, but if somebody has a better idea I'm all ears.

        Heh sorry dudes, didn't have anything real interesting to share about the topic at hand. I just remembered this little story after what the parent poster said about people looking silly by using softer words. I found myself using words like that during the rest of my senior year in high school.

        • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:3, Funny)

          by aaza ( 635147 )
          The book would be "Dogbert's Clues for the Clueless", and I remember the one you are talking about.

          In olden times, people were a lot more sensitive (man says "bull feathers" and an old woman faints). Now, it's ok to use such words (weather reporter says "... the weather just looks f#$@! for tomorrow"). In the future, it will be necessary to use words that cause people and their pets to catch fire (picture of man and dog running away, on fire).

          I may have missed one frame, and got the words slightly wrong,

        • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:5, Interesting)

          by Floody ( 153869 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @11:55PM (#13611223)
          The teacher's eyes lit up with anger. In retrospect, I should have expected this. But I honestly didn't see 'taking a dump' as being in the same league as 'shitted in a fucking private stall', but the way he reacted I might as well have said that. He was so mad, he actually ran across the hall and stopped a teacher that was passing by. "I asked this young man why he was late to class, and you know what he said?" The poor teacher disinterestedly shook his head. "He said he was..." he actually held up his hands to signify quotes... "taking a dump."


          Yes, very Donnie Darko. "I'll tell you what he said. He asked my to forcibly insert the Life Line exercise into my anus."

          Cultural differences vary widely with geography, of course, but where I happen to currently reside, cursing has become so socially accepted that it's practically no longer noticed. I'm not just talking about a particular peer group either; even in the workplace, it's unusual not too hear a litany of frustated cursing at any given moment with no apparent relation to gender, ethnicity, etc.

          As someone with significant intellectual interest in linguistics, I've noticed that there are essentially two categories of cursing: Words or phrases with a prejudicial basis (gender, race, sexual preference, etc) and those related to bodily functions. The "bodily function" category is apparently much more acceptable in mixed company; for the obvious reason that while an isolated prejudicial curse might be harmless out of context, the prejudice itself often still exists in the world and continues to damage societies across the globe.

          There is also the class of curses that seems to be in somewhat of a "cross-over" mode, like the word "bitch." Literal meaning aside, it has traditionally been used as a derogatory term for a female. Modern usage though seems to be changing, and the term can now often apply to both men and women; as a result it seems more acceptable in common speech. I'm curious if it will lose (or already has lost) some of its "curse power" because of this slight linguistic shift and the fact that it's not part of the immortal "bodily function" category.

          • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:3, Interesting)

            by syukton ( 256348 )
            Bitch has undergone quite an evolution. Once used to describe a spiteful or overbearing woman, it is also more and more commonly being used to refer to a man as weak or contemptible.

            Even moreso though, rap culture has brought out a usage in common language, where "bitch" = "woman" -- in the sentence, "let's get some bitches up in here." This is something that those using it in this context don't really see any problem with using, in this context...

          • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:3, Interesting)

            by unitron ( 5733 )
            "Bitch" crossed over due to its use to mean "complain" and to a much lesser degree as a result of the "surfer's slang" term "bitchin'".

            I can remember when "suck" was not ever used in polite company unless you were discussing soda straws or vacuum cleaners, otherwise it was considered a reference to fellatio. Then somewhere along the line as the sixties slid through the seventies to become the eighties it came into use as a general purpose non-sexual derogative.

            I'm still somewhat uncomfortable hearing it us



    • I grew up in jamaica, a culture which has perfected cursing almost to a theraputic artform. when I'm in the US cursing in jamaican is like cursing at a chalk board since nobody understands you it has no effect. however if I curse in english I almost feel neutered it's just not the same. Then all the rage that is pent up inside has no where to go.

    • Re:Dag Nabbit! (Score:3, Insightful)

      by dasunt ( 249686 )

      There is nothing magical about the word "fuck". We could have easily called a chair "fuck", and use "chair" as a curse word. In most languages, "fuck" is not an offensive sound.

      So if you have taught yourself that "darn" is a curse word, then I'm going to assume that "darn" will trigger the same response as "fuck" in most people.

  • Well, damn! (Score:2, Funny)

    by SimonInOz ( 579741 )
    I just had to say it. Sorry.

  • Bullshit! (Score:5, Funny)

    by Musteval ( 817324 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:44PM (#13609760)
    There is no fucking way that this bullshit is anything but bullshit! Motherfucking fuckfuckers! Fuckshitfuck! Fuck!

    • Re:Bullshit! (Score:3, Funny)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Mom? Is that you? Since when did you have a Slashdot account???

    • Re:Bullshit! (Score:2, Funny)

      by zephc ( 225327 )
      Fuck you, you ass-worshipping rim-jobber! Donkey-raping shit-eater!

      Cool, we can swear and not get modded as Flamebait. Or did I just seal my own doom?...
    • try Russian:

      Yobanaya v jopu pizda, suka bliad', xuinia zadrochennaya molofeinaya, zalupa zloyebuchaya, pizdenishy pizdostradatel'nye prihujarennye, huila bl'adskij suchenysh' gnoinyj bliadopereyobannyi :)

      The only word above that was not a curse word was 'v' (meaning 'in').

      • Yobanaya v jopu pizda, suka bliad', xuinia zadrochennaya molofeinaya, zalupa zloyebuchaya, pizdenishy pizdostradatel'nye prihujarennye, huila bl'adskij suchenysh' gnoinyj bliadopereyobannyi :)

        Da? Putzalut moi shzopa, balshoi durak. Ti javnó sviñá.

        There is a large and ancient subculture in Mexico known as the "albur", a play of words, used mostly by men, that contains a hidden message, particularly about sexually dominating the person you are speaking to. It comes from the natives being sub

    • I'm still yet to see... (Score:5, Funny)

      by weighn ( 578357 ) <weighn@Nospam.gmail.com> on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:37PM (#13610093) Homepage
      80 comments and counting and I'm still yet to see a CUNT around here...very disapointing...oh, wait...this is slashdot - no girls allowed.
  • "Damnit! Damnit Son of a Bitch!" -- Beavis

    I wonder what all this cursing really did for Beavis?

  • I'd also like to hear... (Score:5, Funny)

    by GecKo213 ( 890491 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:50PM (#13609806) Homepage

    ...more Sorority sisters cursing. Especially while they're taking off thei...

    Oh Shit! Did I think that out loud?!?! Man I'm going to look like such an ass! I'll never be able to make another comment and be respected around here agian!

    New slogan: "Cursing, does a body good."
    • Yeah I want to hear more about the naughty sorority talk. In fact I think it should be a basic cable channel. All sorostitutes all the time! Talking filth.

      yep. That's the America I want to live in!

  • Hot Shit (Score:4, Interesting)

    by TruePaige ( 834087 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:51PM (#13609810) Homepage
    What about the perpetual fuck as a comma crowd though? How do they fit into this? Are they de-sensitized?

    • Desensitized...yes (Score:2, Insightful)

      by thepotoo ( 829391 )
      Yes, they are. I suspect that in their case, the effect of the word has worn off on them, and the word "fuck" is no longer stored in the area of the brain wherein the other curse words are stored. Instead, it is stored along side of "like" and "lol" and the other overused (and therefore worthless) words.

    • Re:Hot Shit (Score:4, Funny)

      by bridgette ( 35800 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @08:51PM (#13610461)
      When electrodermal wires are placed on people's arms and fingertips to study their skin conductance patterns and the subjects then hear a few obscenities spoken clearly and firmly, participants show signs of instant arousal.

        As a member of the "fuck as a comma crowd", swear words still have meaning, but that meaning has been severely diluted. I remember blushing the first time I heard a dirty joke, 25 years later, I doubt that there are any swear words or dirty jokes that would have the same affect.

      I didn't pace myself and now I've used them all up. And I'm not even middle aged yet. What I'm I going to do when I really need to express myself? I need some new, improved, really vile words for when I'm really angry.

  • Not entirely true. (Score:5, Funny)

    by CAIMLAS ( 41445 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:53PM (#13609819)
    THat's not entirely true. A single swear word can be, well...


    Rocco: Fucking... What the fuck. Who the fuck fucked this fucking... How did you two fucking fucks...
    [shouts] FUCK!

    Connor: Well, that certainly illustrates the diversity of the word.

    (quote shamelessly stolen from The Boondock Saints)

  • Office Space reference (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Keck ( 7446 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:54PM (#13609826) Homepage
    hey say, the curser rarely spews obscenities and insults at random, but rather will assess the object of his wrath, and adjust the content of the 'uncontrollable' outburst accordingly."

    And that expectation (which we all have) is why it's so damn funny in Office Space [imdb.com] when Samir, the non-native English speaker, is cursing completely inappropriately. SON OF A F$*(!
    • It's even better in real life... my school had exchange students, and there was this kid from Spain that got so pissed off on day, and he just blew up 'YOU PIECE OF BITCH! EAT FUCK!!"

      The rest of us dissolving into hysterics didn't help his mood much either >:)

  • Why not lie detecting? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Safe Sex Goddess ( 910415 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:54PM (#13609827) Homepage Journal
    I wonder why they never talk about detecting lies with these fMRI machines. They'll talk about how to induce "spiritual" feelings in people, or how they've discovered the mirror neurons that tell us when a person watches another person do something, it's like we're doing it ourselves. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/sciencenow/3204/01-mo nkey.html [pbs.org]

    If we want to really clean up government and speed up processing in the criminal justice system, we should put $100 million into fMIR as lie detectors.

    We could have an electoral truth telling challenge between candidates to see who's telling the truth and who isn't.

    • Not particularly effective (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Lifewish ( 724999 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:01PM (#13609862) Homepage Journal
      I know that I tend to react "guiltily" to being challenged, regardless of whether I'm actually in the wrong. I suspect this is a consequence of the fact that, when one's parents are enraged at, for example, the paint on the walls, one's guilt or innocence (no really, my sister did it) ceases to be an issue. Then if, as I suspect, the detectable physiological reaction to guilt is fear-based, it could be that the so-called "liars" just had parents who were a bit hasty with the shouting and the smacking and the grounding. Hardly a basis on which to lock them up.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

      • Re:Not particularly effective (Score:4, Interesting)

        by jkauzlar ( 596349 ) * on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @08:42PM (#13610422) Homepage
        This isn't a valid argument against something on the level that fMRI measures. Fear and its physiological effects are emotional and, well, physiological. The fMRI, as I understand it from the article, would look at the neural pathways that are in use at the time of the lie-- for example, if the person lying were deliberately creating a false response to each question, the fMRI might detect 'creative impulses' or some such. But if the lies were pre-determined, the brain waves would look entirely different, probably much like it would if they were telling the truth. If the person actually believed the lies, then there is no way to detect their statement as a lie, obviously.

        The emotional level, such as what a lie detector is supposed to monitor, is then probably the best route for determining guilt. If you think about all of the complications of creating an fMRI-based lie detector, it seems less and less possible.

    • I can't remember where, but I could have sworn I've seen that. Dunno how practical it would be, since fMRI is pretty expensive. But I guess if you really need to know if someone is lying...

  • rejoin reality (Score:4, Insightful)

    by bad-badtz-maru ( 119524 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @06:57PM (#13609840) Homepage

    I think that researchers who study the evolution of linguistics really don't care much about the "experiences" of "someone who plays a lot of MMOGs".

  • WoW - Why ? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by craznar ( 710808 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:03PM (#13609877) Homepage
    Which brings me to the question - why does WoW let me say 'crap' - but not 'LSD' ?

    I personally think that WoW should have a 'receive' foul language option to increase entertainment.

    So if two people both have the flag on - they can spit what ever they want at each other.

    Sort of like VpV.
  • Firstly, I don't agree with some of what is said. For one:
    "Golly" is a compaction of "God's body" and, thus, was once a profanity.

    I have no idea where they got that (and many others of their facts) from, but wiktionary says otherwise [wiktionary.org]. It seems to be pseudo-researched with a couple of reputable quotes here and there... Oh well.

    To the point, in reference to their Stroop test (on page 2), where people were startled by obscene words moreso than neutral words, I find it to be the reverse in "comfortable" environments (as they vaguely mentioned). That is to say, so many people swear habitually that it's not even a big deal in casual situations. To find someone that says "poop" instead of "shit" or something unique and unsensical like "fatty arbuckle!" instead of "fuck!" tends to startle people in surprize. At first, at least.

    The novelty of profanity has been worn out to the point where it doesn't have the desired effect anymore. Therefore, I subscribe to the alternative: Using unique and creative utterings to describe my feelings.

    This way, after people get to know me, and get used to me being profanity-free, and then one day I get REALLY pissed off and say FUCK, they know I MEAN IT! :D

    Works wonderfully. Plus, makes swearing that/i much more fun.

    - shazow

    • Re:The article is poopy, but I'll comment anyways (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Last time I checked, Wiktionary is written by random people from the web, whereas the New York Times is written by people who actually know something. Look -- yours truly, yet another random person from the web, just modified the Wiktionary definition to make you a liar:

      http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/golly#Etymology_1 [wiktionary.org]

      Wiktionary and Wikipedia are cool concepts, but they must not be used as sources for any research beyond common harmless curiosity.
      • Last time I checked, Wiktionary is written by random people from the web, whereas the New York Times is written by people who actually know something.

        Last time I checked, the NY Times had some people writing for it who think the QWERTY keyboard was invented to slow typists down. NY Times probably has a better track record than Wiktionary, but it's not always right.

    • You're just not creative enough.

      For instance, last night some condombreak drove by me as I was out for a walk and yelled, "Get a job!" I yelled back, "Bight off a chunk and suck, you clitpimple!"

      It was quite satisfying (I've been in and out of temp jobs for the last year).
    • The novelty of profanity has been worn out to the point where it doesn't have the desired effect anymore. Therefore, I subscribe to the alternative: Using unique and creative utterings to describe my feelings.

      The thing is, when you're REALLY using profanity, (in the brain states described in the article) you won't have time to be cute about it. There's a difference between what you say when you slam your fingers in the car door and what you say to your friends at the coffee house to sound cute.
  • it's the only thing holding this family together! ... nutty fudgkins!

  • Not only monkeys... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Pig Hogger ( 10379 ) <pig DOT hogger AT gmail DOT com> on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:14PM (#13609936) Journal
    FTFA:
    [...] chimpanzees engage in what appears to be a kind of cursing match as a means of venting aggression and avoiding a potentially dangerous physical clash.
    Frans de Waal, a professor of primate behavior at Emory University in Atlanta, said that when chimpanzees were angry "they will grunt or spit or make an abrupt, upsweeping gesture that, if a human were to do it, you'd recognize it as aggressive."
    Such behaviors are threat gestures, Professor de Waal said, and they are all a good sign.
    "A chimpanzee who is really gearing up for a fight doesn't waste time with gestures, but just goes ahead and attacks," he added.
    Chimpanzees? How about cats??? Ever noticed how cats will scream loudly at each other, mere inches from each other? And most of the time, they just separate without ever so slightly slashing each other.

  • NPR, Deadwood, Carlin (Score:5, Interesting)

    by BlueEar ( 550461 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:17PM (#13609966) Homepage
    NPR had an interesting interview about Deadwood. Turns out that at the time people were using words such as "damn", "bloody", "goddam", etc., which are no longer strong curse words. Thus the producer of Deadwood decided to convey the reality of times by "upgrading" curses.

    Another interesting observation was made by George Carlin. He was essentially guessing that teaching somebody not to use certain "bad" words is the first step in teaching them to be complacent. If you can teach them not to make certain sounds, you can teach them not to yell at authorities. Often, people who play the "word police" are very controlling. Of course, cursing is not a sign of an educated person, but when you hit your shin on a corner of a desk, "fuck!" is a more appropriate response than "I think I experienced pain" ...

    • I'm sorry, I have to say it: "fuck!". I need to correct my own post. I mean "conformist" not "complacent" ... Argh!
      • That sounds like a tautology. People willing to be taught to change their behavior to avoid offending someone are more likely to seem conformist than people who don't care whether their everyday talk offends someone. If someone is willing to conform, then of course that makes them more likely to be conformist. If a person can't be trained, then you can't train them to question authority.
    • How about "YEEOOWCH!"? I think it works pretty well too.

  • Origin of Swears... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Dankling ( 596769 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:19PM (#13609981) Homepage Journal
    It's interesting that the article is so focused on the effect that swear words have on the people hearing them (or even just seeing them). I think the story of how swear words come into being wasn't nearly touched on enough in the article as it should have.

    Why is it that words come to be 'forbidden' after normal usage before. At one time, none of the swear words used today existed. Remember, someone had to invent all of these words. On the flip side, why is it that swear words, after repeated use, lose their 'evilness'?

    Nowadays, the phrase, "Oh, golly!" may be considered almost comically wholesome, but it was not always so. "Golly" is a compaction of "God's body" and, thus, was once a profanity.

    Is it that profanity is in the eye of the beholder? If I were talking to somebody in a room can call the person a 'fucktard', chances are the person I'm talking to would take offense. But in a different scenario I'm talking with a French man that doesn't know a word of english. Now I can call him whatever-the-hell I want to. And just as long as I'm using the inflections in my voice as if I were telling a joke, he wouldn't know any better than if I were telling a joke.

    What makes a word a word? It's not the arrangement of the english characters on the post card that offend me - the association between the arranged letters on the notecard and my past experience with that word that makes it vulgar. Ever since we have been children we have known which words not to say - not by the letters F U C and K, but by the face on my pissed off mother. That surely would explain why a child, illiterate or foreigner wouldn't find our swear words offensive.

    So, after reading the article, I question the reactions that the tested subjects had to the swear word on the card. We aren't born with these conections in our head, they are learned.

    Lastly, another question for the readers: Can swear words be taught out of existence? You would think that if people stopped taking offense to swear words that people would stop using them. It would make sense that if we were taught that 'shit' was a synonym for Cotton Candy, then it wouldn't really be offensive.

    Feasible? bs? i dunno...

    • Re:Origin of Swears... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kafir ( 215091 )
      Is it that profanity is in the eye of the beholder?

      This is something I think about on a fairly regular basis--my handle, here and on E2 (Kafir/kaffir) is the South African equivalent of "nigger". In Arabic "kafir" means "unbeliever", which is why I chose it; to an American (which I am) it probably doesn't mean anything, or possibly it's a kind of lime.

      Anyway, I get outraged South Africans writing to me once in a while, and sometimes I feel a little bad about it--but it's hard to take their complaints seri
  • Is that why flame wars are so popular? "IE is more secure than Firefox!" or "Vista is cooler than OSX!" gets the brain boiling? Slashdot must really thrive off this whole effect. They should study us.

  • Cultural effects and gender based response (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Nefarious Wheel ( 628136 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:24PM (#13610005) Journal
    Quoting a reference from the 1940's (ok, it was Doc Smith, but he was a product of his time and highly idiomatic in his choice of language) a pre-modern perception was that men swore and women didn't. "Men swear to keep from crying, women cry to keep from swearing" quoth Kinneson. Both functions were considered equivalent mechanisms for blowing off steam.

  • SHAZBOT! (Score:5, Funny)

    by mbius ( 890083 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:27PM (#13610023) Journal
    *everyone turns around and stares*

    What? I said shit.

    No you didn't. You said 'shazbot.'

    I...left the stove on. *runs*

  • Obligatory Link (Score:5, Informative)

    by Ironsides ( 739422 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:32PM (#13610053) Homepage Journal
    The Alternative Dictionaries [notam02.no]

    2743 Curse and Slang words in 162 different languages.

  • The part we all are most interested in . . . (Score:4, Funny)

    by EraserMouseMan ( 847479 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:32PM (#13610058)
    Yea, the part about the sorority girls. I was pretty dissapointed. Here's the whole quote,

    "The investigators have found, among other things, that men generally curse more than women, unless said women are in a sorority, and that university provosts swear more than librarians or the staff members of the university day care center."

    There. I saved you 5 mins of reading just to be dissapointed that there wasn't really anything about sorority girls and sex, just cursing.

  • Huh? (Score:3, Funny)

    by Jesus 2.0 ( 701858 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:33PM (#13610072)
    TFA:

    "The title "Much Ado About Nothing," Dr. McWhorter said, is a word play on "Much Ado About an O Thing," the O thing being a reference to female genitalia."

    You've got to be shitting me.
    • From what I understand, the doctor is wrong. The title was originally pronounced Much Adoo about Noting. If you read/watch it, you'll see that much of the action is driven by people noting things they weren't intended to overhear, thus making the title a play on words.
    • It's not "an O Thing" that the title is referring to (which is totally ridiculous). The title is a reference to two things. "Noting" (as another poster replied) - which is insignificant conversation and "Nothing" which IS a polite bit of Shakespearean slang which can (and usually does) refer to the female genitalia. The pun on "nothing" is perhaps most obvious in a conversation in Shakespeare's Hamlet with Ophelia:

      Hamlet: Lady, shall I lie in your lap?
      [Lying down at Ophelia's feet.]
      Ophelia: No, my lo

  • question... (Score:3, Funny)

    by StressGuy ( 472374 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:34PM (#13610076)
    from the article:

    "Researchers point out that cursing is often an amalgam of raw, spontaneous feeling and targeted, gimlet-eyed cunning"

    WHAT THE F%@k IS "gimlet-eyed cunning"!?

    Sorry....I guess I lost it there....

  • So what do scientists know? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Locke2005 ( 849178 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @07:36PM (#13610087)
    The taboo sense of a word, Dr. Burridge said, "always drives out any other senses it might have had." How does he explain, then, the new Direct TV ads built around use of the word "sucks"? In this case, it appears the accepted meaning of the word (is of poor quality) has driven the taboo sense. Is everyone else too young to remember when "sucks" was an expression not to be used in polite conversation... unless you were referring to pacifiers?
  • Fuck; ....often used as a meaningless intensive...

  • One of my favorite things to help temper yet revel in my anger is to string a continuous stream of curses without repeating inside the stream. For some reason "jesus mother fucking christ on a god damn piece of shit syphilitic crutch" comes up frequently when I do that.

  • Obligatory Simpsons Quote (Score:3, Funny)

    by ndansmith ( 582590 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @08:45PM (#13610437)
    Bart: It will be like Treasure Island, only with more swearing. We'll be kings. Damn hell ass kings!

  • Oh Belgium... (Score:5, Funny)

    by rdewalt ( 13105 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @08:57PM (#13610487) Homepage
    You donkeyhumping popefelchers! Only grabastic nunblowing babyraping cumburpers use such pedestrian terms like "Fuck".

    On-the-fly Creatific Curse Constructions, is a great way to keep even the most guttermouthed cock-master off guard in a linguistic duel.

  • The grad student's research dream... (Score:5, Funny)

    by HalfOfOne ( 738150 ) on Tuesday September 20, 2005 @09:05PM (#13610525)
    --A young Professor runs around the lab, shrieking "EUREKA" at the top of his lungs and grinning like a madman.--

    Grad Student: Hey Professor, what's going on? did you spill the bromochloride down your pants on accident again?

    Professor: I have had, perhaps, the most wonderful epiphany. It's BRILLIANT, BRILLIANT I TELL YOU.

    Grad Student: Okay, I'll bite. What is it?

    Professor: You know the Tri-Delt Sorority next door, the one with all the hot women that wouldn't speak to us unles we paid them?

    Grad Student: Yeah...

    Professor: Well, we're going to pay them to talk dirty to us.

    Grad Student: But we barely have enough for Ramen noodles. We cook them here and pack them in our underwear for heat at night. Where are we going to get money?

    Professor: That's the genius of it! We'll come up with a grant proposal for a cognitive study about swearing! Then we just tell them we have to find some local subjects who swear a lot, and we're SO IN!!!

    Grad Student: It'll never work...

         

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