To Cuss Or Not To Cuss…
Some time ago I discovered a weird word that I have been looking for an opportunity to write about. This little Cuss-O-Meter test gave me the perfect opportunity, so here goes…
Coprolalia is involuntary swearing or the involuntary utterance of obscene words or socially inappropriate and derogatory remarks. This uncontrolled, often obsessive use of obscene or scatological language, may accompany certain mental disorders, such as Tourette’s syndrome.
There’s another unusual word — scatological — which has to do with an obsession with excrement or excretory functions.
While coprolalia and scatology deal with serious mental and medical afflctions that should not be taken lightly, they also have a humorous underbelly, appearing on the surface to be just extreme examples of behavior that is part of our culture. Cursing is all around us — on the streets, in the workplace and schools, on TV and other media. There are probably studies backed by statistics and demographics and trends, but I am too damn lazy to go dig them out. Rather, I will share my opinions and feelings based on years of practice, experience, and observation.
Northerners cuss more than Southerners. Urban people use more profanity than rural folks. Males curse more than females. Golfers yell shit more often than do tennis players. The probability of a sideline coach disgustedly screaming fuck goes sky-high if a TV camera is locked onto them at close range. There is no discernable difference in quantity or quality of cursing among people of various religious affiliations and those who walk a more secular path. The very young don’t know to curse, the very old have learned that it doesn’t really help, but those in-between ride high on the bell-curve of cursing. Divorce causes a permanent, irreversible uptick in the use of blue colored language, and every subsequent thought of that bitch or son-of-a-bitch spikes the volume of cursing and blood pressure a little bit more.
I do not consider it inherently wrong to curse, and I make no moral judgements about those who do or those who don’t. One person’s curse word list will include some entries that others consider perfectly acceptable. Carlin’s Seven Dirty Words might be a lowest common denominator starting point for most of the population, but even a couple on that list have become more tolerated as their ubiquity has grown. In fact, I have used two of Carlin’s words in this post, but would not use a couple of the others anywhere other than in private conversation with someone I know well.
Like it or not, so called curse words are a legitimate and useful part of our language. Whether used to express mood, demonstrate or emphasize a point, or in complete jocularity, these colorful collections of alphabetic characters have been part of our language for hundreds of years, and are not likely to disappear anytime soon. Before we get our noses out of joint and become all incensed over someone’s use of a word that offends us, we should, as Carlin suggested, consider the thought and intent behind the word. There are no bad words, only bad thoughts and bad intentions. If you get pissed-off because I say shit, it is more of a reflection of your thoughts than of my morality.
[Cuss-O-Meter created by OnePlusYou]
[A wiggle-waggle of my damn Titans cap to Ginger, who has a sweet, clean mouth at 2.7%...]
22 Comments so far
I like that. No bad words, just bad ideas. I’m trying to use curse words more judiciously these days as a way to stretch my vocabulary. Otherwise it would be f*** this, F*** that all the time!
Zounds, sirrah, thou doth porlock me!
@Dr. Stu: What say ye? Translate please…
after all…what is the difference between ’shit’, ‘crap’, ‘poop’, ‘doo-doo’, ‘ka-ka’?
They all smell and look the same, do they not?
SHIT was an actual word invented when European ships carried animal fertilizer back in the sailing days. They stored the fertilizer in the hold but if it rained or the ship had a water leak the fertilizer would get wet forming methane and thus exploding and sinking the ship.
The fertilizer was labeled SHIT which stood for Store High In Transit thus keeping it from getting wet.
Trivia…
I know… it ain’t really true… but it makes a good story.
[...] Read the rest of this great post here [...]
twomartini, I was just getting ready to thank you for the info! heh.
I’ve seen the cuss-o-meter before. Apparently I’m pretty ’squeaky clean.’ Guess I’ll have to spice things up a bit. ‘OH POOP’ just doesn’t cut it.
i’ve learned to swear from my children.
There are some words I just don’t like and I never use God’s name. But mostly it’s over-use that is offensive. An expletive when you’ve jammed your finger in the door is perfectly acceptable I believe.
On the other hand, some youngsters just use f*** as every other word. Why? Habit? Stupidity? Who knows?
I just did the test on my blog: I got 0%!!
I did the cuss-o-meter thing and it said mine was at 0%. The fucking thing is out of its damn mind. LOL
I’m a 0%, too. I’m sure I’ve posted the words “shit” and “damn” before. Guess they aren’t racy enough to move the meter, though.
I try to keep my blog relatively clean, but in real life I swear probably more than I should, especially when I’m alone. I’m afraid one of these days I’m going to be one of those old ladies who mutters to herself, or worse, swears to herself, then looks around and says, “Oh, did I say that out loud?” That’s probably a good reason to cut down on the swearing.
The notion that some words are superior to others is a load of s**t. It all arises from a pretense to gentility or some such f*****g c**p from the Victorian era or something. It’s like adults who have formed a commercial society based on sexual notions telling their children not to do the horizontal bop, or, better yet, the same society preaching to the world that the cure for all woes is sexual abstinence. Those in power have always wanted to get control of the primary urges of the masses.
Prez. Bush and his droogs can preach all they want about this “abstinence” thing, but when they were horny teenagers, I bet they pursued and pestered young women until they gave up the p***y.
I scored a dismal 6.4% which makes me think there’s something wrong with the program. Good find, Winston!
An essay I wrote years ago, filled with drivel, about using profanity and (get this) how it was an art — earned me 3 college credits and a pass out of an English Comp class. All I could think back then was “holy shit!” But, according to dear old dad, “swearing is the sign of a lazy mind.”
That’s funny. I grew up in a home where my father used a lot of curse words but my mother none. I don’t swear often or much out of choice. Generally those words don’t pop into my mind but I don’t mind hearing others swear but do mind being around someone really angry. Sometimes only a swear word really says it properly.
My swearing has increased dramatically, these last 8 year or so.
I just took your cursed test and the h*** of the thing was, the results said cursing on my d*** blog was 100% less on my crappy (does that word count as cursing ?) blog than any of the other you-know-what blogs that took the test.
Obviously, as you can see, I do not curse nor do my readers. I must remember coprolalia (haven’t encountered anyone with Tourette’s so that must be why it’s a new word to me) and scatological, but thought it meant something quite different — live and learn!
[...] opportunity, so here goes?? Coprolalia is involuntary swearing or the involuntary utterance of obscehttp://www.nobodyasked.com/2008/04/05/stool-vs-turds/Mom fears teen son who plotted Columbine-style attack CNN.comOn a 45-acre farm in a tiny town [...]
[...] certain mental disorders, such as Tourette??s syndrome. There??s another unusual word ?? scatologicahttp://www.nobodyasked.com/2008/04/05/stool-vs-turds/coprolalia. The American Heritage? Dictionary of the English …coprolalia. The American Heritage? [...]