Swearing – the power words
There is nothing like coming out with a few swear words when you trap your finger in the door, or the speed camera just flashed at you.
I have been known to use a few.
I’m a writer. I know words have power. They have brought down Empires, won battles and changed minds. You cannot beat a good word.
Back in England when it was a Theocracy (and exported out to the USA) the worst thing you could possibly do was to blaspheme. Thus a lot of our swear words were those power words.
God
Christ
Jesus
Blind me
Bloody Mary
Hellfire
Damnation
These were so terrible that they had to be modified.
Gee
Cripes
Golly
Gosh
Blimey
Crikey
When religion lost its power people had to use other power words. Fortunately sex was handy. We could commandeer a whole vocabulary of swear words.
In older Britain sex was not a big deal. Sex parts and words were used in everyday language. We still see the remains of this in surnames – Cunniliffe = cuntlips.
But in Victorian times, with all its repressed hypocrisy, the sex words were unspeakable. Even body parts like belly and arse were gentrified – willy, stomach, bottom, fanny.
Sex words were the new shocking power such as:
Cunt
Fuck
Prick
Dick
Arse
Wank
Twat
There are the controlling misogynistic put-downs (that are ironically often nused by females to put down other females)
Slapper
Tart
Whore
Bitch
Slut
Slag
Gradually these words, which were not used in genteel company, began to lose their power. The sixties sexual revolution saw them used more and more. The Lady Chatterley trial, Allen Ginsberg Howl trial and the prosecution of IT and OZ gradually broke the walls down.
Nowadays it is not unusual to see these words used in newspapers.
They still retain some power but it is on the wane.
The latest unprintable ‘power’ words I would suggest are racial. If you really want to cause offence you deploy a few of them and the world (probably rightly) comes down upon your head.
I won’t even use them because I think they are too abusive.
So are racial words destined to be the swearwords of tomorrow? Or are we going to find other power words?
If so – where are they coming from?