I say dog damn!

Dork alert: emdot's still listening to public radio. Today's plug: all about swearing. Linguist (but is he a cunning linguist?) Geoff Nunberg goes to town about swearing. What makes a word a swear word? What makes it just a pussycat of a saying? He'll tell you. Meanwhile, did you know that the word fuck was not a bad word in olden days? It just meant something you did. Or some people did. Or those bad people. Or the whores. You know. But it wasn't a swear word. Not until you use a word in a way that doesn't actually connote its real meaning does a word become "bad." So once fuck became an adjective, all hell broke loose.

As long as I can remember I've loved to swear. I was the naughty girl on the playground teaching and expounding upon all the bad words I knew or thought I knew. Words like "bitchen!" and "man alive!" I thought they were so deliciously shocking. I thought I was really making a statement.

When I was five I asked my mom if "F-O-K" was a bad word. I think she smirked, cocked her head, looked me right in the eyes and said, "Nope. No it isn't sweety."

» The linguist on swearing