Fri Oct 21, 2005 1:25 am
Grom's fave
hehe well I wouldn't go that far, but I can see where you're coming from
In fact my favourite "swear word" would have to be "bugger". This is where it all gets a little vague in my opinion. Everyone knows what the word means - and know it *could* be considered offensive. However back home in the north west of england, it is used frequently in a number of ways ("oh bugger", "bugger off", "bugger it" etc etc) and subsequently is considered widely as INoffensive.
This is the perfect example of a word that *was* considered as swearing less than 50 years ago, yet is now generally accepted. Being a rounder more comfortable sounding word made it easier to become widespread imo....yet the meaning stays the same.
I was brought up in a very religious family where swearing was prohibited and considered as much of a sin as adultery and theft. In fact, I remember getting severely repremanded for muttering "oh bugger" at the age of 14. However as a sign of the times, 16 years on, I've recently caught my mum saying it on more than one occasion - although she does tend to sheepishly apologise every time
What I'm getting at is simply the more a word is used, the more people "numb" to it and the more likely it is to become generally accepted. "Bugger", "Bollox" and "Smeg" have already began leaning that way, how long will it be until F*** goes the same way? Will C*** ever be accepted in polite society?