A Short F--king History of Vulgar Words and Gestures
In her live journal, my friend Katy has wondered what makes a word a cuss word. Additionally, she mused on what made the middle finger THE bad finger. The consummate student, I decided to investigate those questions myself.
It seems the middle finger goes back to Greek times. Being the longest finger, the middle finger became equated with the phallus (*sigh* Men!). As such, giving someone the finger became equated with phallic dominance or hostility. There is even record of one Greek playwright, Aristophanes, using it in his plays... and according to this website, the term "flipping the bird" came from his play The Clouds. When the Romans took everything from the Greeks, they also got the middle finger, so to speak. The rest, as they say, is history.
And you'll notice (as I have) as we continue talking about cuss words that most relate to sex, sexual organs, or defecation. The "F" word, the big D, co*k, cu*t, pu**y, sh*t, and a** all fall under these categories. Notice, also, that none of the sex related cuss words are the medical, technical term for the part or act. All medical words are safe from being cuss words.
If we explore the "B" words, we find that both of them are a derogatory put-down. One word equates women with dogs, the other relates to the one-time ultimate shame of having a child out of wedlock. Damn and Hell both have religious connotations, and are linked in my mind as being both related ("Damn-it-all to Hell") and tame. I believe these two words carried more force back when religion was more prevalent.
That brings me to another point. I would argue that a lot of these words are considered cuss words because of the people I would describe as the "religious right." Think the same people who believe that anything relating to sex should be talked about behind closed doors with the blinds drawn. These are the people who thought there could be no greater embarrassment than having everyone know that you had sex before you were married (they would know because you had a child).
Two more things about the above list. First, most of those words can be used in a derogatory way to describe a person ("damn" and "hell" being the exceptions). Secondly, they all end in a hard consonant. This has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that I have a theory that cuss words are partially cuss words because of the punch they give at the end! I mean, when one hits oneself with a hammer on one's thumb, one loves to use the expletive "SHIT!" because of the punch of the word. Uhh! It feels so good! And it's one syllable... easy to say quickly. What a good word!
I feel like "bitch" is kind of the anomaly to the above list. It doesn't fall into the same categories as many of the other words. I think it's had a rise in popularity over the past thirty years, however, because of its equation with a "strong-willed woman" and the gender revolution that was the woman's movement.
I have also successfully avoided talking about the dreaded "N" word. Its etymology just stems from an alteration of the French and Spanish words for a black person. I think this word has an air of superiority that most of these words carry... but which the word, realistically, no longer carries. This word would have died in the twentieth century if not for the South and for rappers. My guess is that this word will die in the twenty-first century. This section would also include all other derogatory words for other ethnicities... but most of these words are just offensive and tactless, rather than being something one really thinks of as a cuss.
Katy then mused on her page as to what other new words might be considered cuss words. I have compiled a very short list of possibilities for what might ascend the ranks into the BAD words. Here it is: 1) "Cracker". As the years pass, white people will become less and less the majority in this country, until they're the minority. Not only is cracker a derogatory word for a group that is hated now and will be hated AND a minority later, it carries with it an air of poverty AND it's a quick, punchy word. If it's not "cracker," some other word will become what us white folk are called to our faces by those groups that are now the majority. 2) Something religious. I wish I could be more specific here, but I can't. I have a feeling, though, as the US government gets more and more religious, you'll see a back-lash against it. Something like "zealot" might be a nice punchy word that one could use in a derogatory way to describe a political opponent (although we already do). 3) Spanish, Chinese, or Japanese cuss words. In the series Firefly, all the swear words are Japanese because of the assimilation of other languages. Especially considering the shear amount of Hispanics who will be living in the United States in the future, I fully expect some form of Spanish cuss words to work their way into American vernacular. Some form of "blanca" for white people, for example, is a possibility. 4) Phuk. My own invented alteration of the big F will become huge when I get famous. No? Don't buy it? Fair enough.
The fact of the matter is that our BIG cuss words have been "naughty" for centuries... so it will take decades before something could be added to that list. Was that fun or what? No? Well, phuk you then!