Bad language!

. Rude.

Just too much in there!

I cant bear to read all that, I just know that we are better educated nowadays and should not need to use such words. It does not take a huge brain to be think up polite words in place of those vile expressions.

Well!! whoever knew!

According to the article, they weren't vile in those days. Just perfectly useable words.

Have you read page 2 lilygran?!

Oh, it's an onion.

Bet you wish you hadn't started this Lily.

we are, hopefully, more civilised nowadays and quite frankly when I hear vile language from drunks etc I feel they are letting themselves down.

I just say 'oh heck' or 'oh my god'.

I once had a partner who used vile language, every other word was f...
and I started to use it when we argued as nothing else seemed to get through to him. It became a habit until someone said 'have you heard yourself' and I realised how bad it was.

I was brought up to be a lady, although we were no rich by any means I was taught that behaviour is most important if we want to improve socially. None of my friends or family use these words and I don't want my DGD to ever hear them.

They will, though, there's no getting away from that fact.

that's the sad part of our society, I want DD to send DGD to a nice nursery school, expensive, so she can meet really well behaved kids and professional families. The local nurseries are full of rough kids who swear. Im being a snob but I just want a really good life for DGD.
Having said that I worked for a millionaire years ago and she swore like a trooper I was quite embarrassed. I must be realistic and try to tell her that its bad to use such words

ethelbags you really can't believe that rich well educated/behaved or professional families don't use bad language surely?

For goodness sake. Isn't the whole point of the article that many of the swear words in use today and popularly attributed to Old English, are either not Anglo-Saxon in origin or were simply ordinary words for ordinary activities used snotorlice by ordinary people?

etheltbags1 are you serious? "Expensive" nursery school, so she can meet really well behaved kids and "professional" families?? Sorry, but I think you are living in a dream world if you think money and profession equals "nice" ! Also, please forgive the pedantry, but I don't think that these idealised people to whom you refer would use the word "kids"

Yes. We seem to have moved on from that though, absent - is that allowed?

I don't like swearing in my home....my adult children still don't swear in front of me. I just find it appalling when people swear in front of small children as well.

CBA to even read the article

That article just goes to show nothing changes! This language about bodily functions has been in use for centuries as have those double entendre riddles.

We were probably a whole lot less twee about these expressions three hundred years ago. Perhaps we should blame Victorian prudishness.

However it is discourteous to use bad language to people you know or suspect might be very offended by it.

This prudishness is often age related, but Grans of our generation and a number of woman I know who are about 10 yrs older than I am are a whole lot less uptight about such things than our parents and grandparents were.

A schools recording of Macbeth we had for O level missed out the "porters speech" where the castle porters were talking about the effects of alcohol on sexual desire and sexual performance.

I don't know when that recording was made but it was obviously considered too rude for 16 yr olds in the 1960s

We had the same stuff about Portia's speech concerning what had happened to her ring – and why – in the The Merchant of Venice. An integral part of the play and a smart lady!

I knew what the article says already, that words we now regard as "bad" were not so originally. This supports my oft repeated argument that it is how words are used that makes them "bad". In other words, if you speak rudely people usually know if you are being rude by your usage or, face to face, by your body language. By 'usage' I don't mean just using a word; its context and its connotations within that context (in other words, what you intend it to mean) give its real meaning.

Words are not bad of themselves.

The effing and blinding of a drunken person is not pleasant to hear but it's the drunkenness that is the real problem.

A person who lets out a so-called 'rude' expletive in a moment of shock or other intense emotion is not being rude. The use of the expletive is a psychological release and probably a good thing.

So that's why I stick with "listen to the meaning, not the words". I find it serves me well.

I agree that in general, people are less uptight about the use of swearing than they were when I was a teenager. I do get offended when I hear people using foul and abusive language aggressively. If it's in response to a shock, or used in humour, it bothers me less.

I've got a book called The Oxford Book of Humorous Prose by Frank Muir, which goes back 500 years plus. The early entries are full of rude words and situations, in fact I cut them out and burnt them at some time when in a Mary Whitehouse mood.
What about some of the Canterbury Tales?

Professional people breed well mannered children and children who attend expensive nurseries will be well behaved kids !

I worked in a convent boarding school where the children were from professional families, the nuns offered me places for my two daughters but I chose the local comprehensive where those rough kids from cheap nurseries also attended , I made a wise decision.

ethelbags I think that the sad part of our society is when it is assumed that "professional" people are intrinsically superior. One only has to look at the newspapers to realise that boorish, morally questionable and downright criminal behaviour is certainly not confined to the "non-professional classes".