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[-] ChillDude69@lemmynsfw.com -2 points 9 months ago

Exactly! You immediately came up with several categories that I completely forgot about, when I was listing categories of swear words. And yeah, the different levels of swearing are fascinating. And then, of course, the whole levels-of-familiarity-and-politeness-and-formality thing that other languages have? English still has that shit, it's just not built into the formal structure of the language, the way it is in, say, Japanese.

Those politeness and familiarity levels are just based on the context of every individual, and their particular social group. Some people swear a lot in their own family setting, some people NEVER swear within their nuclear family group. Some workplace environments are RIGIDLY anti-swearing, while others are totally informal, and everyone has a potty-mouth, all the time. And any of these contexts can have their own specific house rules, in terms of which categories of swearing are more taboo.

Like: "hey, fuckface! Don't say the fucking R-word around here, or I'll break my foot off in your ass." Totally a thing that I can imagine someone saying.

[-] GlitchyDigiBun@lemmy.dbzer0.com 9 points 9 months ago

You neglect the versatility of our tabboo language, too!

Take English's favorite swear: Fuck.

Fuck is:

  • Noun - "You sick fuck."
  • Verb - "I'd fuck it."
  • Adjective - "A fucked-up situation."
  • Superlative - "Un-fucking-believable."

It can be used to express:

  • Joy - "Fuck yes!"
  • Horror - "Oh fuck..."
  • Sensuality - "Fuck me~"
  • Resignation - "Fuck me..."
  • Anger - "Fuck you!"
  • Condolences - "That's fucked..."

And that's just scratching the surface!

[-] Noel_Skum@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

Fucking hell, this fucking fucker has fucking fucked it.

[-] aStonedSanta@lemm.ee 1 points 9 months ago

My English teacher was right. Fuck is lazy. Lol

[-] jerrythegenius@lemmy.world 1 points 9 months ago* (last edited 9 months ago)

much useful

so versatile

this post was submitted on 30 Jan 2024
75 points (71.9% liked)

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