Bad words

[Benjamin Barrett]

Where does fag, etc., fit into this list, or should that be a
separate category?

Benjamin Barrett
Tukwila, WA
Gambling, gamboling and more at the Riverside Inn in Tukwila!

> -----Original Message-----
> From: American Dialect Society
> [mailto:ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU]On Behalf Of James A. Landau

> Let's see.  Most English "bad words" fall into the
> following five classes:
>
> 1.  Religious---damn, Hell, God-damn, Jesus H. Christ (a
> Greek rendering of
> the Hebrew/Aramaic for "Joshua the Annointed").  Note
> that the descriptive
> words "profane", "swear", and "oath" are also words from
> religion.  It is
> interesting that there are "four-letter" euphemisms for
> the above: darn,
> heck, gol-darn or gosh-darn, jeez.
>
> 2.  Excretion---piss, shit, and I suppose we should
> include "douche-bag"
>
> 3.  Sex---make up your own list
>
> 4.  Canine---bitch, son-of-a-bitch
>
> 5.  Ethnic slurs---the infamous N-word is the most
> obvious.  In South Africa
> they have their own equivalent of the N-word, namely
> "Kaffir", equally
> effective for starting fights.  (According to M-W, the
> word is from the
> Arabic).