obscene vs. profane

[Damien Hall]

David said:


'Obscene in Words and Phrases is "offensive to modesty and descensy".



Profane in the same is "implying divine condemnation".


But, this is early 20th century, not the 21st.'

So, in the superset {obscene, profane, blasphemous} (if I may use that term), there are:


*         some who would group 'obscene' and 'profane' together (as meaning a stronger version of  'unseemly' or 'offensive'), while 'blasphemous' refers specifically to an offence against a divinity;

*         whereas others would group 'profane' and 'blasphemous' together (as referring to an offence against a divinity), leaving 'obscene' on its own as meaning roughly 'unseemly' or 'offensive'?

I think I would belong to the second set ('profane' and 'blasphemous' more nearly synonymous than either of them is with 'obscene').  In any case, maybe that's why it didn't even occur to me to talk about 'profanity' or 'profane' in my post: I think of them as meaning almost the same as at least one of the two terms already in the discussion.  As so often in these threads, though, it'd be interesting to know whether there were conflicting opinions or currents about how these words should be grouped semantically, whether any two of them can be grouped together at all, or whether all three have distinct meanings (for at least some people).

Damien

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Damien Hall

University of Kent (UK)
Leverhulme Early Career Fellow, 'Towards a New Linguistic Atlas of France'

English Language and Linguistics, School of European Culture and Languages

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