obscene vs. profane

[victor steinbok]

I like this division. It answers a part of my question (along with all the
other responses). And, I suspect, I belong to the same set for adjectives,
but not for nouns. (That is, I would NOT group blasphemy and profanity
together.)

VS-)

On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 5:13 AM, Damien Hall <D.Hall at kent.ac.uk> wrote:

>
> 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'
> ref=
> ers 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
> ow=
> n 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,
> may=
> be that's why it didn't even occur to me to talk about 'profanity' or
> 'prof=
> ane' 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
> opinion=
> s 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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