obscene vs. profane

[Jonathan Lighter]

Missourian William W. Hunter wrote from near Placea, N.M., on July 21, 1849,
that the men he knew


JL

On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 5:21 AM, victor steinbok <aardvark66 at gmail.com>wrote:

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> -----------------------
> Sender:       American Dialect Society <ADS-L at LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
> Poster:       victor steinbok <aardvark66 at GMAIL.COM>
> Subject:      Re: obscene vs. profane
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> 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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