obscene vs. profane

[Jonathan Lighter]

I meant to hit "discard" on that.

It was an 1849 ex. of "profane songs" that I decided was more likely to mean
"secular" than "obscene."

JL

On Fri, Aug 19, 2011 at 8:56 AM, Jonathan Lighter <wuxxmupp2000 at gmail.com>wrote:

> 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:
>
>> ---------------------- Information from the mail header
>> -----------------------
>> 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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>
>
>
> --
> "If the truth is half as bad as I think it is, you can't handle the truth."
>



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