| From: | Bull <chaos@*****.COM> |
|---|---|
| Subject: | Back to the Linguistics of Swear Words |
| Date: | Fri, 14 Mar 1997 20:31:05 -0500 |
>Well. Considering that the litte girls of today (who already say Fuck) will
>be the little old ladies of tomorrow, that's hardly a surprise, is it?
>
Ya know... This thread got me thinking about a few things...
I've seen people complain that "Frag" and "Drek" were just
"cleaned up"
swear words, and that since we all knew what they meant, why use them?
(This actually was a topic that came colse to getting nasty on Plot-D right
after the IF joined Shadowtk)
Well... Besides the obvious fact that it cool and official SR street slang
(tm)...:), also consider how common the phrase Fuck has become...
Sure, the term has been around for hundreds of years, at least, but has it
always meant the same thing? Maybe... But has it always been a commonly
used and aaccepted word? No... At least not withing the last 100 years or
so. But within the last 20 years, it has become a common phrase, and thus
has lost it's "Edge". I mean, even when I was in Elementary school (10+
years ago), you simply didn't use taht term. Saying hell and Damn was a
big thing, and you NEVER let an adult (or heaven forbid a teacher or your
parents) hear you saying those things... Now kids use those and much worse
(Yes, even "Fuck") commonly, and in front of Parents and Teachers alike,
with no repercussions... That says something about the moral decline of
the world in general, and lack of guidance by parents today, but that's
another subject, and one not suited for this list...
Think about in another 60 years... It'll become an everyday word
eventually, and then fall out of fashion, though it's still lost it's
edge... It'll fall into the same category as words like "Bummer",
"Groovey" and "Swell"... We know what they mean, we've heard it
efore, but
it's not used any longer. It will, of course, get replaced by something
else, but something similar.
Dvixen... your the resident Srn Linguist, and you knew that Frag and Drek
were Yiddish... Do they mean Fuck and Shit in Yiddish? And do they have
the same "Swear Word" connotation that Fuck and Shit do? If so, they may
simply have replaced the words in the future...
And the phrase from one of the novels (Used recently in one of my posts:))
"He said Fuck. How quaint." seems to impy that the phrase has become archaic.
That doesn't mean it's never used, and doesn't mean that the word ISN'T
1000 years old, just that, at that time period, it's fallen out of favor
with the general public and isn't used, any more than we'll say things like
"Gooly Gee, that's Swell."
Well, that's my rambling for the time being... Enjoy...:]
Bull
--
Now the Offical Shadowrn mailing List Welcome Ork!
Fearless Leader of the Star Wars Mailing List
=======================================================
= Bull, aka Chaos, aka Rak, aka Steven Ratkovich =
= chaos@*****.com =
= "Order is Illusion! Chaos is Bliss! Got any fours?" =
=======================================================
"You know, I think I had a dream that I'd go out like
this, only I was wearing a dress."
-Mighty max
