By Jove! associate Rob Wallis attempts an exploration of the etymology of the English language’s most popular swear words and how they reflect on contemporary society…
Is there anything as indicative of a society’s attitudes as how they swear? Swearing can be cathartic, a pre-programmed response to a stress situation: burning one’s hand on a hot stove may result in a reflexive “Jesus Christ!” or “shit!”, regardless of one’s religious beliefs and/or need to defecate. In the case of blasphemy, much of western culture has roots in the Christian faith, so that it makes sense that our first recourse to pain has traditionally been to cry out to God. What’s even more revealing is how we direct these curses at other people and what our choice of insults suggest about the conservative biases still in operation today.
For instance, the use of bitch as an insult dates from the 14th Century, used to suggest that a woman’s sexual desire was comparable to that of a female dog, i.e. in heat. It was used to dehumanize and thereby illegitimate feminine lust. Nowadays, however, bitch has become a more complex, multivalent term. It is, for instance, a contronym, a word with two opposing meanings. When used in reference to a woman it denotes assertiveness, a trait stereotypically associated with the masculine; when used in reference to a man, it implies that they are submissive, historically the woman’s role. In both cases, it’s generally taken as a derogative.
Over the course of the last decade, there’s been a movement to reclaim the word bitch, just as the gay community reclaimed the word “queer”, but this behavior is arguably so engrained in our society that it will take more than the actions of a few proactive individuals to change our perceptions. The word gay remains that most popular playground insult because of its association with abnormality, with not fitting in. Nancy, sissy, queen all allude to the perception of homosexuals as failing to fulfill basis gender roles. The homophobia is obvious; the misogyny less immediately so.
Even slurs targeted almost exclusively at males often do so through the figure of their mother: bastard, for instance, implies that the insulted party was born out of wedlock, which, again, once upon a time, was a grave sin. Of all the insults I can think of only dickhead is male-exclusive in that it suggests a man who thinks with his genitals (a return to lust); there is notably no female equivalent.
But what does this say about us, other than we tend to stick to what we know, insults included? It says that we still find the same things offensive that we always did and choose to use them to attack people – the use of a word may be intended to hurt, but the actual meaning behind the word itself it is rarely intended. Because I call a man a motherfucker doesn’t necessarily mean that I think he fucks his mother, or indeed is the type of man to fuck his mother; I am simply trying to get a rise out of him.
These words, on some level, reflect our fears or things we find unpleasant; however, these fears include such things as the challenging of traditional gender roles. As said before, bitch was originally a term for a promiscuous woman and arguably the most offensive, non-racial insult in the whole English language is cunt, which, whilst having no particular appellations, still has the power to shock through sheer offensiveness. The words themselves have become more than symbols of the things themselves; they are totemic. There’s a thesis here to be written on otherness, the thing that is not, but I lack the word count here.
I am not now, I must say, an advocate of censorship: the use of swear words not only add spice to life, but in many cases, such as drama and the arts, are necessary in the accurate representation of a time or place. Comedian George Carlin makes this case better than I could ever hope to, certainly more entertainingly. Swears are part of our society, fact. What I’m suggesting is that we come up with some new ones, better ones.
Though he certainly wasn’t adverse to scatological or sexist humor, William Shakespeare is arguably one of the finest coiners of insults ever to have lived. They’re clever, eloquent, and while they may not be as punchy as those in common use, they’re an awful lot more memorable than calling someone a git (another Medieval play on illegitimacy). So next time you’re out drinking and your mate is refusing to join him, instead of telling them to man up, tell them to screw their courage to the sticking place. When they can conjure no response, call them not an idiot (from the Latin meaning an ordinary person, uneducated, a slight one one’s class), but comment instead on their plentiful lack of wit. In short, lest in furious anger, don’t call them a cunt, lest you yourself become a worse than senseless thing.
