E H wrote:
When someone swears in English it comes from sex

Where the goddamn shit did you hear that?

-JAY- wrote:

Where the goddamn shit did you hear that?

Exsmactly. It's still religious based origins. That's why it's called "cursing", to put a "curse" on your enemies, etc. Because sex would have been against the dominant religion at the time.

Otherwise it wouldn't make any sense:

"I wish you great physical pleasure!!!" Doesn't quite sound like chastising someone for having sex.

Daniel wrote:
Apparently fuck didn't start in English: http://www.snopes.com/language/acronyms/fuck.asp

And nor should it end so.

Interesting and thanks,, but if the is no king where does it come from: Fornication Under Consent of the King doesn't work like in North and South America before everyone come over,,when they got pissed, they would say something, where did that or those words come from/curse

Tim Summa wrote:
Though not specifically a swear word, the term 'hooker' comes from the time of the end of this civil war in the US. Hooker was John Hooker, general of the Union troops occupying New Orleans and his setting up his HQ in the red light district.

Another is Jazz, used by African Americans as a substitute  for the word fuck.

Finally, honky, a derogatory name given to white patrons for African American hookers in Harlem NY. The white johns would honk their horns at the hookers to get them to come to their cars, rather than leave their car to make a transaction for sex.

Interesting and thanks for the input.  I did not know 'hooker' or  Jazz, used by African Americans as a substitute  for the word fuck.
Interested to know why and how Jazz is used, coming from something in or about music?

Tim Summa wrote:
Finally, honky, a derogatory name given to white patrons for African American hookers in Harlem NY. The white johns would honk their horns at the hookers to get them to come to their cars, rather than leave their car to make a transaction for sex.

Hm. According to Dietrich in Barney Miller, it referred to a nasally East Coast white accent. And here I thought that this fictional character was definitive.

-JAY- wrote:

Where the goddamn shit did you hear that?

Seriously....

Kelli wrote:
The swear words I know in other languages, such as Tagalog, Greek, Arabic, Spanish etc are mostly like English swear words, have same or similar meaning.

Thanks

Stephen Fletcher wrote:
There is a difference between a profanity and a vulgarity.

Very true, and thanks.
Here is what I know,, Profanity and swearing in general usually falls into one of three categories in English: sexual references, references to bodily functions, and blasphemous language. This is what I am looking to find and understand in other languages,, not the words so much,, but where they come from is what I am interested in.

Fotticelli wrote:
In Polish cursing is about the same things as in English: prostitutes, excrement, fornication, genitatlia, etc.

Same goes for Spanish: casting aspersions on the integrity of one's family tree (specifically with regards to the sexual permissiveness of one's mother/grandmother/sister), comparing someone to a bodily orifice and its associated bodily function, implying a shortage or absence of manhood in both the literal and figurative sense, etc.

Fotticelli wrote:
In Polish cursing is about the same things as in English: prostitutes, excrement, fornication, genitatlia, etc.

Thanks for the input

kickfight wrote:

Same goes for Spanish: casting aspersions on the integrity of one's family tree (specifically with regards to the sexual permissiveness of one's mother/grandmother/sister), comparing someone to a bodily orifice and its associated bodily function, implying a shortage or absence of manhood in both the literal and figurative sense, etc.

Thanks for the input