Are cuss words becoming more socially acceptable?

I'm ashamed to admit I've caught episodes of McCloud's daughters before. Those are some majorly pissed off ladies. The only thing I really remember about the copule episodes I saw was they always seemed to be really pissed off at someone, usually a man.

In America <snip> is pretty harsh, maybe not as much in Britain.

Crusader, maybe you're thinking tit. It's funny how fanny means a totally different thing in American English than British English.

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Crusader, maybe you're thinking tit. It's funny how fanny means a totally different thing in American English than British English.

Yea, that's what I mean't, I just didn't want to get told off by the mods for swearing... on a thread about swearing :hmm:
 
Crusader, maybe you're thinking tit. It's funny how fanny means a totally different thing in American English than British English.

What Wikipedia says about "fanny":

In slang:

  • A South African, Australian, Irish and British colloquial term for the external genital organs of a female (vulva).
  • A North American term for the buttocks.

A totally different thing? Looks like it's just two sides of the same coin...
 
Well if a mother says to her young daughter, "be quiet or I'll spank your little fanny" it sounds perfectly normal in American English but very very different in Britain.
 
Well if a mother says to her young daughter, "be quiet or I'll spank your little fanny" it sounds perfectly normal in American English but very very different in Britain.

Forgive me but some very rude, disturbing and inappropriate thoughts came to my mind...

Makes me think of how a "fag" is a pejorative for homosexual in America while in the UK it's known as a colloquialism for a cigarette.

&#9835;Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto,
Let's call the whole thing off&#9835;
 
In the interests of balance, you should have put Ys in "potayto" and "tomayto". :)
 
In the interests of balance, you should have put Ys in "potayto" and "tomayto". :)

They're already there. Just like how Juan has a silent "J", "tomato" and "potato" have an invisible "y". :crazyeye:
 
We will have to agree to disagree, you foul-spelling dog! :)
 
They aren't acceptable in the work place environment. I got written up for using the F word. I almost got fired because they said the F word could constitute sexual harassment which is a zero tolerance policy (which means you get fired without a chance to defend yourself). In my case I didn't use the F word in that context, but I was told it didn't matter. Any use of the F word could constitute sexual harassment.

Since then, I have strove never to use bad language again.
 
Americans are rank novices when it comes to profanity, and the amount of moderation in this thread shows why.

Whereas in the UK, If I "twatted" someone is a perfectly legitimate verb in all senses, I can't help but feel Americans would spaz out over it.
 
Frack that crap, wigga! United States swear words are more manly than what the Aussies and the Brits use. And we pronounce them correctly too.
 
They aren't acceptable in the work place environment. I got written up for using the F word. I almost got fired because they said the F word could constitute sexual harassment which is a zero tolerance policy (which means you get fired without a chance to defend yourself). In my case I didn't use the F word in that context, but I was told it didn't matter. Any use of the F word could constitute sexual harassment.

Since then, I have strove never to use bad language again.

I would have said to myself "F this" and resigned because I just sexually harassed myself.

That policy is so stupid that I laughed. :lol:
 
It all depends on where you work, I've worked places where everyone cursed constantly and no one cared or talked about any policy.
 
Why wouldn't they be? Words lose their weight over time -- but new 'cuss words' will rise to take the place of the ones which are fading from the profane to the ordinary.
 
Those would fall under the vulgar and racial remarks mentioned later in the post.

Most swears barring the f word are legal in our household. But sex or race-based profanities are not.

Back in the late 80s I had a conversation with a linguistics grad student over profanity. As I recall, she said that all languages seem to have a set of taboo words, but that the actual set changes over time. So nowadays scatalogical and general sexual references are becoming more broadly accepted. Some that were way out of bounds when I was growing up in the 60s and 70s are now common on TV and at work. At the same time, using a racial slur or a derogatory term for someone's sexuality will get you ostracized from polite society very quickly, maybe even fired from your job.

Personally, I think that's progress, at least in that it's no longer generally acceptable to denigrate somebody based on traits they have no control over.
 
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