Are bad words bad?

[Nebulous]

Do you think there is such a thing as a "bad word?"

Should we watch our language in public places or say whatever we want?

Why should we avoid using profanity in front of children?

Words are just words?

[Maniakkid25]

Words are just words?

I would like to start here, and work backwards: No. Words are not just words. Whoever came up with the saying "Sticks and Stones" deserves to be slapped. Words cut. They cut deep. Sometimes they cut deeper than a knife, because words don't leave physical scars. And the worst words are the ones that stay with you, no matter how much you run. Never forget that the words you say could stick with someone for the rest of their lives, haunting them like a ghost. And if you don't believe that, look up "intrusive thoughts".

This being said, I don't think we *should* limit our vocabulary, but if someone is rightly offended by me saying "fuck", I'll quit it for their sake. There's no reason to be a dick about it and keep going. What, you wanna prove how cool you are, using the word "fuck" like a comma?

And don't get me wrong; in real life around my friends, I curse like a sailor. But I control that by the situation. There's no reason for me to say "dick" at a child, no matter how much they deserve it, sometimes.

[Moonface]

Yes, but I also think a word only becomes bad because of what it is used for, similar to other things like symbols. For example, the Nazi symbol is famous for being that, yet it existed long before the Nazi regime did and its applications were not on anything negative. It wasn't designed to be a negative symbol but was turned into one. When I grew up and lived in the UK, I associated the term "fag" purely with cigarettes as it was more commonly used as a slang term for that rather than as a derogatory term for someone who is gay. That's not to say it wasn't used that way by people, but I had zero issue hearing or using the term when applied in the context of a cigarette. We even have a food item in the UK called "faggots" and we didn't rename it just because that same word became/is (I don't know what came into existence first but I believe it was the food) a slur against gay people, because it again depends on context and going into a store to buy those, seeing there's none on the shelf and asking someone to check in the back for that product by name isn't going to cause offense unless it's obvious the person asking isn't using the word in the context it's supposed to be.
When I moved to the US, I quickly stopped using that slang term for cigarettes because I am aware the term has no slang usage in the US and is purely a slur. Sure, I could claim my cultural background as an excuse for using it and explain my usage isn't in an offensive context but I'm not selfish enough to act like I have a right to say that word (or any other) around people just because I'm not using it in a way that was acceptable to a different culture. I also can't be bothered to explain it every time to anyone who could hear me and not have the context they need for why I just said it. I get questioned enough about where I'm from due to my accent, I don't need more questions asking what certain words mean from where I come from.


I've already covered it really but in public or around others, I won't use cuss words unless where I am or who I'm around is appropriate to use them. I personally don't get the fuss around why cuss words in particular are viewed the way they are since they're not derogatory terms or anything like that (they can be used as them but calling someone the F cuss word isn't the same as the F slur word), so for some reason everyone just chooses to still view that selection of words as poor to use. Call someone an idiot though and sure you'll still get a negative reaction for it but I doubt someone would call you out on your language choice as much, even though that word is generally used as a negative descriptor for someone.

[ShiraNoMai]

Cursing, and why it was even called "cursing" in the first place, definitely has its historical origins in deriving them from superstitions (religious or otherwise) about and intended for condemning someone or honestly even using them as slurs (in the ostracizing sense). It's something that's definitely just strung along for years on end that we all collectively still agree as "curses". Each language also has their own variants on them, some even so particular you can't even translate them into English. But they all aim at doing one thing: demeaning someone, at their base level.

Now, modern use of some of these old terms has really made them more versatile in conversations because of how society has evolved. We've largely moved past the era of "I condemn you to hell," being the worst thing a human could ever bear witness to hear. In their places we've got more modern slurs to work with that depict a different society divided by different values. No longer are we bothered by "bastard children", but instead "these groups of people act/look different to me".

Anyway, the old "curse" words of yore mean nothing to their historical weights so I truly don't seem to care to throw them around unless, and like Maniak mentioned, someone is uncomfortable hearing them. I will always hold back specific language if it makes someone not feel awful because of it. It really goes a long way to be empathetic to someone than to continue to be a selfless fool with no self control, ya know?

[Moonface]

@ShiraNoMai: For some words such as "bastard" I can get how it would be seen as a curse word due to being used as part of a larger term (bastard child) but there's still others I really wonder what caused them to originate since they don't tend to be known as coming from a particular overall phrase. Even as a phrase though, I wouldn't want to send a modern British person back in time to a period where curse words were determined, because if a determining factor for a curse word is using a word in a negative manner a British person could potentially blacklist a large amount of an English dictionary with how we can turn most words into some form of an insult. There's just something about the accent that lets us say something like "Shut up you wet cabbage" and not have the latter be too ridiculous to work as a negative remark.

[ShiraNoMai]

It's all about the intent. Again, to "curse" someone, you intend to actually end a person with words, figuratively speaking. There's a difference between calling someone a vegetable and calling someone the spawn of Satan, you know? Like, damning a person to Hell, a mythical place of infinite torture, is a curse. "Ass" and "Shit" were probably considered incredibly vulgar to be compared to (I mean, they are now, too) as they were the most vulgar things to be compared to (although the evolution of this, where "lighter" words with the same meaning came to be acceptable but these remained curses confounds me a little..)