The 1600s were a watershed for swear words (2022)

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Shift in what counts as taboo

  • Many argue we are in a new “watershed” similar to the 1600s: once-powerful sexual/bodily swear words (“fuck”, “shit”) are normalized in informal speech.
  • The most taboo language now is seen as group-directed slurs (racial, homophobic, religious, age-related), sometimes described as “evil” or metaphysically harmful, analogous to historical religious curses.
  • Others push back, noting that in many religious or conservative communities these traditional swear words remain genuinely offensive, not just breaches of etiquette.

Slurs vs traditional swear words

  • Several distinguish between:
    • “Swear”/obscenity words: crude emphasis or punctuation.
    • “Curse”/slur words: wishing harm, dehumanizing, or asserting dominance (“you are property and I can hurt you”).
  • Debate over whether slurs should be classed as “curse words” or a separate category, given their focus on hate and violence.

Context, class, and culture

  • Usage is highly context- and class-dependent: acceptable in some online games, military or youth subcultures; sanctioned in workplaces, mixed company, or “polite society.”
  • Some see a class divide: slurs and strong profanity are policed more heavily among “fancier” people.
  • Online anonymity and weak consequences historically encouraged slur use; rising moderation (text and increasingly voice) is changing this.

Reclamation and group-specific usage

  • Some slurs are accepted within in-groups (e.g., among Black or gay speakers) but remain taboo for outsiders.
  • There is skepticism that such slurs will ever become casual general-purpose curses, because they still cause acute harm for many and are tightly tied to real-world oppression.

Cross-linguistic and regional contrasts

  • Non-native speakers often find English swear words weak compared to their own languages, where cursing in public can signal low status or intoxication.
  • French and Quebec French are discussed as having rich, often religiously rooted profanity.
  • Australian and some US subcultures use “cunt” in nuanced, sometimes positive ways, though many still see it as highly transgressive.

Miscellaneous

  • Some complain that swearing is used as a cheap substitute for expressive language.
  • Others share humor around historical terms (“trumpery”, “false”) and stylistic choices like writing “f-word” instead of spelling it out.