{"id":129448,"date":"2016-01-11T06:19:21","date_gmt":"2016-01-11T06:19:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/11\/on-which-words-are-dirtier-than-other-words-warning-includes-dirty-words.html"},"modified":"2016-01-11T06:19:21","modified_gmt":"2016-01-11T06:19:21","slug":"on-which-words-are-dirtier-than-other-words-warning-includes-dirty-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/11\/on-which-words-are-dirtier-than-other-words-warning-includes-dirty-words.html","title":{"rendered":"On which words are dirtier than other words (WARNING: includes dirty words)"},"content":{"rendered":"

While it's interesting to consider what words are consider bad \/ dirty \/ obscene \/ naughty, what's just as interesting is comparisons between them. Is "shit" worse than "asshole"? What about "fuck"? And how do racial slurs fit into the scatological \/ sexual equation of Words Not To Use Around Your Mother?<\/p>\n

Apparently across the Atlantic there's been a contretemps<\/i> or two recently regarding the public use of the term "bollocks" ("balls" in American, though the adjective "bollixed" enjoyed a brief popularity here after WWII), a word that apparently used to be completely verboten<\/i> in polite (or at least broadcast) company, but now is seen as less awful than it once was. <\/p>\n

That leads to the article below mentioning the UK's Advertising Standard Authority reporting in 2000 (http:\/\/www.ofcom.org.uk\/static\/archive\/itc\/uploads\/Delete_Expletives.pdf)on<\/a> obscene words, and, more interestingly, the comparative "severity" of various obscene words based on a public survey. <\/p>\n

A figure from that table is shown below, and I find it academically fascinating in a variety of ways, including differences (in my own perception) between the US and the UK, and differences (in the UK) in what's seen as worse than what (and speculation about why in both cases).<\/p>\n

Humans are kind of weird sometimes.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

\n
\n
\n<\/a>
\nNever mind the bollocking, here’s the slang data<\/a><\/span>
\nAn unlikely swearword hit the headlines twice in recent days, thanks to its use on mainstream television from two prominent figures. In the first clip below, celebrity journalist Piers Morgan uses …\n<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

View on Google+<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While it's interesting to consider what words are consider bad \/ dirty \/ obscene \/ naughty, what's just as interesting is comparisons between them. Is "shit" worse than "asshole"? What about "fuck"? And how do racial slurs fit into the scatological \/ sexual equation of Words Not To Use Around Your Mother? Apparently across the … Continue reading “On which words are dirtier than other words (WARNING: includes dirty words)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-129448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-plusposts"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":137413,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/11\/05\/presidential-words-mean-things.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":0},"title":"Presidential Words Mean Things","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Nov-18 7:41pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Remember when we hoped that presidential speechfying would edify the world, that it could help spread the principles of American democracy, that it might encourage foreign governments to pursue the angels of their better nature. And then Trump happens.\u275d The Nigerian army has cited a video of US President Donald\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":135920,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/02\/22\/words-mean-things-immigration-services-edition.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":1},"title":"Words Mean Things (Immigration Services Edition)","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 22-Feb-18 4:35pm","format":false,"excerpt":"The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is changing its mission statement. Can you spot the differences? Before USCIS secures America\u2019s promise as a nation of immigrants by providing accurate and useful information to our customers, granting immigration and citizenship benefits, promoting an awareness and understanding of citizenship, and ensuring the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/citizenship.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":132839,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/02\/13\/the-first-childrens-picture-book.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":2},"title":"The First Children's Picture Book","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 13-Feb-17 2:00pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It's apparently the Orbis Sensualium Pictus (or The World of Things Obvious to the Senses drawn in Pictures by Czech-born author John Comenius in 1658.There's a ton of interesting things in the linked article, but part of what I love is this English translation (the original was in Latin and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129405,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/01\/08\/new-words-for-old.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":3},"title":"New words for old","author":"***Dave","date":"Fri 8-Jan-16 7:09am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm not sure that the examples given represent evolution, or even growth, but they show how language churns and words develop. Of the ones mentioned, I would expect only a handful to really last more than a few years -- they are more witticisms about a current social trend than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":128232,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/10\/05\/of-the-f-bomb-and-personal-vocabulary-kinks.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":4},"title":"Of the F-Bomb and Personal Vocabulary Kinks","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 5-Oct-15 2:06pm","format":false,"excerpt":"It is perhaps a sign of my long years that I do not comfortably use that particular four-letter word. Growing up, that was the nuclear option of vocabulary, the worst possible word one could use. The \"F\" word trumped even the \"S\" word, being not only an obscenity but related\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/0671dfcb75f05e1fcbbb9a14543592bc5B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":137496,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2018\/12\/27\/bad-words-for-good-health.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":5},"title":"Bad Words for Good Health!","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 27-Dec-18 6:52pm","format":false,"excerpt":"To the extent that swearing is cathartic, it makes perfect sense that doing it can relieve stress and make you more calm and lead to positive health outcomes.Unless doing it causes your mother to inflict blunt force trauma about your head and shoulders. So consider that health factor, too. Swearing\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129448"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129448\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}