{"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":11227,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2007\/10\/18\/dirty_words.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":0},"title":"Dirty words","author":"***Dave","date":"Thu 18-Oct-07 10:59am","format":false,"excerpt":"Why do we swear?\u00a0 More importantly, why does it upset some people?\u00a0 How has swearing changed over the years, and do rules (legal or social) about it make any sense?\u00a0...","rel":"","context":"In "Writing and Language"","block_context":{"text":"Writing and Language","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/writing-and-language"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4216,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2003\/10\/14\/roadmap.html","url_meta":{"origin":129448,"position":1},"title":"Roadmap?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 14-Oct-03 9:49am","format":false,"excerpt":"No, we're not being overly-sensitive to the Saudis. 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