Are swear words merely the spice of language, or do they carry deeper significance? Joe Haslam joins me, Adam Richardson, in a captivating discussion that peels back the veneer on language censorship and the vibrancy of profanity. As we weave personal narratives with cultural insights, we promise an enlightening look into the words society often whispers.
From the living room to the TV screen, the world of censorship spins an intriguing tale. Joe and I draw from our parenting experiences and media observations to untangle the complex web of what's considered suitable language. We delve into the historical tapestry of swear words, revealing their transformation from mere utterances to powerful tools of expression. Along the way, we find that these taboo terms not only reflect vocabulary but can also hint at one's honesty, intellect, and even offer a surprising balm for pain. In this verbal adventure, we invite you to consider the charm and evolution of communication, from the economical telegrams to the brevity of today's text lingo.
To round off our linguistic foray, we polish off some Shakespearean insults, proving that contempt need not be laced with vulgarity. Discussing the fluidity of language, we argue that context is king when it comes to the power of a word. Joe and I agree that understanding the roots and intentions behind our language can enhance our communication, allowing us to express ourselves with both clarity and creativity. So, buckle up and prepare to expand your lexicon—this episode promises to amuse, educate, and perhaps, even reform your view of the 'swear jar'.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/victorian-dress-encoded-note
Are swear words merely the spice of language, or do they carry deeper significance? Joe Haslam joins me, Adam Richardson, in a captivating discussion that peels back the veneer on language censorship and the vibrancy of profanity. As we weave personal narratives with cultural insights, we promise an enlightening look into the words society often whispers.
From the living room to the TV screen, the world of censorship spins an intriguing tale. Joe and I draw from our parenting experiences and media observations to untangle the complex web of what's considered suitable language. We delve into the historical tapestry of swear words, revealing their transformation from mere utterances to powerful tools of expression. Along the way, we find that these taboo terms not only reflect vocabulary but can also hint at one's honesty, intellect, and even offer a surprising balm for pain. In this verbal adventure, we invite you to consider the charm and evolution of communication, from the economical telegrams to the brevity of today's text lingo.
To round off our linguistic foray, we polish off some Shakespearean insults, proving that contempt need not be laced with vulgarity. Discussing the fluidity of language, we argue that context is king when it comes to the power of a word. Joe and I agree that understanding the roots and intentions behind our language can enhance our communication, allowing us to express ourselves with both clarity and creativity. So, buckle up and prepare to expand your lexicon—this episode promises to amuse, educate, and perhaps, even reform your view of the 'swear jar'.
https://allthatsinteresting.com/victorian-dress-encoded-note
Today on the Idiot's Guide, we are talking about censorship, the good, the bad, the ugly I don't know who gives a flying frog anyway. And what does a beautiful Victorian-era dress, a secret-coded note and 135-year-old meteorology have in common? Tune in and find out, or in other words, fuck around and find out. I'm your host, adam Richardson, aka the Profit Hacker, and I'm joined by the man in charge, mr Joe Haslam. Welcome to the Idiot's Guide. ["the Idiot's Guide"].
Speaker 1:All right, so I have this thought that the other day, I don't know, like I think, you and I were having a conversation about this and about where, like how far do we push it with our kids, kind of a thing.
Speaker 1:When do I drop the nasty word that gets them motivated to do something, or whatever it is, you know, and we kind of talked a little bit about our own philosophies or opinion about that, about where we sit with it and what we feel like we are tolerance level with our kids. You know, If my seven-year-old drops an F bomb in front of me, I'm gonna be like okay, that's cute, but still Like mm. I don't know, you know. But if my 15-year-old does in some sort of expression, you know, there's some tolerance there and so it's both of those situations or learning opportunities in my home, not necessarily not learning about the taste of soap or hot sauce, it's you know. And side note I had a friend who absolutely hated Tabasco sauce because anytime he said anything bad or nasty he would get Tabasco sauce not on his tongue, under his tongue. So like, just add to the burn and excruciating pain, just ugh.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's maybe a parenting topic for another podcast.
Speaker 1:Yeah, We'll talk about child abuse on a different one, yeah, but you know this is a fun subject I mean it really is because there's lots of different opinions. I think you know it depends on what circles you're in and where you are in the world and all of those things. All those factors matter what kind of job situation. Your context is really, really important and even in my studies about some of this stuff, a lot of it came down to context or what would be judiciously, you know, making sure that you're putting this in place where it can belong, yeah, and maybe tempering it when you're not in that kind of a setting so that you're not, you know, blasting somebody that you know it's like a family of seven and all the kids are, you know, under five and you're like, okay, sorry, yeah, I didn't mean to educate your kids like that. But, yeah, I mean it's true, yeah.
Speaker 1:So I think I'm not really sure where to start with this, other than you know you've kind of come up with some research and some definitions and I really want to unpack that. We'll drop a couple of these curse words ahead of time. So just a fair warning to our listeners. You know it's not meant in a way that is derogatory towards anybody. It's to educate you guys on this, and I reviewed YouTube's explicit content warnings and that kind of stuff to make sure that we can abide by what their policy says, so that eventually, someday, we might be able to have some advertisers on here. There you go.
Speaker 2:But what we're talking about today is really about swear words and why we call them swear words and why we censor them out of everything.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And as parents we censor our children TV radio. They censor what goes on the air. So I think one of the I watch a TV show called QI, which is a British TV show, and they are allowed one F-bomb per show on the BBC and so because they've talked about it on that show before, someone dropped one and that was their one for the show and they usually have to get it pre-approved before they're even allowed to air it as part of the show.
Speaker 2:But US television has the same rules. I don't know specifically what they are, but yeah, these censorship rules, and the question is why are we censoring certain words? Censorship is a big thing right now. There's a lot of push on censoring books, censoring certain things online and certain topics, certain websites, and the question is why do we censor?
Speaker 2:And so we're today talking specifically about swear words. Air quotes for those just listening to the podcast and not on YouTube. And where it came from. Why are swear words now becoming more common than they were previously, or more acceptable as common? And so we're going to be dropping a couple of these words. So just be warned. Now, my personal view is words are words, and so any of these curse words, swear words. What other descriptors?
Speaker 2:are there's any of these things, they're words Semities yeah. It's the intent with which you use the word that is more important than the word itself. Now, we will not be using the N word. We are two white guys, and so that is nowhere in our territory. There are some topics that we want to talk about that are more sensitive, but we're going to bring in people within those groups that we'll talk about Because, again, two white guys have really no place to talk about feminism, to talk about seriously about race discrimination, things like that.
Speaker 1:And my wife and I go to a karaoke night pretty regularly and at the karaoke night they had a competition recently where there was one guy, very, very white guy, like Cardigan in Glasses kind of white guy, and not that other people that aren't white can't wear cardigans and glasses, but it was just like you can picture a librarian like this and this guy gets up and starts just rapping Like Noah I can't remember. He came up with this actually kind of catchy nickname for himself for MCing and it was like MC Andrew. It was way better than my pretend thing there. But most of the songs that he was rapping in all had the N-word in it and this is a place that I mean they're probably not going to get in trouble To do that. It's kind of OK.
Speaker 1:But even for me I went up and I sang a song that had it a few times in it and I just made sure that I didn't say it. I skipped over that word or I you know how you kind of like censor it halfway. You're like, hmm, you know, and that's it.
Speaker 2:And yeah, and there are cultural reasons why certain cultures or subcultures it's perfectly OK to use certain words, whereas others it's not. One of my favorite swear words is the word bloody. Now in the United States, even in the Americas, north America, talk about Canada, united States, other English speaking that come from a British background. Bloody is no, nothing, right, you know, it's a normal word.
Speaker 1:It's a horror movie.
Speaker 2:Right, I grew up. We watched a lot of British shows. Growing up, I don't know why we learned proper British I think we've talked about it before. We had to learn the proper using utensils the American way All 12 of them, yeah and the British way. So I grew up with a lot of these with this British influence. Even now I watch a lot of British shows.
Speaker 1:Yes, Joe, we all know your royalty.
Speaker 2:That's right, and so I use the word bloody a lot. Now, again, in the United States, not a big deal. If this is airing in England, these would potentially have to be bleeped out, and so you know, using certain words in certain subcultures it's perfectly fine, whereas others are not, and that's because the subculture is the one that's defining that use. Now, a lot of the ones that we're going to be talking about today don't necessarily have a subculture idea behind them. They are all generally. All English speaking cultures see these as negative words. But since we're talking about bloody, I am going to read a little bit of background to this one. Ok, because this leads into why suddenly, we started censoring words. So this is it was used as an intensifier. So all these, everything that I'm going to be reading today, came from Wiktionary. Sorry, I'll put my paper down. Adam just pointed to me to put my paper down. Sorry, I hold paper up to read them. And the cameras.
Speaker 1:That's OK, as long as I don't cover the camera with your.
Speaker 2:So bloody has been used as early as the. Until at least the early 18th century, the word was used innocuously. So again, all this is coming from Wiktionary. This is all the etymology. This is the history. So now some of this may be incorrect because it's a wiki, but I generally trust Wiktionary to be able to give a lot of this information.
Speaker 1:Just can't cite it in a college paper. That's all, yeah, well, and again.
Speaker 2:I think Wiktionary is a little bit different from Wikipedia because more people go on to Wikipedia and make changes than they do on Wiktionary, but anyway, so it was innocuous, it wasn't a big word. Using bloody was no big deal until the mid 18th century, so we're talking about 1750s ish and then all of a sudden it became more quote unquote profane and in 1755, it was it started to be called a very vulgar word and in the 1888 Oxford English dictionary the word is now constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes but by respectable people considered a horrid word on par with obscene or profane language. So that was in the Oxford Oxford dictionary for the word bloody, and so somehow it went from this everyday word to somehow a very profane word and obscene. Nothing changed about the word, it just became that way.
Speaker 2:Now one thing that's mentioned in there is it is is now constantly in the mouths of the lowest classes, and a lot of times when we're looking at these swear words it's because it was in common use by the quote unquote lowest classes. So the, the, the most basic of people, and the ones that were defining word use and defining proper language were the upper class. You know, the professors, the rich people, the, the people who had this air of superiority around them, and so they. Because these words were used so commonly, they became bad. And that actually goes into if we look at. I've got definitions for some of the main what we call these words.
Speaker 2:Okay so we often hear the word vulgar, so these are vulgar things to talk about. Okay, the that word comes from the Latin meaning vulgaris. Okay, so that's the original Latin term and it means common folk, and so vulgar language is the commonly spoken language, so it's the most basic words spoken it would almost be like the use of that word in correlation to like the.
Speaker 1:the evolution of the word bloody Vulgar started to coincide with it, because it was referring to common folk.
Speaker 2:Exactly, and so that's why you know. The first time in 1755, it was called very vulgar was spoken by the people. Yeah, but it wasn't spoken by the elite, it was the people's words. And then when we think about profane, so profanity, that comes from Latin profanus, and that means not religious or unclean. Okay, so that's the origin of profane. And then the next one is to swear. So these are swear words. Well, all that means in all history is to take an oath. Yeah, so you know, I swear.
Speaker 1:I solemnly swear right exactly and nothing but the truth. Yeah, exactly.
Speaker 2:That's a common swear that we all generally know, and so they're swear words, and I'll get into it in a minute where that comes from. But then we've got the last one obscene, which comes from Latin obscenus. Not much changes from the old Latin in all of these, which means inauspicious, ominous, disgusting, filthy, offensive, repulsive, indecent or lewd which is basically all of the talking about.
Speaker 2:And so you know, when I look at this, these aren't swear words, they're not vulgar words because they're spoken by all people, so I guess that would I mean it's not of the most lowly people. You know that, being the definition of vulgar, it's not necessarily profane. So saying the word ass is not profane. So it's not talking about religion, it's not making a swear. So I'm not taking an oath, but what we have done is all of these obscenities which are based on common standards of decency they are. We've started using these other terms for obscene.
Speaker 1:I think one of the and this kind of goes with how my household we see swearing. And take the word ass, for example. If I'm just saying you know, like, honestly, like in our normal dialect, like I think about, it's pretty much derogatory unless I'm referring to a donkey, like that's it. But other than that, like if you're a dumbass, you know that's a normal phrase. But how that applies in my household is we say if you hear a swear word and let's say you hear a swear word and you're like, oh, that's a swear word, but it's not used in a context where they're putting someone down or offending or targeting somebody. So if I call somebody a dumbass, that's calling that's directly at them. That's derogatory, and so that's something where that in my household we're like that's swearing. Okay, but if I was just like man, I just that was bad ass. You know like that's not necessarily bad, you know like.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's, it's, it's and that's where that's. You know, when I talk about now, I don't ever swear because it's, it's just not part of my vocabulary. Now again, I do say bloody, but in the US that's not really swearing. Quote unquote swearing it's not obscene.
Speaker 1:My son forces me to use dumbass or smart ass. Oh, actually, I know it's not. It's not dumbass I. He forces me to use smart ass because his middle name is Alec. And so when I go, hey, stop being such a smart Alec. Yeah, and he's like but that's my name and I'm like I was like then, stop being such a smart ass.
Speaker 2:But yeah, and so the idea that you know, and the reason I avoid swearing is because there are better ways to insult someone. There are better ways to say things than to use just this common base language, and so I like to come up with creative stuff. So I've actually got a list here of Shakespeare insults.
Speaker 1:Oh, nice yeah.
Speaker 2:So I'll go through those a little bit later.
Speaker 1:When we're talking about you know some of the meanings of these words.
Speaker 2:I do desire that we may be better strangers.
Speaker 2:I love it's great because it's I understand it oh yeah, it's better than you know these words because it's just, it's so much more creative. So I like being creative with my insults, yeah, but yeah, and so when we, when we look at these words, when we look at the history of what these words mean, it's really, they're really innocuous, and even I mean I've got definite definitions for some of the more common words and they really haven't changed. But what happened was society changed and society decided that there was now a need to not be as base or as common. Another change that happened was the idea that there was more adherence to a religious doctrine, and so this is actually why we call them swear words, because they're not swear words. We aren't making a swear, but it was during the Victorian era that a lot of these things changed.
Speaker 2:Okay, in all my research, there was no consensus, and there's still a lot of arguments, as to why this changed. You know, some see religious revivals as being cause of it. Some see the recent losses in war as being a part of it. There were a lot of potential reasons, but no historian or no historians have come to a consensus as to what it was. It's just for some reason, in the 1700s, there was this sudden shift into a more decent view. So this is what I found. So in the Victorian area, and this comes from Harold Perkins, the origins of modern English society, written in 1969, we are trying to cite more, so that's why there's more citations between 1780 and 1850.
Speaker 2:The English ceased to be one of the most aggressive, brutal, rowdy, outspoken, riotous, cruel and budthirsty nations in the world and became one of the most inhibited, polite, orderly, tender minded, prudish and hypocritical. Now, the really interesting thing about that is that was in 1780, when roughly that started. Well, that was after America had already won its independence, and so how this impacted the United States and the American society, again not really sure, but it has, even after our independence from England. And so but one of the reasons why we call them swear words is because during this time there was a stronger adherence to biblical doctrine, and the specific Bible verse is this one Now Adam is a youth minister. He is devout Christian.
Speaker 1:I have. I have cussed out many teenagers and he.
Speaker 2:He was not even aware of this as a as a doctrine when we were talking about this earlier. So I don't think even a lot of people understand that this is where the idea of swear words come from. Yeah, but this is Matthew five, verse 33 through 37. I wasn't aware of this either, just to be clear. But I'm pointing out at him because he's picking on me Exactly.
Speaker 2:One of my rare opportunities to be able to do that. So again, you have heard that it was said to the people long ago do not break your oath, but fulfill to the Lord the vows you have made. But I tell you, do not swear an oath at all, either by heaven, for it is God's throne, or by earth, for it is his foot stool, or by Jerusalem, for it is the city of the great king. And do not swear by your head, for you cannot make even one hair white or black. All you need to say is simply yes or no. Anything beyond this comes from the evil one, and so in society at this time, there was basically a prohibition of people following the Bible to make an oath of any kind. So even just saying I swear I didn't do it, that would have been offensive.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, like I looked up a couple of those like across my heart and swear to God. I swear on my mother's grave, you know, I swear on my life, I swear on everything I hold dear. I pledge on my honor. I solemnly swear, I vouch for it, I give my word, I promise on everything sacred to me. I stake my reputation on it and I affirm with all my heart. I mean those are just a few, but you know, those are the things where you're like a pinky promise or pinky swear, like that's my daughter.
Speaker 2:And I do that.
Speaker 1:I'm like man, I mean like we're. We're sinners.
Speaker 2:And that's exactly it. And so swearing and constant swearing and the use of these base words, the vulgar words you commonly use by the people, were seen as the same thing, and so they became synonymous at with swears, and so they became swear words. All right, and so we have all these words, and it's just because of common swearing. Now again, there's a lot of different things that were happening at this time. So the entire change of society. To say that these, all these swear words are now bad was not just because of a religious doctrine. It's just they all occurred at the same time, and so now we call them swear words and they are bad words.
Speaker 1:There's a series that I watched on Netflix about two years ago, I think is when it came out called the history of swearing, and Nicholas Cage is the host and it's really entertaining. It's funny. They talk about all you know all the swear words you can imagine. Definitely not a family friendly show Can't imagine.
Speaker 1:But it's, it's interesting to see, like you know, what we're talking about here. They didn't even talk about the Victorian era, of kind of this beginning of censorship. They just talked about the evolution of these swear words themselves. And I think what's interesting is, like, some of the definitions I believe that you have here honestly are, are similar, but one of the ones that, like, I think you know, they, they, they go through a couple other ones that we're not going to talk about today, but but you know, like, let's say, for example, the F word. You know the F word and I, like I want to kind of dive into that history. So I don't want to let too much out of the bag, but I think it's cool if you're, you know, wanting a little bit more out of this than just our show, and then, you know, check that out, it's definitely entertaining and they make it fun. I hope that they. You know there's lots more swear words, so there's there's plenty of room for another season, so yeah, Now remember, knowledge is power.
Speaker 2:The more knowledge you have, the more power that you have. Yeah, and that's important, and I think about square words because it's when you know where they come from, when you know why they are seeing the way they are, the more control you have over the world around you. You know, you know why people have an issue with it, you know when to use it, when not to use it, based on the people that you're around. There are a lot of reasons to understand why swear words are considered what they are, and so that's why we're talking about it, because this is a part of you know, being a human and having communication, having language. You know, and and I think, just about every language in the world world has some kind of swear word where it's one word that's being used for something else, which is what a lot of these are, or inherent swear words which is what the F word is.
Speaker 2:So, going right into that one. And now, the reason why we're not saying fuck is because YouTube does specifically limit the number that we would be allowed to say, and so we are going to continue using the F word for that one, specifically because of YouTube restrictions. It's the other one.
Speaker 1:So we're up to two so far. Right, yes, you know, and I think I don't know how many more we can say before we get flagged and, like you, can you just have to be very transparent about what you say in there. And for the most part, yes, we're up to two, but I'm probably going to bleep the first one.
Speaker 2:So the F word is actually one of the few words that has always been an obscene word.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It has always meant what it still means today, which is to essentially so. Most of the time when you use the F word, it's canotes go have sex, Right? Yeah, that's what it means. Now we use it for other things, but that's still kind of always implied.
Speaker 1:And the myth that it's fornication under the consent of the king is not actually true.
Speaker 2:For uncarnal knowledge or for unallowed carnal knowledge or whatever. That also not true. There are a lot of false reasonings for all these words that we have done the research, we've gone back to the history to find out. I've checked all of the references in Wixionary to make sure that all this is accurate and so, but yeah, so the F word is the first, the first word for this, and we may have to bleep some of this out Now. These are city names, these are actual words here. But in 772 AD, a charter that gave mention to a place called Fuckerham, which may mean Ham, which is home of the Fucker, or pasture of the Fucker. Okay, okay, so that is actually. That is in the charter for a city, hamlet home, in 772 AD.
Speaker 1:I'll just see if I can find the map where it shows that.
Speaker 2:In 1278, there was record of an individual named John LaFucker.
Speaker 1:I've heard about that one Yep, an unfortunate name, like even that household, like that. Those are two very unfortunate things to be associated with. I mean not necessarily unfortunate, but still like in general when you're addressing yourself or you know some sort of formal address, you're like and welcome to the ballroom, mr.
Speaker 2:Well, and again I mean these could be insults made by some county clerk, that hated this guy, and so awful that that first house was right. Yeah, there are a lot of reasons why, but that where the F word has always had this connotation of some kind of sexual implication or insult, and so there's. There's another one in court documents from Cheshire England mentions a man called Roger fuck by the naval.
Speaker 1:Interesting.
Speaker 2:And it states in here, and this was in 1310, states in here, possibly tongue-in-cheek or directly suggestive of a depraved sexual attitude 1310. 1310.
Speaker 1:Goodness sake, that's. That's a long time ago.
Speaker 2:This is how long that word has been a part of it, and this is one where it has not changed. There hasn't been any change in how it's used in all of that time. It has always been obscene. It's always been a bad word. Air quotes. So, yeah, so, and it was first listed in a dictionary in 1598. We're being serenaded here, yay.
Speaker 2:So yeah so I've got a lot of other fun ones here. So yeah, so it's. That is one of the words that has always been a bad word used despairing used to despair people.
Speaker 1:I'm definitely going to have to censor most of them.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll go into.
Speaker 1:YouTube.
Speaker 2:We'll stop that, yeah we'll go into some of these other ones. So bitch okay is another one, and that comes from well, actually it comes from proto-Germanic, just meaning dog Okay. So it actually changed to become female dog because it started being used as a pejorative toward women.
Speaker 1:Now, even today, we still call oh, she's a dog, you know, to say that someone's ugly or anything like that even if you're like talking to another guy and and you're like stop being such a bitch, like it's in reference to being more, like being weaker and being right, less masculine.
Speaker 2:Right, and the translation of that. So again, it's a word that has. It comes from proto-Germanic into English. It's big, big, big, I think, is the pronunciation, and it just means dog, and it's just over time turned into bitch in English today, and the description of applying that to people is what changed the word into a pejorative word Okay, and so applying it to someone calling someone a dog. And then, over time, those characteristics of dog behavior then became the definition of bitch when using it as a pejorative against someone else, and so the original term is a dog, which is still in some ways what it's used today in dog breeding, and a lot of times it's how you're representing the characteristics when you're calling someone that in a negative tone.
Speaker 2:The next one on here ass. So ass comes from the Latin assiness, which means a donkey, or it means an ass, cretin, idiot, dolt, blockhead, or a slow witted, inept person. Now that that was the definition, according to Wiktionary, of the Latin word assiness. So even back in Latin, this was used as a pejorative to people who were dimwitted, comparing them to a donkey.
Speaker 1:I think about that and I'm trying to think of translation from biblical context, because they use ass in the Bible and like when Jesus rides into Jerusalem, he's riding in on an ass, and when he does that, it's this. You know, the Greek is what the text is written in the New Testament, and so it's translated into the Latin, which would be. I wonder what the Greek word is. Be curious, yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm not sure I didn't have there, may not. There may be an equivalent word for a donkey, but it has not come to very obviously like ours is, is you know, based from Latin right and so the idea that you know when you call someone you're an ass, you're calling them a dimwitted, a stupid, you know, idiot, things like that, now, even those words. In a lot of times, calling someone stupid, idiot, you know, especially with little kids, we see that, oh, that's a bad word, right, and that's because it's used to.
Speaker 1:We're using it against or to somebody Right, exactly.
Speaker 2:But yeah. So ass has never meant someone's backside, and yet somehow today we have associated this dimwitted idea to the butt. There was nothing on how that change happened, but somehow that change has come in over all that time. But ass just means a dimwitted person or a donkey. Damn is the next one, and that comes from Latin damn near, which means to condemn or to inflict loss upon. And so that's another one where that same idea is still present today. So damn, you is to condemn someone, and so you are. You are using that same thing Now. Interestingly, when I was looking at this, a lot of people don't like saying the word damn when it comes to the edifice that holds water back.
Speaker 2:And so they'll try to make sure they either call it the name of the dam, so oh yeah, hoover Dam, or a beaver dam or anything like that, to avoid saying the word.
Speaker 1:Damn Well, like you know in in my youth group we used to go to this snow camp thing and we would sled down the dam. But we would go like oh yeah, we're going to go sledding on the darn, you know, and all the kids do exactly what we're talking about. But it was just. It was in the same kind of context that we're doing here. We're like I don't want to call it a dam, like yeah, because then all the kids are going to be like because then all the kids are going to be like.
Speaker 2:Interestingly, when I looked up because I had to look up dam, the edifice that holds back water, to see where that history came from. It is also Latin and the original Latin word is damn with two Ms.
Speaker 2:And so, when I was looking at, we've actually shortened the condemnation version of the word, which was damn, there to damn, and the original word of damn the edifice that holds back water is the same as it always has been, just dropped off the extra M, and so we've changed damn near into this. So damn came first, damn came second.
Speaker 1:I'm going to go back to ASS real fast because I just I have a Strong's dictionary on my phone, so Strong's is Strong's is basically just a language translator for biblical phrases, whether it's Greek text or Hebrew text. Back in Genesis, this word shows up 17 times and it's Shamor. Shamor is Hebrew for a male ASS. And then in Matthew it shows up three times, I think, or five times, three times, and the word is Onos, or well, yeah, it's, onos is what it is Primary word for a donkey, so an ASS, so not really related in sound. You still get the linguistic side of it comes from the Latin as opposed to it coming from the Greek. But we do have words that come from Greek, just not this one.
Speaker 2:And then the last one I have here. Again, we're not going to do a ton of words, but last one I have here is shit, which comes from proto West Germanic skitty and skit, yeah, and old English, english shite, shite, shiza. That's where men shite is diarrhea, oh, so shite is done. Now, even in England today, saying the word shite is equivalent to shit. Okay, and so that word is exactly the same. We use it mainly as a word for excrement.
Speaker 1:And again, it doesn't mean store high in transit, it's not a shipping, no, no, that's that's all bunk.
Speaker 2:It came from the old old Germanic, or sorry, proto West Germanic, and old English. Over time it's just become shit from skitty Again. I don't speak proto West Germanic so my pronunciations are way wrong, but you can look these up on Wiktionary. But the idea is, you know now today we use it for a little bit more, but you can see how the translation get your shit out of here. You are speaking negatively about these objects that you want to get out of there.
Speaker 1:There's a great comedy bit that talks about the word shit and how many variations it has for all sorts of different things. Like to actually take a shit to being the shit to, you know, like a stupid shit to everything else in between. Like there's so many that you have to like. If you have a chance, I'll see if I can find it and link it in the video and the show notes, just because it's it's really entertaining. It's from somebody who isn't from the US and so they had to learn the English language and they're they're kind of picking on this word because they're like it's so confusing, like at some point it's really mean and saying something. It's just having to go to the bathroom and some point you're just awesome and that's that's what you are and all of it is that one word, and so it's just it's. It's that makes the English language even more confusing because of it.
Speaker 2:And what we're seeing. So this started in, like I said, the late 1700s, mid 1800s, when a lot of these things started changing and what we're seeing today is a new evolution of language. So back during that time these words were heavily, heavily redacted. Even today, starting in about the 60s, we started seeing these words coming up more often. They became to be reused in common language and there was a lot of fight against that. You mentioned earlier that the censorship in the 1980s with like movie ratings, tvs, there you go, all these things came in to try to limit the use of these words like a league of moms that came through to start to actually rate movies.
Speaker 2:And so all that came in because they were trying to keep those old values going, and it takes time. So even here we've got this. Was what is that? 70 years of transition, yeah, from what they said the riotous, outspoken, cruel to polite, orderly, tender minded that took about 70 years. We're in the midst of this change, and so we're seeing a lot of these arguments, these fights back and forth about what words should be used, shouldn't be used, when should you use them? When shouldn't you use them? That's why there's a lot of argument going on right now. It's not because there's some inherent value to these words. It's how we're using words and how, as a society, we define our conduct around each other, and so just because someone uses quote unquote foul language or doesn't doesn't define who they are as a person. It's just how they communicate. And so knowing what these words are, knowing that this is just a cultural shift going on right now, is it's kind of cool.
Speaker 1:So over the last years, it's actually done a significant shift to this, and it goes. It coincides with kind of a lot better research regarding mental health, and I have an article. It's why swearing holds surprising benefits a window into intelligence, pain management and more. It's interesting this article is written by Alex. Literally that's it, alex, and that's Orlando Medical News. There's a chance this is AI. A lot of this information, though, stems it seems to be drawing from many other sources that have the same information, similar information about you know what, what's been set out there? This is just the most recent article I could find, and but this goes back. The latest or the earliest one I saw was 2011 was talking about how this, how this all connects together, and myth busters emotional intelligence and that kind of stuff.
Speaker 2:Myth Buster did an entire episode on pain management and swearing and I found that swearing was more beneficial to pain management than if you were to say any other word.
Speaker 1:Studies have shown that well educated people with a wide range of words at their disposal are better at producing curse words than those with less verbal fluency. This suggests a correlation between language ability and intelligence the other thing that it talks about. So it's a sign of intelligence in that sort of definition.
Speaker 2:So since I don't swear, are you calling me stupid?
Speaker 1:Technically, this is the another benefit is a potential indicator of honesty. So you know, if I'm really pissed, it's you're going to know. I'm pissed by the way, pissed is a swear word in the south, yeah and so pain tolerance and swearing. So there's been studies on the Netflix show that I talked about. They actually do this, this thing, they record it happening and basically they stuck their hand in ice cold water with ice ice in it and just holding it there and the study, for they basically timed how long you can last and the locals when they first tried it, they tried it and they stuck their hand in and then they weren't allowed to swear and so like they just timed how long that took and then it was like it was like I don't want to, I was like three times the length, like significantly longer, if you were allowed to swear through the process. So you're just sitting there with your hand and ice water, just swear words, and it's really entertaining to kind of think about that.
Speaker 1:The show was fantastic when they did this, but the premise behind it is it talks about how it triggers a stress reaction in your body and that response of you swearing is part of that kind of like satisfying. Like you know, when my body, you know, those endorphins kick in, I have to do something with them. And communicating that kind of expels some of that energy that you're there and also get your mind thinking about what you're going to say next, you know, colorfully, rather than it being about your hand freezing off. The other one is swear. Swearing holds surprising benefits, a sign of creativity. So they say that basically swearing activates on the right side of your brain, which your right side of your brain is typically the creative side, and because of that they they attribute it to. You know, you're more creative, in essence, because you can swear. I don't know how true that is.
Speaker 2:That may be an old study that has since been debunked. So the thing I mean, even some things we've seen in the past have been, you know, in recent studies. We try to get the most recent studies available for all this information. We're not going to go back and correct anything because half the time we don't even remember what we talked about in prior episodes, but always keep up with the most up to date information, you know. Keep up with with current detail. This is what we always talk about on. This is education. Educate yourself. You know we try to educate you, but as things change, as we learn new stuff, the important thing is continually learn and accept new information.
Speaker 1:I think that the universal nature of swearing is actually kind of accurate. I don't know if it's necessarily swearing, it's more body language. But if you, you know, like in this they're talking about how in many different languages, across different languages, swearing or cursing can, in our modern definition of that, is something that is recognized across the world, it doesn't really take a lot like you can, you can yell with a grace, aggressive tone Fuck you, and everyone's going to know what you just said, right, okay. But on the other side of it, you're going to get, you know, like you could say anything at that point, like if you don't understand the language and somebody's just aggressively saying something, it can construe the same message. And they've seen this sort of sort of kind of function of that body language by observing monkeys throwing poop at each other.
Speaker 2:Well, I that is pretty good, but I think the same idea comes through. So if you ever are in need of help, the advice that I was always told is don't yell help.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:You yell fire.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 2:And by yelling fire that immediately gets people. Now we all should respond when someone yells help, but responding to fire is, I think, more of that instinctual across all levels. I don't know if it's because it starts with an F or given the letters that are in it. I mean, I don't know. There's a lot of idea why mom is generally the same across all languages Because it's an infant's first verbalization, the movements of the mouth, everything mom, in some form or other comes out, but I'm with the monkeys, like I think.
Speaker 1:Instead of swearing at people, I'm just gonna throw shit. So many turns around All right, all right. You just yes, I did, and that's I meant it.
Speaker 2:I don't know which way I want the t-shirt to read Throw shit, not shade, or throw shade not shit. I'm not sure. Maybe we have one of each, but I think that's gonna be our first merch idea is a t-shirt that just has that on it. But yeah, and so, and these ideas, these things, it's supposed to be a poop emoji, though it can't be the actual.
Speaker 2:Yes, exactly, but it's that whole thing. I mean every language we've talked about. I mean these come from Latin. I mean these words have not changed. The F word has been that way for at least a thousand years as the same form as we use it today. I mean this is common and it persists. Every language has these things. But understanding what they are, I mean that gives you more ability to use them in the best way possible, whether as an insult, whether as a pejorative or simply as going to the bathroom.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think it's just recognizing. One of the things that really stresses in this article is, just like I said at the very beginning, it's knowing the context you're in. It's really crucial to know that and judiciously applying when you're going to say such things. You don't wanna do that in a daycare, but if you're on a job site, a construction job site, I'm pretty sure everybody else is doing the same thing, speaking that language, and so you almost are joining in so that you're understood, because if you try to speak too high they're probably not gonna let you stay there very long, they're gonna kick you out of there. But I think what's interesting is it's kind of like this constant, I don't know like determining or deciphering what's the best scenario in that situation. And very similar to that is a note that came across, was found actually hidden and crumpled and hidden inside of a Victorian era dress Really odd location for it. Okay, and this note was actually coded, so it was different words randomly jumbled together. If you were to read it. You know this and I'll see if I again I'll link the article.
Speaker 1:But all things interesting basically is where I get this from, are all? I think that's what it is all the things interesting by Kalina Fraga. She did an article about this, but basically a coded note found hidden in a Victorian era dress has finally been solved. So this dress was found about 10 years ago. I was purchased by a gal. Her name was Sarah Rivers Cofield. She came across this beautiful dress and purchased it and she has like a collection of period clothing and that kind of stuff and then upon you know, basically like looking over the dress to make sure that all the seams are solid and everything comes across this hidden note that's tucked away inside this dress and like the first part of it's like if I were to say this, phrases including like in a line Calgary, cuba, unguard, confute, duck, fagan, nobody. Like that's not even a sentence.
Speaker 2:It's nothing right. The ramblings of an insane person.
Speaker 1:Seriously and for 10 years it's really just been that stump like nobody could figure this out until Chan his name is Wayne Chan, not Wayne Chung. Sorry that was terrible but I had to University of Manitoba, wayne Chan. He determined that the note was filled with codes meant to represent weather observations. This note was back like written back in 1888, which is interesting that you have an 1888. I thought that was quite interesting.
Speaker 1:So he first tried. He was trying to everything. He studies this at the university and he was trying everything he possibly could figure out like nothing none of his code breaking nothing whatsoever going back to World War II era stuff and trying to figure out what this was. And basically he like basically almost 200 code books he went through to see if he could figure it out and then eventually came across this book late 19th century on telegraph history and described similar codes used by the US Army Signal Corps and US Weather Bureau to transmit weather information across North America. So then he reached out to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, who shared a telegraph code from 1892, a code book for weather, and in that with that he was able to decipher what this code said. Wow. And so just to kind of give you a little bit.
Speaker 1:So Bismarck Omit, leifage Buckbank okay, that's one of the lines, okay, and you see this like if you look at this, it's a picture with, like this chicken scratch and a check mark next to it and you're like, okay, this is weird. Okay Translate Bismarck Station in the North Dakota Territory, present day North Dakota. On May 27th 1888, at 10 pm, the temperature was 56 degrees Fahrenheit, the barometric pressure was 30.08 HG and the dew point was 32 degrees, the weather was clear and dry and the wind was blowing at 12 miles per hour. How in the world all of that came from Bismarck? Omit Leifage Buckbank. I don't give a buck like. It doesn't make any sense to me.
Speaker 2:But I mean it makes sense why they'd be using signal like that. I mean for those of you that are old enough to remember old cell phone plans where you had to pay per text message or per minute on a call. So I mean we're talking probably what anyone older than 25?.
Speaker 1:This is tucked away in a Victorian-era dress.
Speaker 2:Well, yeah, the further back we go. I mean you had telegraph lines that were limited on how much information could go across. You had to pay for every word on a telegram. It makes sense that you had to get it as limited as possible, as few words to convey your idea, kind of like text message today.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think about. I was joking with somebody yesterday actually, oddly enough it was a news anchor that I was talking to. We were joking about 1-800-COLLECT and the commercials about, like how to baby. It's a boy, you know, and that's it. Like they don't actually pick up the call, they just leave that message for somebody to get the 1-800-COLLECT call.
Speaker 2:Well, I think about text messages today, Text messages that I get from my kids, and even we use them. You know OMW-LOL I guess it'd be L-O-L-M-W. Laugh out loud, I'm on my way. Yeah, or on my way.
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, if you talk about Gen Z, that is the entire dialect heading in that direction, Right?
Speaker 2:it's all.
Speaker 1:Just I mean someone 200 years from now looking back at First thing, that's expiring and it's getting replaced by FRFR, that's it.
Speaker 2:FRFR. For real, for real. Oh gosh, see, I still don't even know all of them, but you think, 200 years from now, anyone looking at these text messages from kids today, it's gonna be the same thing.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And it's just cool to kind of see that parallel between trying to translate these messages from back then to even messages today.
Speaker 1:So, in this, the problem that they ran into and the reason why it was so difficult for him to find it, is because if you think this is just you know the what's going on the weather, like a weather forecaster in in the 1800, late 1800s, and so it's it's. It's not something where you're like we need to preserve this in our history archives forever. No, it's a note to update about. You know what? May 27th at 10pm.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's like when you go online and look at weathercom and what's the?
Speaker 1:weather. I still don't understand the mystery of why it was smuggled in some Victorian air address. That does not make any sense to me. The speculation is that like the closest thing they could get to it was there's an individual's name that's in there, so find any that couldn't. So notes that Chan Chan's attempts to find any woman named Bennett working for the Army Army signal corps. So he identified a named Bennett, the name Bennett on on the document, and I couldn't figure that out through the signal corps records. And but he did find a man named Maitland Bennett working as a clerk in there and then. But but during that time his wife was eight months pregnant, so she couldn't fit into a Victorian air address.
Speaker 2:I mean, how many times do you pick up a receipt from the ground and put it in your pocket?
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's the 1800s, there's no no, there were.
Speaker 2:There were receipts in the 1800s.
Speaker 1:So this wasn't so in North Dakota either. This, the lady who got this dress, is in Maine.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean she she probably she was probably the probably came from someone named Bennett and she was the wife of the telegraph operator or the clerk in the telegraph operators office that had it. She stuck it in her pocket and it went from there. I mean, how many times do you do laundry and you? You pull it out and there's a receipt in your pocket Because you forgot it was there.
Speaker 1:My dear, sweet Eleanor, will you deliver this to the local weather station on your way abouts today?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, who knows how it got there? But as it not uses, you just put it in your pocket, don't you know? It's not smuggled Dumbass, all right, we got to stop.
Speaker 1:All right, so we didn't get the insults in. Do you want to say a few more before we, before we part ways with our listener?
Speaker 2:Yeah, we'll leave you with some good Shakespearean insults here. Yes, I'll beat the, but I would infect my hands. Oh, I've got a couple of these that are highlighted that I love. These are just in all of his different plays. More of your conversation would infect my brain. Wow, I fear some people think about that in our podcast. The tartness of his face sours ripe grapes. You're that's you are ugly. Thine face is not worth sunburning.
Speaker 1:Should I interpret it, like in, into modern English?
Speaker 2:Actually I got some of these. Let's meet as little as we can. You are as a candle, the better burnt out. Sorry, I just covered my face again, sorry, sorry. Your abilities are too infant like for doing much alone. Thou hast no more brain than I have in my elbows. Oh wow so yeah, those were my favorites right there. So if you need good insults, just take those from Shakespearean to modern English and those are perfect insults.
Speaker 1:We'll make sure to you know. I mean, I would even leave it the way that it is, so that people have no idea that you just insulted them. That's actually one of my favorite things to do is, if I'm going to hurl an insult, it's going to go right over the top of their head until later, and then they're like hey you know, and then you're like I'm already gone, it doesn't matter anymore.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and that's a thing I don't swear because I like to get creative with this. You know, obviously I use bloody, but you know it's. There's a lot of these things where it's. I mean, you use it or you don't. It's a personal choice. So now there are some cases. Again, we're talking about the words themselves.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:When you use the tone, when you inflict an idea through your tone to someone else. That's the worst part of it.
Speaker 1:It's almost like the difference between swearing and cursing. If I was to say cursing, cursing is typically targeting at, targeted at somebody. So if I was to use a swear word or then, then the context of it would be swear word as an insult to somebody is a curse.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I could see someone yeah. And again correlation there's no real definition for this, because it doesn't really mean anything. We as a society and society changes have defined what these words mean and how to use them, and this and that.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And so, yeah, it's just, you know, you know, don't swear at kids. But well, that's the theme of our show. Don't swear kids. But even that in and of itself is a censorship that we as a society have accepted. Yeah, and so you know, when it comes to censorship, it's all about society, the inherent ideas there, the words themselves. Not bad.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:The words don't carry bad things. We as a society have put bad definitions or a bad connotation behind these words, and that's what makes them bad or obscene or swear words.
Speaker 1:I prefer another word stop being a little bitch.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say that. But yeah, don't call us swear words, don't call them vulgar, don't call them profane.
Speaker 1:This is probably the last time we're ever going to be on YouTube, exactly.
Speaker 2:Again, this is about education. This is about learning what these words are, how best to communicate with people around you. How do you communicate best? How is the best way to convey an idea? Sometimes that means using an obscenity, sometimes it doesn't. Yeah, and that's the important thing, understanding the background, the value and the use of these words is so vital, and I think we censor them so much that we don't learn what they really are about. And the less that we censor that, the more we can come to a greater knowledge, a greater understanding and a greater ability to communicate.
Speaker 1:Well, life's too short. Try not to take yourself too seriously. Keep laughing and learning and remember idiots have way more fun. Check your shoes.