That word has become ubiquitous in everyday culture. Umm, like, almost a filler, you know.
As such, there is little left of shock value to be had in using it. It dirties up the landscape of communication. Those are trends one sees in other ways as well. When did it become "normal" that train cars, billboards or buildings should be covered with spray painted graffiti? Fashion? When did having pants with holes ripped throughout become appealing? Not to mention extreme trends with makeup or tattoos. I think there are similarities. But such statements wear thin once seen and heard everywhere. Shock value is gone, and one is left with a trashed up landscape, trashed up body, trashed up clothes, and a trashed up vocabulary. Self respect, respect for others, and respect for a higher spiritual realm give way to debasement for the sake of debasement.
It is refreshing to hear a reminder call for aiming higher, when our culture seems to have lost that inclination.
Thank hollywood for accelerating the use of the f word. When they realized that they could use it liberally, as liberals are inclined to do, they wrote it into every sentence in every conversation, using it just because they could. Like adolescent little boys with a pack of cigarettes, smoking and coughing and snickering and talking dirty and spitting to impress themselves and think they sound tough and cool. Believe me, I‘ve been there and done that. Time to grow up people. Pity the nincompoop who still thinks it’s cool.
Quintin Tarantino comes to mind. I actually cannot stand his movies because of all of the gratuitous language. It really ruins the movie for me. He seems intelligent enough to communicate without utilizng cuss words. It also seems that he thinks using them makes the dialogue seem more intelligent. Either that or he is insinuating that his audience is too stupid to understand less emotional vocabulary. Swearing doesn't make you smart or edgy; it means you are not using your full intellectual prowess to describe your thoughts more accurately.
Careful selection of profanity may have its place in some movies. I picture the audience who get off on OVER use of filthy language as a bunch of Bevis and Buttheads snickering. “Hahaha, he said f—-!”
When I was in college, I took great pains (literally at times) to use the word at every opportunity often in the same sentence as the One Who died for me. I was away from home, and free from the "bondage" of the expectations of my upbringing. It took awhile to realize that bondage isn't a bad thing, and like many ironies of our faith, is the path to true freedom.
Well said. I'm so over the F bomb and the use of God's name in vain.
Now I gots a question for ya. What about Christians writing characters who swear at, say, a PG 13 level? D-word, s-word, etc, but no f-bomb or God's name in vain. Curious to know what you think. Cheers!
I'm wondering when the F word will finally fade away. I suppose another obscene word will take its place. Like is not an obscene word, but it is used after almost every word as a filler, I guess. I don't like the word, like, used like that. Ha Ha
I am someone who is strongly habituated to using it and I can promise it has nothing to do with “passion”… 99% of the time when I use it, it comes from a place of laziness and I don’t think I’m exceptional in that regard. My speech would not be any poorer if I never said it again.
As a child I used to panic and become extremely anxious when adults swore around me; my younger cousin was the same. Casual, non-aggressive swearing made her want to flee a room. At some point I got desensitized and a switch flipped, it became normal for me, and most of the adults who used to care about promoting better speech stopped caring. Even though I use it trivially on a daily basis, it still upsets me to see how casually and liberally it is thrown around in public space. I remember how I was.
Thanks for weighing in, here. I, too, am concerned about the language dropped so casually around little kids right now. They shouldn't have to hear or deal with this stuff every day. Childhood flies by fast enough.
As someone who’s done a bit of copy editing, I find the f-bomb offensive in repetition if nothing else.
Using the same qualifier twice is lazy and will be flagged; I’ve told more than one to “get thee to a thesaurus, go!”
When one’s audience begins counting the number of times a word is (over) used, the writer has lost their attention and therefore the ability to persuade/impact.
Good article! To me, it's one of the most crass, ugly, crude, words; degrading to those who use it and to those who hear it. I hope I never get over the shock factor of this one. It seems to me to be a verbally violent, rapacious word.
First, I am really enjoying your writing. Your descriptions make my heart flutter sometimes with how accurate AND funny they are. Amazing how language has such powerful potential...which is another argument for its careful usage.
Second, I have noticed a pattern for those who use the language vs those who do not. If you have never read it, The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt is a good read. I mean, it's a little annoying at times as he is clearly biased, but it helped me gain a perspective on the world which makes incredible accurate predictions. Now that I know, it's hard not to see it everywhere: namely that there are personality differences between conservative and liberals. (By personality, but there are overlaps with politics.) Conservatives embrace boundaries. Liberals generally rebel against them. I read this book when during debates on the border wall. It was an a-ha moment. Not everything may be explained away by personality differences, but it can be better understood. (The book explains better.) This also explains why some Christians use profanity (probably liberal by personality) rather than voluntarily staying within the confines of Judeo-Christian doctrine.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Thanks for reading! I haven’t read Haidt’s book, but I guess I’ll have to. The funny part is that I did the big five personality test a couple years back and my results were typical of those who lean liberal! How to make sense out of that one? Mostly it was my tolerance for a little messier house and surroundings, openness to new ideas, and a few other traits I can’t quite remember.
Yeah, I'm both conservative and liberal on almost everything. I'm not sure what that makes me, except an outsider who will never fit in in any social group, but I'm ok with that. The book did help me understand people better, for which I am exceedingly grateful. To note, I did find it to have a liberal bias, despite the attempts at neutrality.
Historical origins from Old England, when the King and Lords of any particular fiefdom had the right to sleep with any serf's new bride to be, the night before the wedding, and all weddings had to receive the Lord's blessing:
Close ... I believe You are alluding to the Old German ficken/fucken meaning ‘to strike or penetrate’, which had the slang meaning to copulate. Many linguists point to this example.
I had a friend from university who also made this claim. Said he used this when he was on the debate team in high school. Said people used to wear the acronym on a badge at the court to-dos. I spent some time after that trying to look up primary sources for this information. I have yet to find any. Could you direct me to the source of your information, please?
That word has become ubiquitous in everyday culture. Umm, like, almost a filler, you know.
As such, there is little left of shock value to be had in using it. It dirties up the landscape of communication. Those are trends one sees in other ways as well. When did it become "normal" that train cars, billboards or buildings should be covered with spray painted graffiti? Fashion? When did having pants with holes ripped throughout become appealing? Not to mention extreme trends with makeup or tattoos. I think there are similarities. But such statements wear thin once seen and heard everywhere. Shock value is gone, and one is left with a trashed up landscape, trashed up body, trashed up clothes, and a trashed up vocabulary. Self respect, respect for others, and respect for a higher spiritual realm give way to debasement for the sake of debasement.
It is refreshing to hear a reminder call for aiming higher, when our culture seems to have lost that inclination.
Thank hollywood for accelerating the use of the f word. When they realized that they could use it liberally, as liberals are inclined to do, they wrote it into every sentence in every conversation, using it just because they could. Like adolescent little boys with a pack of cigarettes, smoking and coughing and snickering and talking dirty and spitting to impress themselves and think they sound tough and cool. Believe me, I‘ve been there and done that. Time to grow up people. Pity the nincompoop who still thinks it’s cool.
Quintin Tarantino comes to mind. I actually cannot stand his movies because of all of the gratuitous language. It really ruins the movie for me. He seems intelligent enough to communicate without utilizng cuss words. It also seems that he thinks using them makes the dialogue seem more intelligent. Either that or he is insinuating that his audience is too stupid to understand less emotional vocabulary. Swearing doesn't make you smart or edgy; it means you are not using your full intellectual prowess to describe your thoughts more accurately.
Careful selection of profanity may have its place in some movies. I picture the audience who get off on OVER use of filthy language as a bunch of Bevis and Buttheads snickering. “Hahaha, he said f—-!”
When I was in college, I took great pains (literally at times) to use the word at every opportunity often in the same sentence as the One Who died for me. I was away from home, and free from the "bondage" of the expectations of my upbringing. It took awhile to realize that bondage isn't a bad thing, and like many ironies of our faith, is the path to true freedom.
I'm doing this too now (muting posters who use the f-bomb) after seeing your original note. Thank you for the great idea!
Well said. I'm so over the F bomb and the use of God's name in vain.
Now I gots a question for ya. What about Christians writing characters who swear at, say, a PG 13 level? D-word, s-word, etc, but no f-bomb or God's name in vain. Curious to know what you think. Cheers!
I'm wondering when the F word will finally fade away. I suppose another obscene word will take its place. Like is not an obscene word, but it is used after almost every word as a filler, I guess. I don't like the word, like, used like that. Ha Ha
I am someone who is strongly habituated to using it and I can promise it has nothing to do with “passion”… 99% of the time when I use it, it comes from a place of laziness and I don’t think I’m exceptional in that regard. My speech would not be any poorer if I never said it again.
As a child I used to panic and become extremely anxious when adults swore around me; my younger cousin was the same. Casual, non-aggressive swearing made her want to flee a room. At some point I got desensitized and a switch flipped, it became normal for me, and most of the adults who used to care about promoting better speech stopped caring. Even though I use it trivially on a daily basis, it still upsets me to see how casually and liberally it is thrown around in public space. I remember how I was.
Thanks for weighing in, here. I, too, am concerned about the language dropped so casually around little kids right now. They shouldn't have to hear or deal with this stuff every day. Childhood flies by fast enough.
As someone who’s done a bit of copy editing, I find the f-bomb offensive in repetition if nothing else.
Using the same qualifier twice is lazy and will be flagged; I’ve told more than one to “get thee to a thesaurus, go!”
When one’s audience begins counting the number of times a word is (over) used, the writer has lost their attention and therefore the ability to persuade/impact.
Good article! To me, it's one of the most crass, ugly, crude, words; degrading to those who use it and to those who hear it. I hope I never get over the shock factor of this one. It seems to me to be a verbally violent, rapacious word.
Lol! Better yet: Beavis & Butthead as the new Roger & Ebert or MST3000.
First, I am really enjoying your writing. Your descriptions make my heart flutter sometimes with how accurate AND funny they are. Amazing how language has such powerful potential...which is another argument for its careful usage.
Second, I have noticed a pattern for those who use the language vs those who do not. If you have never read it, The Righteous Mind by Jonathan Haidt is a good read. I mean, it's a little annoying at times as he is clearly biased, but it helped me gain a perspective on the world which makes incredible accurate predictions. Now that I know, it's hard not to see it everywhere: namely that there are personality differences between conservative and liberals. (By personality, but there are overlaps with politics.) Conservatives embrace boundaries. Liberals generally rebel against them. I read this book when during debates on the border wall. It was an a-ha moment. Not everything may be explained away by personality differences, but it can be better understood. (The book explains better.) This also explains why some Christians use profanity (probably liberal by personality) rather than voluntarily staying within the confines of Judeo-Christian doctrine.
I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Thanks for reading! I haven’t read Haidt’s book, but I guess I’ll have to. The funny part is that I did the big five personality test a couple years back and my results were typical of those who lean liberal! How to make sense out of that one? Mostly it was my tolerance for a little messier house and surroundings, openness to new ideas, and a few other traits I can’t quite remember.
Yeah, I'm both conservative and liberal on almost everything. I'm not sure what that makes me, except an outsider who will never fit in in any social group, but I'm ok with that. The book did help me understand people better, for which I am exceedingly grateful. To note, I did find it to have a liberal bias, despite the attempts at neutrality.
Historical origins from Old England, when the King and Lords of any particular fiefdom had the right to sleep with any serf's new bride to be, the night before the wedding, and all weddings had to receive the Lord's blessing:
Fornicate Under the Consent of the King .....
Quite interesting. I was aware of this disgusting tradition from my history studies, but not the acronym. It tracks.
Pretty sure that's not true haha. It's a taboo deformation of the root that "frick" comes from, if I remember right.
Close ... I believe You are alluding to the Old German ficken/fucken meaning ‘to strike or penetrate’, which had the slang meaning to copulate. Many linguists point to this example.
I had a friend from university who also made this claim. Said he used this when he was on the debate team in high school. Said people used to wear the acronym on a badge at the court to-dos. I spent some time after that trying to look up primary sources for this information. I have yet to find any. Could you direct me to the source of your information, please?