Origins of Swearing

CaptJodan · Post by **CaptJodan** » 2005-09-20 07:59pm

A bit lengthy, but there you are. Fraid to post the whole thing here.

http://aolsvc.news.aol.com/news/article ... =6&cid=842

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-09-20 10:23pm

Christ, they were planning to fine people for obscenities on the air? What the fuck is this country coming to? You can't legislate your own morality, so stop trying to, bitches and gentlemen.

SecondToDie · Post by **SecondToDie** » 2005-09-20 10:34pm

The only good thing about this is that the next time Robert Novak says "bullshit" while on air, he's gonna get a large fine.

Lord Zentei · Post by **Lord Zentei** » 2005-09-20 10:41pm

How will this affect Penn and Teller?

Post by **weemadando** » 2005-09-20 11:06pm

Hopefully it won't - though they were pulled from airing in Australia.

Channel 9 was to run the show at an 8pm time-slot, but unsurprisingly it never went to air and was never heard of again.

And you could say that denying swearing is curtailing free speech, but hey, there's enough of that going on already.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-09-20 11:21pm

I don't see what the problem is with having a little disclaimer at the beginning of the show.

"This program contains swearing and foul language, and may not be suitable for holier-than-thou little bitches."

Zadius · Post by **Zadius** » 2005-09-20 11:50pm

wolveraptor wrote:I don't see what the problem is with having a little disclaimer at the beginning of the show.

"This program contains swearing and foul language, and may not be suitable for holier-than-thou little bitches."

Particularly funny when the disclaimer itself is offensive.

Singular Quartet · Post by **Singular Quartet** » 2005-09-21 12:03am

Zadius wrote:
wolveraptor wrote:I don't see what the problem is with having a little disclaimer at the beginning of the show.

"This program contains swearing and foul language, and may not be suitable for holier-than-thou little bitches."
Particularly funny when the disclaimer itself is offensive.

Your ability to point out the obvious is astoudning.

One thing that surprises me, is that Stern or anybody else has never tried to sue the government about being fined for that sort of thing.

I mean, it'd never make it to the Supreme Court, but it'd still be an interesting case.

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-09-21 12:09am

Stern especially. The man ran for Governor as a Libertarian. Those potheads immensely value personal freedoms.

The Spartan · Post by **The Spartan** » 2005-09-21 12:10am

Lord Zentei wrote:How will this affect Penn and Teller?

They're on Showtime so it shouldn't. Congress and the FCC only have control like this over radio and broadcast TV.

Cable is self regulated to my knowledge.

Post by **Dalton** » 2005-09-21 12:10am

The thing that occurs to me is that it's, well, a pretty blatant violation of the first amendment. Don't people realize this?

Oh, but since they're not banning it, just fining it...

If this shit passes I'm sure we'll see an upswing in "failures" with the bleeper.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-09-21 09:21am

The Spartan wrote:
Lord Zentei wrote:How will this affect Penn and Teller?
Congress and the FCC only have control like this over radio and broadcast TV.

And as a radio engineer-in-training, I can say that this SUCKS the big one.

There's a 24-hour ban on obscenities (basically the Big Seven bad words), and indecent language and material (anything sexual in nature) are only allowed between the hours of 10 PM and 6 AM. It SUCKS...although the general disclaimer we do is pretty fun.

"This program may contain language or material that could be considered offensive. The views expressed are those of the engineer and his guests, and may not be shared by the management of WHRW or other WHRW members. Please consider carefully whether you, or your children, should listen. And on that note...

...peeeeeeeEEEEEEEEEeeeenis."

Luzifer's right hand · Post by **Luzifer's right hand** » 2005-09-21 09:55am

Demolition Man seems more and more realistic with every year.
"You are fined one credit for violation of the verbal moralities act."

kheegster · Post by **kheegster** » 2005-09-21 07:47pm

BTW, CaptJodan, are you aware that 'jodan' means 'fuck' in Spanish?

Post by **weemadando** » 2005-09-21 08:00pm

At least at the radio station I work at, obsceneties are only not allowed between 6am and 10pm. After that time, pretty much everything goes. Though, you have to be carefuly with stuff like "drug, violence and sex" references.

Molyneux · Post by **Molyneux** » 2005-09-21 09:28pm

weemadando wrote:At least at the radio station I work at, obsceneties are only not allowed between 6am and 10pm. After that time, pretty much everything goes. Though, you have to be carefuly with stuff like "drug, violence and sex" references.

Are you in the United States? The 6AM-10PM ban is on sexual references, and there's a FCC ban on obscenities 'round the clock.

Elheru Aran · Post by **Elheru Aran** » 2005-09-21 09:30pm

Molyneux wrote:
weemadando wrote:At least at the radio station I work at, obsceneties are only not allowed between 6am and 10pm. After that time, pretty much everything goes. Though, you have to be carefuly with stuff like "drug, violence and sex" references.
Are you in the United States? The 6AM-10PM ban is on sexual references, and there's a FCC ban on obscenities 'round the clock.

You've been here since March and you haven't noticed he's Australian?

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-09-21 11:06pm

Huh. I thought he was British. The Australians are basically descendents of Britain's street trash.

And that's my inflammatory comment of the day.

Back on topic, I've been trying to write a novel about a futuristic society. One thing that always bugged me is that English 200 years in the future was the same English as now. Damn, the oldest swearword that survives today as a swearword (that I know of) is basically associated with religion. As long as you have a religion with a Hell, you'll pretty much have the word damned. How long do you figure humanity will have Christianity, or even religion?

sketerpot · Post by **sketerpot** » 2005-09-22 08:42am

Singular Quartet wrote:One thing that surprises me, is that Stern or anybody else has never tried to sue the government about being fined for that sort of thing.

If I remember correctly, Stern did sue the government for being fined for obscenity on the air. He lost, unfortunately.

WyrdNyrd · Post by **WyrdNyrd** » 2005-09-22 09:01am

wolveraptor wrote:Damn, the oldest swearword that survives today as a swearword (that I know of) is basically associated with religion.

"Fuck" has a history stretching back several centuries - as old as most current English words, I believe.

Anguirus · Post by **Anguirus** » 2005-09-22 11:04am

How long do you figure humanity will have Christianity, or even religion?

Oh, it's not going anywhere for the foreseeable future. What makes you think it would? (Other than a belief that they are wrong.)

wolveraptor · Post by **wolveraptor** » 2005-09-22 06:07pm

WyrdNyrd wrote:"Fuck" has a history stretching back several centuries - as old as most current English words, I believe.

I simply can't picture a mid-Victorian saying, "Why Merriwether, I do believe you're fucked."

Bloody used to be a swear comparable to damn, I know, and bitch never was a swear until more recently.

WyrdNyrd · Post by **WyrdNyrd** » 2005-09-23 05:02am

Well, according to Wikipedia (FWIW),

Wikipedia wrote:Some evidence indicates that in some English-speaking locales it was considered acceptable as late as the 17th century meaning "to strike" or "to penetrate". Other evidence indicates that it may have become vulgar as early as the 16th century in England.

Whereas Snopes has it thus:

Snopes wrote: The earliest cite in The Oxford English Dictionary dates from 1503. John Ayto, in his Dictionary of Word Origins cites a proper name (probably a joke or parody name) of 'John le Fucker' from 1250, quite possibly proof the word we casually toss about today was being similarly tossed about 750 years ago.

So the word is old, and has been offensive for a long time, too. </pedant>