The History of Swearing is Common, Creative, and Ancient

If You Want to Speak Salaciously, You Gotta Sling Some Saucy Slang.

Swearing is probably as ancient as language, if not older. Because of the historic influence of religion on society and the law, many of the earliest words and phrases known to have been condemned expressed disrespect for faith doctrines, sacred icons, deities, holy people, venerated places, or revered calendar observances. This grew to include taboo human bio-waste and sexuality. The history and evolution of “bad words” are more complex than many expect.

Humans have probably sworn since they could speak. Chimpanzees engage in similar behavior when frustrated or angry, so we’ve probably been doing it for as long as we’ve been able to be frustrated or angry. We swear so often that animals capable of mimicking human speech learn to swear. Read up on the Lincolnshire Wildlife Park and its continuing battle with parrots that like to loudly talk shit around the visitors for a current example.

Profanity isn’t anything new. The Romans had a word for it, profanes, meaning “outside the temple.” These words relate to religion and religious entities, be they the 12 members of the Olympian pantheon, the one God of the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), or the 33 million manifestations of the Hindu divine. To speak profanely, you must use a word that is traditionally reserved for a sacred context (like “holy,” “hell,” “God,” “Jesus Christ,” and others) in a non-sacred, disrespectful context. Although not as bad as active blasphemy, Christendom started taking profanity seriously around the 1450s.

At its core, to speak profanely is to treat religion, religious people, religious icons, or religious traditions with indifference or disrespect. A theocratic society does not welcome secular comments, observations, or opinions. But disrespecting or diminishing religion is not the only way to offend with words. Depending on the century, a reference to sexuality or excretion can be introduced to related or unrelated conversations for maximum and immediate effect.

Sometimes it’s a specific person or class of people who are targeted due to their gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, physical appearance, disability, parentage, or other category as the target of bigotry and spite. Considered by many to be the most offensive of English swear words, slurs are currently on the rise in the U.S. Unlike other forms of profanity, the goal of slurs is not to communicate anger, frustration, pain, or a biological reality. They exist solely to intentionally cause emotional pain and harm.

Slurs are like curses since their end game is similar. The word “curse” is rooted in religions that believe that taboo words or phrases have power and can be used to harm others. They were taken as seriously as a consciously sworn oath. When someone says “God damn you” they essentially “cast” the curse toward their victim like witches are said to do. Those in a hurry can say “damn” or “damn you.” Shorter but still able to get the message across.

An oath, by comparison, involves appealing to a higher, religious authority. Although not as bad as a curse, an oath spoken without sincerity minimizes the divine although its words may read differently. “I swear to God,” when not meant literally, is a false statement or promise, although known as a “vain oath.” During the hyper-religious Middle Ages in Europe, these were the most frequent forms of profanity.

The western world has grown increasingly secular since the Middle Ages, although as recently as 1606 there was a statute forbidding jesting or profane use of anything that included God’s name (God’s wounds, blood, bones, etc.) in a play. Fortunately for those who enjoy swearing, the modern world is far more unchurched than it has been, and, in the U.S., there are laws that protect the right to unpopular speech, which includes profanity. We likely have slang to thank for that.

Slang is language that is alive. It’s not language that’s ready for the debutante ball but it means business. It first appeared in written form in 1000 but began to leave more evidence that it existed during the Protestant Reformation around 1530. At that point, words used by people who lived on the margins of society, including criminals, began to be noticed and written down. Among their favorite topics were genitals, crime, booze, drugs, and money. In addition to everything else that happened during the less religious 16^th century, what was considered obscene was not as clear as it had been.

Those who struggle to justify their love of profanity may be comforted to know that it’s actually healthy to use bad words. Science has shown that swearing boosts the ability to deal with change and uncertainty, it increases pain tolerance, it’s associated with greater honesty and increased verbal fluency. Additionally, our bodies respond better to stress and experience a slight improvement in physical performance. The same cannot be said for uttering slurs, so choose your swear words carefully.