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The Power Of Swearing

And then there's that horrible moment when you wonder whether you actually vocalised it externally... :D
When I was young and lived in California I took my used Pinto to a firm to have a popup sunroof installed (which they did using a paper pattern and a circular saw - another story.) I had to learn very quickly to stop yelling at the other drivers, because now there was a good chance they were hearing me.
 
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We went to watch the Tour de France go through our town - didn't take long, the whole lot were gone and out of sight in about 90 seconds - and my strongest impression was of the riders' colourful language.

As they sped through the bottleneck we heard 'Get outta the way!' 'Fuck off!' 'Piss off yer cunt!' 'Fucking shift!' 'Oi get to fuck!' Fucking wanker!' etc.

Techy says it was banter, just normal sledging, but I dunno. Funny though.
 
The BBC has conducted a survey on swearing behavior and perceived limits to its proliferation - especially with regard to minors.
More swearing but parents want children protected

People are increasingly likely to use strong swearing in their everyday life, says research from the British Board of Film Classification (BBFC).

The body, which gives age ratings to films, says about a third of people in the UK are more likely to use strong swear words than five years ago.

But the research found parents did not want age restrictions weakened for swearing in movies and DVDs. ...

The report on swearing habits, based on research with 1,000 people, found about six in 10 people saw strong swearing, such as the F-word, as part of everyday life. ...

A third were more likely to swear than five years ago, but there was a significant "generational divide", with 18 to 34 year olds most likely to swear and to be "desensitised" to its impact.

Among older people, strong swear words still remained a taboo - with 75% of those over 65 saying they would not use strong swearing in public, according to research which included focus groups and in-depth interviews. ...
FULL STORY: https://www.bbc.com/news/education-57419263
 

My experience in workshops and on worksites convinces me that the exclamation OOYABASTAD (abbrev: OOYABAS) is not only one of the most common words in the English language but also clearly contains powerful analgesic properties. These properties are so significant that not only can they be applied to self-administered mishaps (splinters; a misplaced hammer blow; heavy weights falling just the wrong side of steel toe cap etc) but they can also be deployed against injuries in others: It is common to find a sharp intake of breath followed by an OOYABAS(TAD) applied where an individual witnesses injury to other people - and can, in fact, be effective even in response to descriptions of said mishaps by third parties.
 
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I'm reading Miriam Margolyes' autobiography, and she tells of the time she was on University Challenge. She got a question wrong and yelled in frustration, "FUCK IT!!!" They left it in the programme broadcast but bleeped out the offending words (it was pre-recorded). She believes she beat Kenneth Tynan to the accolade of first person to say the F word on British TV, he was a few weeks after (though his was live and therefore unbleeped).

She mentioned this to host Bamber Gascoigne decades later and he still remembered it! There's a photo in the book of her on the show, looking very shamefaced, so the photo must have been taken after the outburst occurred.
 
The Sex Pistols on the Bill Grundy Show.

Swearing on teatime TV caused outrage at the time. One bloke was allegedly so offended he kicked his TV in.

 
The Sex Pistols on the Bill Grundy Show.

Swearing on teatime TV caused outrage at the time. One bloke was allegedly so offended he kicked his TV in.

I saw that at the time. The band were obviously nervous and out of their depth. They were being goaded and the manufactured outrage about it was pathetic.
 
Siouxsie Soux to me is quite hilarious with her sarcasm. Bill Grundy was too stupid to realise that he was being laughed at.I heard that he never worked again after that.

Yes he did, he presented A Better Read. Unfortunately (for him) he also had a serious drinking problem that put paid to his career prospects after that.
 
I saw that at the time. The band were obviously nervous and out of their depth.
Were they? Nervous, yes - out of their depth, I'm not so sure. That interview made them (in)famous and gave them street cred.
I'd never heard of them before that interview.
 
This new survey study probed American swearing habits, such as the metro areas that swear the most / least and the situations in which people swear.

Study: The cities that swear the most in the U.S.

We surveyed over 1,500 residents of 30 major U.S. cities to determine which cities swear most frequently. We asked them how often they swear, the situations they swear in the most, and even the age they uttered their first swear word. But don’t worry, no profanity will be used in this post!

Key findings
  • The average respondent swears 21 times per day.
  • The U.S. city that swears the most frequently is Columbus, Ohio, at 36 times per day.
  • The average age Americans start using swear words is 11.
  • “Taboo” situations Americans are most likely to swear in include work (69%), in front of strangers (67%), and at the dinner table (63%).
  • Over half of Americans use swear word substitutions — favorites include “fudge,” “shoot” and “frick.”

FULL STORY: https://preply.com/en/blog/cities-that-swear-most/
 
This new survey study probed American swearing habits, such as the metro areas that swear the most / least and the situations in which people swear.

Study: The cities that swear the most in the U.S.

We surveyed over 1,500 residents of 30 major U.S. cities to determine which cities swear most frequently. We asked them how often they swear, the situations they swear in the most, and even the age they uttered their first swear word. But don’t worry, no profanity will be used in this post!

Key findings
  • The average respondent swears 21 times per day.
  • The U.S. city that swears the most frequently is Columbus, Ohio, at 36 times per day.
  • The average age Americans start using swear words is 11.
  • “Taboo” situations Americans are most likely to swear in include work (69%), in front of strangers (67%), and at the dinner table (63%).
  • Over half of Americans use swear word substitutions — favorites include “fudge,” “shoot” and “frick.”

FULL STORY: https://preply.com/en/blog/cities-that-swear-most/
I use "fricken":). I swear regularly (the average is probably a little low for me). Most of the time is work or in social situations with friends. I don't swear when I speak to people I'm not familiar nor at my mom's home.

We were forbidden to swear as kids, though my mom's forbidden swear word was "jeez". So she had no tolerance for any hardcore swearing. No one swears in my mom's house.

I never intentionally started swearing until I was 16. I met someone who seemed to live in a fairly "god fearin' family and he was not struck down by any lightning when he swore, so I decided I could do the same.

I didn't really swear regularly until later in my 30's. Now, I'm pretty sure I swear more than many people of the female persuasion. Though I have only the really good basic words that I use. Anything else is just showing off.
 
This new survey study probed American swearing habits, such as the metro areas that swear the most / least and the situations in which people swear.

Study: The cities that swear the most in the U.S.

We surveyed over 1,500 residents of 30 major U.S. cities to determine which cities swear most frequently. We asked them how often they swear, the situations they swear in the most, and even the age they uttered their first swear word. But don’t worry, no profanity will be used in this post!

Key findings
  • The average respondent swears 21 times per day.
  • The U.S. city that swears the most frequently is Columbus, Ohio, at 36 times per day.
  • The average age Americans start using swear words is 11.
  • “Taboo” situations Americans are most likely to swear in include work (69%), in front of strangers (67%), and at the dinner table (63%).
  • Over half of Americans use swear word substitutions — favorites include “fudge,” “shoot” and “frick.”

FULL STORY: https://preply.com/en/blog/cities-that-swear-most/
I find it unbelievable that DETROIT was ranked in the bottom half of the swearers. Just !#$(%*$*#@$^%^!!! unbelievable.
 
If you live in England it's virtually impossible to not go very long without saying 'for f***s sake'. Five minutes max.
Most of my swearing is when I'm cycling and there's yet another stupidly close overtake followed by 'f***ing hell' or 'you've got to be f***ing joking', not at the driver, just for my own satisfaction!

Similarly, there's the occasional cussword at my own lack of skill at football - never at the opposition or ref (when I used to play in matches with refs).
 
An old friend with whom I worked many years ago hailed from the Kingdom, or County Kerry as it is also known.
He had great admiration for his maternal grandmother, who was by all accounts, quite a fierce woman.

He said, when properly primed, she could swear for 15 minutes solid — and not repeat herself once!

Quite a feat, to be sure.
 
An old friend with whom I worked many years ago hailed from the Kingdom, or County Kerry as it is also known.
He had great admiration for his maternal grandmother, who was by all accounts, quite a fierce woman.

He said, when properly primed, she could swear for 15 minutes solid — and not repeat herself once!

Quite a feat, to be sure.

She sounds like some sort of Folk hero/heroine.
 
A slight aside Gary Lineker calls Neil Warnock Colin. Warlock is an English football manager for those who don't know.

Neil Warnock is an anagram of Colin Wanker.

Warnock was recently being interviewed on foreign tv when he thought the cameras had stopped rolling. He called across saying 'tell Gary Limeker he's a wanker. '
 
This new survey study probed American swearing habits, such as the metro areas that swear the most / least and the situations in which people swear.

Study: The cities that swear the most in the U.S. ...

Well, $#^**&T !! ...

This newer study focused on tweets rather than personal survey responses came up with decidedly different results. They also produced different kinds of results (e.g., most common swear word for each state). See the linked article for more details ...

What We Did

To find out which swear words are most popular across the country, we analyzed tweets from all 50 U.S. states and 320 cities. We collected data on a variety of the most commonly-used profanities and variations of those words and matched them up with the tweet’s location to see which places have the coarsest language.

Key Findings

  • ‘Fuck’ is America’s most commonly-used swear word, with 11.62 uses for every 1000 posts on Twitter.
  • With 48 curse words per 1000 tweets, residents of Georgia use the most profanities of any U.S. state, with Minnesota (15 per 1000 tweets) swearing the least.
  • Atlanta (56 curse words per 1000 posts) is America’s sweariest city, while Minneapolis residents (17 per 1000 posts) swear the least.
  • With 15 states using ‘shit’ more than any other swear word, it is the most uniquely popular profanity.
FULL STORY: https://word.tips/us-states-curse-words-map/
 
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