The World’s Worst Swear Words
Chapter 2: Types of swearing from around the world
Swearing varies dramatically from language to language: for example, the Mandarin Chinese word dàn, meaning “egg” appears in a slew of curses and insults related to adultery and bastard children; the Portuguese porra, referring to a medieval club-like weapon has now become the all-purpose Brazilian vulgar oath meaning everything from “semen” to “bullshit” to “fuck!”; Canadian French employs religious swearing (“chalice”, “sacrament”, “tabernacle”) that would sound downright bizarre to English speakers.
“Profanity” comes from the Latin profanus, “outside the temple” and was specifically about insulting sacred and holy objects. There are different classifications but in general, profanity in most languages can be divided into five broadly-defined groups.
Blasphemy is speaking sacrilegiously about God and religion — God damn, fucking hell, holy shit. Many of these terms are now archaic in English. “Gadzooks” for instance, came from “God’s hooks” and was a direct reference to the nails of Jesus’ crucifixion. “God’s bones” and “blood of Christ”, formerly extremely offensive, are now considered quaint and even ridiculous-sounding. Even “God Almighty!” and “God’s Truth” (surviving in that stereotypically Australian cuss, “’Strewth!”) no longer pack the punch they…
