"bad" words, I fail to understand

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Me too. I f*****g love swear words. Just slap the s**t out of everything. Slap it as hard as you can until s**t falls out!

Sir, that assertion is hogswash, balderdash and piffle.

Many curse words are positively sumptuous.

Fiddlesticks!

Roflmao!

I love this thread! I gotta say, curse words don't offend me in the least unless they are used by a close friend or relative towards me. That means they are upset with me and I don't like that.
I curse at bad drivers and random people that can't hear me, but rarely in actual debate or argument.

Saying that...does it seem wrong that I have an almost uncontrollable urge to run screaming "TwatWaffle" through the streets?

Sorry, it's a fun word to say No really, try it. It rolls nicely off the tongue.

(not contributing anything to this thread obviously)
Piffle may be my new word of the day though.

Expletives, in my opinion, should be used rarely. That would be the point. I rarely swear and when I do, people notice, which is also the point. If they are overused then they lose there exclamatory meaning. As a result, it is a poor use of language to overuse taboo words. They should be used infrequently to retain their meaning.

I do judge people on their vocabulary. When a person uses the F-word several times per sentence routinely, it is more difficult to understand what they are saying. Verbal skill isn't everything, but the stylistic overuse of the f-word just irritates the crap out of me.

Also, I don't give a f**k, if people feel that my views on language usage are arrogant. I can't believe you would actually justify this usage as a "sub-culture". Anyway enough said.

It depends on where you are from and who is saying it. If you are from the Deep South, it's usually an insult or at least means something along the lines of "You just don't know any better". It can also mean "I appreciate the thought, but the action was completely wrong".

An example would be "JoAnne, bless her heart, gave me a set of plastic dishes from K-Mart for my bridal shower, when I'm registered at Macy's and she could have gotten something smaller there for the same price!" Which would mean "JoAnnes gift was totally inappropriate, but she didn't know any better and I appreciate her effort."

Or, if someone insults you outright, such as "You go to Hell!" you can answer back with "Well, bless your heart" while smiling sadly and shaking your head, which is a nice way to tell them that they are wrong and just don't know any better.

It's not an insult like calling someone a name, it's more of an insult of someone's intelligence or understanding of how things are done. I used to get it a lot before I figured things out. I've always known what it meant though, mainly because it was explained to me when I was a child.

Frances

"Bad" words are bad because they are mean to the other words, take their lunch money and shove them into lockers and such.

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I curse a lot, but never at people. Only at inanimate objects. IDK why. Perhaps it was an easy first step in vernacularizing my language?

I practiced it for years until I got the rhythm and music of it right. I've been told a couple of times that I am the most literate curser, ever. That they thought swearing was a sign of idiocy until they heard it performed in crisp (mostly) proper Victorian English. In the meanwhile, I've sullied up the rest of my language rather smashingly, if I might be so bold as to say. Unless I'm writing, that is, then the s* hits the f*ing fan, and this fetid lot of antiquarian f*ing drivel drags it's a* out of HP Lovecraft's god rotting grave and vomits all over the f*ing keyboard.

In the same vein, "ball bag" is often used as an insult in Britain and Ireland.

That would be a "scroat" here in the States. Short for "scrotum." So much sharper on the consonance and with better plosives than "ball bag."

Tequila wrote:
"In the same vein, "ball bag" is often used as an insult in Britain and Ireland."

Is this a good time to mention rhyming slang?

Current favourite, obviously, investment banker.

Same here, though spelt "scrote". A scrote generally means someone who is harmful or dangerous (a criminal, essentially) rather than just someone who is an idiot.

I remember one time I was in seventh grade in English class, and we played scrabble because our teacher was too lazy to teach that day, and I put c**t on the board (not knowing it was a "bad" word). I got detention for it. And I had to take the letters off the board, and lose points for them.