Profanity and Slang

Profanity and slang are two derivatives from established lexicons that occur in most known languages. They both originate from subcultures and are often viewed as assertions of the rebellious. Profanity includes spoken indecencies and gestures that are considered rude, vulgar, insulting, abusive, and offensive; it includes largely irreverent speech or action that causes the majority of a society's members to feel disturbed. Slang refers to words and terms from a subculture of society that assists in the evolution of language by adding to its vocabulary. This lexical adaptation [Page 597]occurs through established words being shortened, known terms being assigned nontraditional definitions, and the incorporation of foreign words. Profanity and slang are both derivatives from existing lexicons and are common in most spoken languages. Profanity and slang reflect identity and the linguistic changes of a society. Language is ever changing through the metamorphosis of its lexicons.

Western profanity has its historical origins in statements made against the church. These statements were defined as profane; such declarations were interpreted as being opposed to God, thereby blasphemy. The term profanity grew to include words not in favor of the church and God, as well as any avowals that could not be said in church. Religious oaths and swearing were also considered profanity; one was not to swear or promise in the name of God.

This blasphemous swearing of oaths was chiefly used by the lower class of English society and was eventually incorporated into use for lesser situations and personal insults. As the language adapted to fit the lives of the users, blasphemous statements became individual damnations and expletives for emotional states. What was once thought of as the strong language of the rebellious heretic is now overlooked as cursing of the provoked. For example, the swear phrase God damn originally was calling for God's damnation on the speaker's foe. Over time, the phrase became a simple expression of an altered state, “God damn it, the Bears lost.” The modern-day usage of profanity occurs more during social interactions between people, than during oaths between God and one person.

Modern profanity appears in agitating phrases and physical motions. These unsettling verbalizations and gestures are often racist, scatological (related to human waste functions), sexist, derogatory, and sexual in nature. Profanity in its current form is universally human in nature. The profane renaming of copulation as well as the anatomy employed in the sexual act is worldwide, although individual cultures have different profane names for the act and genitalia.

Profane physical gestures as well as verbal profanity are part of most human languages. One profane gesture appears to cross most social borders: the flipping of the bird. The prone, extended middle finger incites unrest globally. The “finger” has made its appearance throughout history; the Greeks used it for a phallic symbol in theater. The Romans incorporated it for the same purpose; however, the use spread from the theatre to an emperor who forced citizens to kiss him on his middle finger rather than the back of his hand. In the mid-1600s, the finger was included in sign language as a severe insult.

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