Poll: Americans See, Hear More Profanity

Graphic shows results form an APIpsos poll about the use of profanity and swear words; 1 (AP Graphic)

This is an interesting little story. From Yahoo News:

This is a story about words we can't print in this story. You probably hear these words often, and more than ever before. But even though we can't print them — we do have our standards — we can certainly ask: Are we living in an Age of Profanity?

Nearly three-quarters of Americans questioned last week--74 percent--said they encounter profanity in public frequently or occasionally, according to an Associated Press-Ipsos poll. Two-thirds said they think people swear more than they did 20 years ago. And as for, well, the gold standard of foul words, a healthy 64 percent said they use the F-word--ranging from several times a day (8 percent) to a few times a year (15 percent).

Just ask Joe Cormack. Like any bartender, Cormack, of Fort Dodge, Iowa, hears a lot of talk. He's not really offended by bad language — heck, he uses it himself every day. But sometimes, a customer will unleash the F-word so many times, Cormack just has to jump in.

"Do you have any idea how many times you've just said that?" he reports saying from time to time. "I mean, if I take that out of your vocabulary, you've got nothin!'"

And it's not just at the bar. Or on TV. (Or on the Senate floor, for that matter, where Vice President Dick Cheney used the F-word in a heated argument two years ago.)

Are we living in a Golden Age of Profanity? Or have we always been living in a Golden Age of Profanity--the difference being that the nature of the words have changed. I looked into Wikipedia for the word fuck. The word actually has its roots in Middle English, German and the Dutch languages. There are some early references in William Dunbar's 1503 poem "Brash of Wowing," and even William Shakespeare hinted at the term in his plays The Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry V. DH Lawrence used the word "fuck," "fucked," and "fucking" in his 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover. Even more interesting, the word "fuck" never got into the Oxford English Dictionary until 1972. We could say that while this word "fuck" has ancient roots in the English language, it has only recently become the modern equivalant of an extremely profane word.

Just out of curiosity, I looked into another word from Wikipedia--damn! Interestingly enough, Wikipedia claims that, "Until around the mid-20th century damn was a more offensive term than it is today, and was frequently represented as "D--n," "D---," or abbreviated to just "D." The use of "damn" in Rhett Butler's parting line to Scarlett O'Hara in the film Gone with the Wind in 1939 captivated moviegoers." The use of the word "damn" was far more profane in 1939, than it currently is today? What would have happened had you said the word "damn" in the Middle Ages? Or how about the Spanish Inquisition?

The roots of damn go back even further. Here is what Wikipedia says on the roots of damn:

Its Indo-European origin is usually said to be a root dap-, which appears in Latin and Greek words meaning "feast" and "expense". (The connection is that feasts tend to be expensive.) In Latin this root provided a theorized early Latin noun *dapnom, which became Classical Latin damnum = "damage" or "expense". But there is a Vedic Sanskrit root dabh or dambh = "harm".

The word damnum had not as yet got exclusively religious overtones. From it in English came "condemn"; "damnified" (an obsolete adjective meaning "damaged"); "damage" (via French from Latin damnaticum). It began to be used for being found guilty in court; but, for example, an early French treaty called the Strasbourg Oaths includes the Latin phrase in damno sit = "would cause harm". From the judicial meaning came the religious meaning.

So the word damn has roots going back to early Latin. We could ask ourselves has the level of profanity really increased, or has the type of words used in a profane context changed, depending upon the history of the word? How many of us would be offended by others saying such mild profane words as "damn?" The more modern the word is in the English language, the more profane it could be? Perhaps in another 70 years, the word "fuck" may become relegated to a mildly profane word--replaced by some new type of swear word?

Now I've only looked at two profane words here--there are so many other racial, ethnic and sexually profane words within both the English language, and certainly througout the world's languages. I can't say if we're living in a Golden Age of Profanity, or if, through our world-wide globalization and inter-communications between the world's multicultural societies and multi-varied languages, we've become more de-sensitized or have accepted differing levels of profanity to express differing levels of emotional communication.

It certainly is an interesting question to dwell upon.