Essay Taboo Language

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Taboo language: FUCK
Is it no longer obscene?

All languages have words that are considered taboo – words that are not supposed to be said or used. Taboo words or swearwords, can be used in many different ways and they can have different meanings depending on what context they appear in. Another aspect of taboo words is the euphemisms that are used in order to avoid obscene speech. This paper will focus on the f-word which replaces the word fuck, and as the study will show it also have other meanings and usages.
First, it is a fact that from now on the use of curse words have become part of male and female’s everyday language. No longer is it uncommon to hear a person use an offensive word to express their emotions. Not only is it …show more content…
Moreover, there are also cognates in other Germanic languages such as Dutch “fokken” meaning “to copulate or thrust”, Norwegian “fukka” meaning “to copulate” and the Swedish “fock” meaning “penis”.
As far as the acronyms of the Puritans “For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge” and the edict of King George “Fornication Under Consent of King”, all are myths as the words never appeared before 1960s according to the authoritative work, The F-Word by Jesse Sheidlower.
The history of the F-word is very deep actually; it can be traced to 1250 to the proper name, John le Fucker according to John Ayto’s Dictionnary of Word Origins. Though what John did to earn this name is unknown.
Furthermore, I found a document on the internet, saying that the origin of the f-word dates back to the Greek age. It is said that it comes from the Greek verb φυω and more particularly from the root phu, an agricultural term which literally means “to plant seeds”. This word was then adopted by the Romans who changed the Latin root phu to fu, and the noun fututio soon became part of the Roman vernacular. This noun “fututio” is an example of what linguists refer to as a “frequentative” because this word describes repeated action –dropping seeds into a furrow one after another, after another. And soon, the Roman elegiac poets got hold of the word at a time when erotic love poetry was all the rage in Rome. “Fututio” thus became a metaphor for
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