Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter — Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorterMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Another fun John Mcwhorter book. Interesting to hear tidbits, like how “darn” actually meant the opposite of “damn” and doesn’t share the same roots (it’s from eternal—> tarnation).
Obviously if I review this I’m going to have to at least allude to these bad words. One thing I disagreed with was “c-sucker”, which he says is obsolete, but I definitely hear from time to time. I’m under the impression the show “Sopranos” brought it back to life.
Also odd that “the other F-word” has no relation to the Yiddish “Fegulah”, which I always assumed it came from.
Very interesting to see how Curse words went from “The holy to the holes”, as he puts it. Saying “damn” was once worse than the F-word, because it was considered blasphemous. Nowadays most curse words have to do with orifices (secretion or insertion). But he also makes the argument there might be another change going on right now, from current curse words (which we actually hear all the time online) to slurs.
I remember a high school teacher scolding me for having a “Skateboarders suck” t-shirt, asking me “What do they suck?”. I wonder if that would still be an issue these days.
5 stars
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