Words become more acceptable over time. In centuries past calling someone a devil or saying that they should go to hell would have been deeply offensive. Today these insults are so mild that even schoolchildren say them to each other. Even twenty years ago the word “fuck” was viewed with nearly as much taboo as racial slurs. Now, it’s a very common word that people will throw around in a casual context.
At the same time, new words emerge and get labelled profane. For example, the word t****y (slur that means “transgender person”) would not have meant anything twenty years ago, and now it’s one of the most offensive words in the English dictionary. Similar story with the word f****t (derogatory term for a homosexual person).
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 1 day ago
What’s interesting is, traditionally in language, once forbidden words got ran out, there were still other bad words left to enter the lexicon. “Damn” used to be a genuine curse. My grandfather survived WWII and proudly told be people of all the bombs he dropped, he never dropped the F-bomb.
What’s next? There’s no new forbidden words. Nothing left in the back of the store. Our ability to run through words outpaced our ability to make bad ones.
TWeaK@lemmy.today 22 hours ago
“Moist”.
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 14 hours ago
Ugh, too real!
MamboNo5@lemmings.world 1 day ago
I killed a lot of people, many probably innocent, but I’m a good person cause I never swore!
GreenShimada@lemmy.world 22 hours ago
Not quite. It’s that he was flying a plane and being shot at 6 days a week, and yet still didn’t need to jump up to a new bad word. Whatever he already knew is the language he used.