Interestingly, most words considered crude and vulgar in English are of Germanic origin, which is why German often sounds blunt and unrefined to our ears. English is at its most basic origins a Germanic language, and when the Normans invaded in 1066, they established French as the language of the nobility. Most sophisticated or polite terms are French in origin. I'd give a few side-by-side comparisons but I don't want to trip off anyone's profanity filter :)
A less offensive way of illustrating things is to look at the etymology of the different ways of describing food animals. It sounds vulgar and crude to say you ate "cow" for dinner, you'd call it beef. Beef comes from the old French "buef" whereas cow is from the old English "cu". Likewise, "swine" = old English "swin", pork = old French "porc". On Wed, 6 Oct 2004 13:39:48 +1000, Barry Beattie <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > but all this about profane words is a carry on from the elitist > attutudes of imperial Europe where words we are "offended" at were > commonplace in some social circles and classes and it was social > conditioning that placed them in the "bad" category > > those who have done any history of language will know what I mean... > > to back this up, check out this history of a word we take for granted: > > http://www.softlab.ece.ntua.gr/~sivann/pub/swf/english_f-word.swf > > cheers > barry.b > > > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Adam > Cameron > Sent: Tuesday, 5 October 2004 5:46 PM > To: CFAussie Mailing List > Subject: [cfaussie] Re: Profanity in Posts > > > It sounds like this is something you need to clarify with your > superiors. > > > > Let them know what the list is, its normal content, and that it's for > > your legitimate business use. Mention that you have seen a couple of > > mails blocked due to minor profanity, and get the OK to continue using > > it. I can't imagine this approach being seen as anything but > > reasonable. > > Blathering about "it ain't fair!" such like mine are one thing; but this > is > actually a very good suggestion. > > Adam > > --- > You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > To unsubscribe send a blank email to > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/ > > --- > You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/ > --- You are currently subscribed to cfaussie as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Aussie Macromedia Developers: http://lists.daemon.com.au/
