"John Reimer" <[email protected]> wrote in message news:[email protected]... > > So what we have here is a society where people are becoming so used to > hearing and saying expletives and profanity that they no longer think of > their meaning, even though these words retain their meaning still.
Oh, I very much disagree with this. If I say, for example, "Why isn't this fucking line of code working?" it's blatantly obvious that I'm not remotely talking about sex. Or if someone tells me "Fuck you, you piece of shit!", I'm well aware that the connotation is nothing more than a very strong form of "I'm very angry at you", and that they're not actually talking about sex or excrement. Granted, sometimes such words are used for their original meaning, but in the examples above, the connection between "fuck" and "sex", and the connection between "shit" and "excrement", become nothing more than matters of etymology.
