Curse word
A curse word is a swear phrase that expresses anger, disappointment, astonishment, or surprise. A curse word can consist of a single word (example: darn! ) Or an idiomatic combination of words ( Zum Kuckuck! ).
A curse word related to an object forms a curse or a curse , i.e. expresses the wish that something should happen to someone (example: go to hell! ).
Definition of terms
Curse words need to be distinguished from the following similar types of words.
- A swear word gives a person a negative meaning and in this way offends or belittles them (example: fool ).
- A vulgarism is coarse, vulgar, obscene, and thus violated the sense of shame. Many curse words are also vulgarisms (example: shit! ), Other curse words lack the element of vulgarity (example: sapperlot! ). Conversely, vulgarisms that are not aimed at releasing anger are not cursed words (example: piss-warm beer ).
- A blasphemy is the sneer of certain beliefs of a religion. Many curse words are blasphemy at the same time. This effect particularly affects curse words in traditional Catholic cultures (example: Italian porco dio , "God [is] a pig").
Italy
In Italian , blasphemous curses predominate as general swear words , such as Dio cane ("dog god"), porco Dio ("god-pig"), Dio boia ("hangman's god"), or Madonna puttana ("mother god's whore "). However, these expressions can be modified euphemistically : porco Dio then becomes porco zio ("uncle pig"). These curse words are also used by the German-speaking population in South Tyrol (Northern Italy) through language contact with the Italian language group.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b ( page no longer available , search in web archives: Heinz Lohmann: Curses and swear words in German )
- Jump up ↑ Art of Scolding . In: Falter 44/2007 of October 31, 2007 ( Memento of August 12, 2011 in the Internet Archive )