Swear word

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A swear word or curse word (scientifically also: Maledictum , mostly in the plural: Maledicta ) is a word that gives a person (less often: an object) a (strongly) derogatory meaning ( pejorative ) and in this way offends or belittles them .

From a linguistic point of view , swear words belong to the rhetorical stylistic devices used in spoken or written texts. They can be assigned to specific stylistic devices such as dysphemism , pejoration , sarcasm or antiphrasis (see list of rhetorical stylistic devices ).

Problems of definition

The sub-discipline of linguistics that deals with the ranting busy and using foul - the maledictology  - is still poorly developed. To this day, there are only circumscriptions, but no definition of the term "swear word" generally accepted among linguists . Although it is hardly disputed that the majority of swear words are nouns and adjectives , linguists still do not agree on which types of words are possible and whether idioms can also be swear words. If swear words are viewed from a purely lexical point of view or only with regard to their denotation , they evade definition, because many of them can be used in an offensive way as well as in a neutral way (example: pig ). A harmless teasing or even caressing use is conceivable (example: you monkey ). Although many words regularly have the connotation of a swear word (example: fagot ), in other cases parilingual ( tone of voice ), body language ( facial expressions , gestures ), syntactic and contextual elements must also be taken into account.

In order to take account of these difficulties, Reinhold Aman proposed a very broad definition: Any word that is used aggressively is a dirty word.

Definition of terms

The swear word must be distinguished from the following similar types of words:

  • A vulgarism is coarse, vulgar, obscene, and thus violated the sense of shame. Many swear words are also vulgarisms (example: wanker ); other swear words lack the element of vulgarity (example: cardboard nose ). Conversely, vulgarisms that are not aimed at an insult are not swear words (example: cold as ass ).
  • Discriminatory swear words can be found in the German-speaking world, for example, as racist , chauvinist , sexist and homophobic degradation, as well as swear words that discriminate against people because of their belief or because of a disability . A discriminatory term against ethnic groups is also called ethnophaulism . Swear words of this kind are often associated with stereotyping of groups.
  • A curse word can fulfill two different functions: 1. As a strong expression, it does not so much express an intention to insult as anger, disappointment, astonishment or surprise (example: shit! ). 2. In relation to a person (less often: an object), it forms a curse , ie expresses the wish that something should happen to someone (example: go to the devil! ).
  • A blasphemy is the sneer of certain beliefs of a religion. Blasphemous curse and power words (example: ital. Porco dio , "God [is] pig" corresponds approximately to the German interjections accursed , dammit! ) Are particularly widespread in traditionally Catholic cultures.

Derogatory meanings

Pollution, body excretion and disgust

Numerous swearwords denigrate the person being abused by associating him with pollution or the organs or products of excretion or calling him disgusting. In German , many swear words are formed from words like dirt , dirt , scum , crap , shit , ass , piss , disgust or puke (examples: asshole , shit , bastard ). The use of such expressions is called coprolalia . In English this corresponds to swear words like asshole , shit bag and old fart (= "old fart"), in French z. B. salaud and merde (the latter in the sense of: repugnant person ). In Italian , the word stronzo , which originally referred to a solid, cylindrical piece of dung, is used in the sense of "idiot". In Chinese , many swear words are derived from the word sǐ (死, dead, vicious, stinking), e.g. B. sǐ pì yǎn (死 屁眼, analogously: "cursed asshole") or sǐ sānbā (死 三八, "stinking bitch").

Sexual meanings

Many swear words bring the person abused in connection with genitals (examples: cunt , baggy face ). In Italian, this corresponds to terms like faccia di cazzo ("tail face"), testa di cazzo ("tail head"), faccia di culo ("ass face") or coglione ("testicle"). In Chinese, the swear word shǎbī (傻 屄, stupid vagina) means “stupid person”, chòubī (臭 屄) means “smelly cunt”, and zhuāngbī (装 屄 / 裝 屄, pretending to be a vagina) so much like "show off".

Swear words derived from sexual acts ( wankers , cocksuckers ) are just as common . Many swear words refer to people as a homosexual ( queer , homo ) or transsexual ( tranny , cock woman ). Social groups that are stigmatized with such swearwords occasionally coin these words until they are value-neutral ( Geusenwort ; examples: gay , English queer ).

Pejorative are also words that associate the person with promiscuity or prostitution ( whore [today tends to be a Geusen word ], hooker , slut , whore buck ). In Chinese there is e.g. B. the swear word chòu biǎozi (臭 婊子, smelly whore). Women with changing sexual partners are called húli jīng (狐狸精, fox spirit, vixen), sānbā (三八, literally: 3-8 = March 8 = International Women's Day , analogously: stupid, loudmouth , slut), gōng gòng qì chē (公共汽车 / 公共汽車, literally: “public bus”), biǎozi (婊子, whore) or jiàn nǚ rén (贱女人, cheap woman, bitch) insulted.

Other swear words bring the person referred to in connection with passively suffered adultery ( cuckold ) or with an illegitimate birth ( bastard ). In Chinese u. a. spread the swear word wángbā (王八, bastard).

In Spanish , as in Italian, “the family, virility in particular, and sexuality in general are targeted”. Apart from hijo de puta ( "son of a bitch"), there is, especially in Mexico , numerous derivatives and combinations of the verb chingar which also has, among other meanings of "fuck" about: chinga tu madre ( "fuck your mother") or hijo de la chingada ("Son of the Fucked").

Animal names

If the person referred to is given a (possibly invented) animal name ( animal metaphor ), then he is not only denied humanity or human dignity ( dehumanization ), but also the derogatory meanings of the animal concerned. The pejorative meanings with which individual animal species are assigned are culturally determined:

  • The domestic pig is considered an unclean animal in German. This results in swear words such as pig , turnip pig , bastard or, more mildly: piglet .
  • While the domestic goat is viewed in German as an unruly, stubborn animal ( Zicke ), the Spanish swear word cabrón (" billy goat") corresponds roughly to the German expression "asshole".
  • The house dog stands in German for lowliness ( dog , becket ). Corresponding Chinese swear words are gǒuzǎizi (狗崽 子 / 狗仔 子, son of a dog) and gǒu niáng yǎng de (狗 娘 养 的 / 狗 娘 養 的, son of a bitch).
  • In Chinese there is the swear word yín chóng (淫蟲, lascivious worm ) for brothel visitors or men who like to have sex with women; the term is much milder than equivalent terms for promiscuous women.

Further linguistic derivations

Swear words are derived from terms that ...

Swear words in other languages

In many other languages, swear words from the sexual sphere predominate (for example English fuck , Italian cazzo , Spanish chingado or coño , Polish kurwa or chuj ), which are generally perceived as less offensive than in German. In contrast, fecal language words that are “more common” in German and are perceived as less “bad”, especially in the Romance and Anglo-Saxon cultures, are perceived as extremely crude and seriously offensive. Swedish swear words often refer to hell (e.g. helvete ) and the devil ( fan ), buttocks ( arsle ) and feces ( skit ). A distinctive feature of Dutch swearwords is the frequent use of illness as an insult. Diseases that are constantly used as a swear word in Dutch include: a. "Kanker" ( cancer ), "tering" ( tuberculosis ) and "klere" ( cholera ), whereby these diseases are often found in a combination with "-lijer" (sufferer).

The politically incorrect expression scemo di guerra ("war idiot"), which was used more frequently in Italian earlier, refers to a mentally disabled person.

The use of the Internet in large sections of the population also leads to the spread of relevant English-language swearwords.

Psychology of curse word use

The individual and regional use of swear words is a source of knowledge for psychologists, as swear words are often linked to instincts and taboos. They therefore provide information about individual and collective characteristics. The use of swear words can be systematized according to Freud's psychosexual phase model. In this context, cursing with anal vocabulary is associated with a strong sense of order and cleanliness (widespread in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, Japan), while oedipal cursing (e.g. motherfucker) is often associated with a high level of sexual morality or patriarchal Structures (e.g. USA, Turkey, Serbia, Croatia, Greece). At the same level, there are insults that have to do with promiscuous female behavior (slut, whore, hooker, son of a bitch), which suggest a high ideal of motherhood (especially pronounced in Switzerland and Italy). A specialty are curses in Italy, which refer to God (e.g. porco dio = pig god or porca madonna = pig madonna ), which suggest a high religious ideal in society.

Swear words as a defense reaction

In general, the use of swear words is understood as an act of attack using derogatory or insulting words. In an extended meaning Sigmund Freud, for example, considered (in) the bitching and the use of foul language and as a response mechanism to reduce to a deterioration caused by a mental impression excitation (trauma '): Every individual is trying (to get his health), increased To reduce excitement by a reaction that is more or less adequate to the excitation. A swear word can be the "substitute for the deed", e.g. B. for other, physical reactions. If there is no reaction at all, the trauma retains its original affect. Without reducing the increase in stimuli, the event in question can become a psychological trauma. The healthy psychological mechanism, however, also has other means of reducing the affect, the 'associative processing', i. H. to evoke contrasting ideas (for example of one's own dignity or the indignity of the offender).

Both in attack mode and to reduce frustration, "Scolding is the verbal reaction to frustration ..." (Wilfried Seibicke in).

Swear words as a means of education

The swear word seems to be completely unsuitable as a means of education. Behavior of the child / adolescent who is persecuted by the parent with swear words is very likely not to be broken down, as it is probably intended. Rather, the behavior complained of tends to become more interesting, which usually increases the frequency (or attractiveness). This exacerbates the problem - quite apart from the worsening of the educator-child relationship, which should be good for successful parenting processes.

Historical, social, legal

When swearing you can use almost any word as a swear word, but then these are not swear words in the linguistic sense. "Upper" social classes avoid swear words. “You don't say something like that.” That is why there are considerably fewer swear words in upscale language than in vulgar language.

The use of swear words differs greatly according to age, social class and gender , and there are also fashion trends . Terms that were not originally swear words can develop into such ( pejoration ), such as gypsies or prostitutes , on the other hand swear words can regress if the person insulted reinterprets the word positively ( Geusenwort ; examples cripple or gay ).

"I'm gay - and that's a good thing!"

- Klaus Wowereit

In the legal sense, depending on the context in which a swear word is used, it is an insult (§§ 185-189 StGB insult, defamation, defamation). Systematic abuse can be punished as defamation .

In criminal proceedings, however, it is often difficult to decide which specific words are to be regarded as offensive. For example, a man was fined 20 daily rates for calling police officers a "fish"; the proceedings against a pensioner, who is said to have called a taxi driver a “backpack”, were discontinued because the judge did not consider this word to be an insult.

See also

literature

  • Alexander Bauer: Insult . In: Gert Ueding (Hrsg.): Historical dictionary of rhetoric . Darmstadt: WBG 1992ff., Vol. 10 (2011), Col. 116–128.
  • Theodor Constantin: Berliner Schimpfwörterbuch , Haude & Spenersche Verlagsbuchhandlung, Berlin 1980, ISBN 3-7759-0236-8
  • Oxana Havryliv: Pejorative Lexic . Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. a. 2003, ISBN 3-631-50804-2 . (The book deals with swear words and the verbal act of abuse. The data is based on modern German-language, especially Austrian, literature.)
  • Antje Hornscheidt (Hrsg.): Swear words - insults - pejorations: How power and identities are negotiated in language. Frankfurt am Main 2011. ISBN 978-3-86099-684-3
  • Herbert Pfeiffer: The big swear dictionary: Over 10,000 swear words, mockery and teasing words to designate people. Eichborn, Frankfurt 1996, ISBN 3-8218-3444-7 (Contains an afterword by Wilfried Seibicke on the subject of "Schimpfen", "Schimpfwort" and a detailed bibliography.)

Web links

Wiktionary: Swear word  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations
Wiktionary: Scheltwort  - explanations of meanings, word origins, synonyms, translations

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Uwe Mehlbaum: Maledicta - Swear Words: How and why do people scold? , 2010 ( limited preview in Google Book Search - USA )
  2. ↑ Reinhold Aman: Bavarian-Austrian Schimpfwortbuch . Süddeutscher Verlag, Munich 1972, ISBN 3-7991-5725-5 , p. 165
  3. ↑ Art of Schimpfens in: Falter
  4. ↑ You son because of a burst condom . In: Süddeutsche Zeitung ( Memento from April 19, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
  5. ↑ a b Gabriele Scheffler: Swear words in a society's stock of topics . Tectum Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-8288-8172-6 , p. 133 ( limited preview in Google Book search).
  6. ^ First contributions to a program for the 17th WP in the Human Rights Committee - Tom Koenigs MP. (No longer available online.) In: tom-koenigs.de. Archived from the original on October 16, 2013 ; accessed on January 29, 2015 .
  7. ↑ U. Grafberger: Holland for the trouser pocket: What travel guides conceal , S. Fischer Verlag, 2016.
  8. ↑ Sigmund Freud Collected Works Volume 2 [1] About the psychological mechanism of hysterical phenomena
  9. ↑ Volker Faust PSYCHOHYGIENE On the Psychology of Everyday Life [2] And why is there any abuse ?
  10. ^ "Fish" as an insult to police officers costs 300 euros in the Stuttgarter Nachrichten on March 20, 2012
  11. ^ Unresolved dispute between taxi drivers in Northern Bavaria on August 25, 2010