by Melissa Mohr
“For all your threats”: Sheidlower, The F Word, 73; Henry Spencer Ashbee, Catena Librorum Tacendorum, by Pisanus Fraxi (London, 1885), 319–21.
one Mr. Baker had told him: Sheidlower, The F Word, 89–90.
In 1836 Mary Hamilton: Joy Damousi, Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial Australia (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 75.
An 1857 abolitionist work: Sheidlower, The F Word, 140; The Suppressed Book About Slavery! (New York: Carleton, 1864), 211.
“Shit, that’t nothen”: Congressional Serial Set: The Miscellaneous Documents of the House of Representatives for the Second Session of the Fiftieth Congress, 18 vols. (Washington, DC: Government Printing Office, 1889), 299.
In 1894, a New York man murdered: “New York v. Thomas Kerrigan,” Court of Appeals (New York: Evening Post Job Printing House, 1894). “the ‘bad language’ of the present day: Graham, “Some English Expletives,” 199.
The entry on swearing: Chambers’s Encyclopædia: A Dictionary of Universal Knowledge, vol. 10 (London: William and Robert Chambers, 1892). This entry is in contrast to those of earlier editions of the Encyclopaedia, where swearing was characterized only as profane use of religious oaths.
“We say that it is no worse”: “The Obscenity Spook,” Liberty, vol. IV, no. 26 (July 30, 1887).
Gordon Williams argues persuasively: Gordon Williams, A Dictionary of Sexual Language and Imagery in Shakespearean and Stuart Literature, 3 vols. (London: Athlone Press, 1994), 350.
“a velvet salute”: Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies: Sex in the City n Georgian Britain, ed. Hallie Rubenhold (Stroud, Gloucestershire: Tempus, 2005), 156.
There were many vulgar slang words: Many of these come from Farmer and Henley, Slang and Its Analogues, under “prick.”
Mrs. B-ooks: Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies, 90–91.
Betsy Miles: Ibid., 154.
When the List describes: Ibid., 127.
Tit as a variant of teat: Thomas Wright, Anglo-Saxon and English Vocabularies, ed. Richard Paul Wülcker, 2nd ed. (London: Trübner, 1884), 1:159.
“a dictionary by which the pronunciation”: Samuel Johnson, “The Plan of an English Dictionary,” The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. (London: F. C. and J. Rivington et al., 1823), 10:28.
“As an independent nation”: Noah Webster, Dissertations on the English Language (Boston: Isaiah Thomas, 1789), 20.
“comparatively few terms of abuse”: Hughes, Swearing, 135.
Abusive terms for other: These racial and ethnic slurs come from Farmer and Henley, Slang and Its Analogues; the OED; and Irving Lewis Allen, The Language of Ethinic Conflict: Social Organization and Lexical Culture (New York: Columbia University Press, 1983).
Chapter 6
Some scholars have argued: Geoffrey Hughes, Swearing: A Social History of Foul Language, Oaths and Profanity in English (Oxford: Blackwell, 1991), 199; Geoffrey Hughes, An Encyclopedia of Swearing: The Social History of Oaths, Profanity, Foul Language and Ethnic Slurs in the English-Speaking World (Armonk, NY: M. E. Sharpe, 2006), 439, 486; Ruth Wajnryb, Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language (New York: Free Press, 2005), 141.
soldiers used fucking so often: John Brophy and Eric Partridge, eds., Songs and Slang of the British Soldier: 1914–1918 (London: Eric Partridge at the Scholartis Press, 1930), 16.
“It became so common”: Ibid., 17.
“are ugly, in form and in sound”: Ibid., 15.
“’Oo’s the bloody shit”: Frederic Manning, The Middle Parts of Fortune: Somme and Ancre (Minneapolis: Filiquarian, 2007), 309.
“Sir, he called me”: Robert Graves, Goodbye to All That: And Other Great War Writings, ed. Steven Trout (Manchester: Carcanet, 2008), 66.
“So you’re the young man”: Hughes, Encyclopedia, “Soldiers and Sailors.” This story is possibly apocryphal, as the line has also been attributed to Dorothy Parker.
though he had to cut his: Jesse Sheidlower, The F Word, 3rd ed. (New York: Oxford University Press, 2009), xxii.
In 1928 Allen Walker Read: Allen Walker Read, Classic American Graffiti: Lexical Evidence from Folk Epigraphy in Western North America (Waukesha, WI: Maledicta, 1977), 55, 51, 45.
“Fuck ’Em All”: Les Cleveland, “Soldiers’ Songs: The Folklore of the Powerless,” The Vietnam Veterans Oral History and Folklore Project (online), accessed July 31, 2012.
“the floodgates opened”: Hughes, Swearing, 200.
“a change of emphasis”: Tony McEnery, Swearing in English: Bad Language, Purity and Power from 1586 to the Present (London: Routledge 2006), 121.
his groundbreaking article: Allen Walker Read, “An Obscenity Symbol,” American Speech 9, no. 4 (1934): 264–78.
“the filthiest, dirtiest, nastiest”: quoted in Randall Kennedy, Nigger: The Strange Career of a Troublesome Word (New York: Vintage Books, 2003), 23.
“probably the most offensive word”: “Nigger,” Dictionary.com, accessed July 30, 2012.
The real, less well-known scandal: Leonard J. Leff and Jerold L. Simmons, The Dame in the Kimono: Hollywood, Censorship, and the Production Code, rev. ed. (Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2001), 98–108; Kennedy, Nigger, 90; “The Depiction of African-Americans in David Selznick’s ‘Gone with the Wind,’” American Studies at the University of Virginia (online), accessed July 30, 2012; Leonard J. Leff, “Gone with the Wind and Hollywood’s Racial Politics,” Atlantic, December 1999.
The 1930 Motion Picture Production Code: “Motion Picture Production Code of 1930 (The Hays Code),” ed. Matt Bynum, ArtsReformation.com, accessed July 31, 2012. The code was amended shortly before the film’s release in 1939 to discourage but not forbid the use of racial slurs, including nigger. See “The Production Code of the Motion Picture Industry (1930–1967),” ed. David P. Hayes, http://productioncode.dhwritings.com/multipleframes_productioncode.php, accessed July 31, 2012.
a genteel elderly white woman: Lynne Tirrell, “Derogatory Terms: Racism, Sexism, and the Inferential Role Theory of Meaning,” in Language and Liberation: Feminism, Philosophy, and Language, ed. Christina Hendricks and Kelly Oliver (Albany: State University of New York Press, 1999), 45.
David Howard: Kennedy, Nigger, 94–96.
The fighting-words doctrine: Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568; 62 S. Ct. 766; 86 L. Ed. 1031 (1942).
Connie Watkins screamed: Watkins v. State, 2010 Ark. App. 85 (2010).
When a police officer asked: Kaylor v. Rankin, 356 F.Supp.2d 839 (2005).
In Michigan, Thomas Leonard: Leonard v. Robinson, 477 F.3d 347 (2007).
Whore, harlot, and jezebel: State v. Ovadal, 2004 WI 20; 269 Wis. 2d 200; 675 N.W.2d 806 (2004).
Jerry Spivey: Kennedy, Nigger, 52–57; In re Jerry Spivey, District Attorney 345 N.C. 404; 480 S.E.2d 693 (1997).
The North Dakota supreme court: In the Interest of A.R., a Child v. R., a Minor Child, 2010 ND 84; 781 N.W.2d 644 (2010).
an appeals court in Arizona: In re John M., 201 Ariz. 424; 36 P.3d 772 (2001).
The n-word does not always fit: People v. Livio, 187 Misc. 2d 302; 725 N.Y.S.2d 785 (2000).
The other key case: Cohen v. California, 403 U.S. 15; 91 S. Ct. 1780; 29 L. Ed. 2d 284 (1971).
The situation is different in Britain: See Public Order Act 1986, c. 64, and The Crime and Disorder Act 1998, c. 37.
Welsh university student: Luke Salkeld, “Off to Jail in Cuffs,” Daily Mail, March 27, 2012.
“You must be fucking barmy”: William Oddie, “Liam Stacey’s Drunken Racist Tweets,” CatholicHerald.co.uk, March 30, 2012; “Liam Stacey Twitter Racism Against Fabrice Muamba, Don’t Lose the Evidence,” Youtube.com, posted by mattvandam1, March 17, 2012, accessed July 31, 2012.
Stiddard had called: Luke Salkeld, “Next Time Just Call him a Fat B******,” Daily Mail, January 16, 2007.
Ulysses is now seen as a classic: See Shane Sherman, “Ulysses by James Joyce,” TheGreatestBooks.org, accessed July 31, 2012.
“the mo
st infamously obscene”: These three quotes come from Elizabeth Ladenson, Dirt for Art’s Sake: Books on Trial from Madame Bovary to Lolita (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2007), 79.
“I’ll wring the bastard fucker’s”: James Joyce, Ulysses (1922), accessed via BompaCrazy.com, 504.
“God fuck”: Ibid., 506.
“Bugger off”: Ibid., 505.
“And she saw a long Roman candle”: Ibid., 349.
alert reader John Sumner: Robert Denning, ed., James Joyce: The Critical Heritage, vol. 1: 1907–1927 (London: Routledge, 1970), 18; Ladenson, Dirt for Art’s Sake, 71–106; Bennett Cerf, At Random: The Reminiscences of Bennett Cerf (New York: Random House, 2002), 90–99.
The trial happened in 1933: The United States of America v. One Book Entitled Ulysses, 5 F. Supp. 182, 72 F.2d 705 (1934).
the Hicklin Rule: Wayne Overbeck and Genelle Belmas, eds., Major Principles of Media Law (Boston: Wadsworth, 2012), 419–24; Joseph Kelly, Our Joyce: From Outcast to Icon (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998), 131–33.
“whether the tendency”: Joel Feinberg, Offense to Others: The Moral Limits of the Criminal Law (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985), 171.
“If I use the taboo words”: quoted in Hughes, Swearing, 191.
The book had been published in several editions: John Sutherland, Offensive Literature: Decensorship in Britain, 1960–1982 (London: Junction Books, 1982), 10–31; Michael Squires, “Introduction,” in D. H. Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, ed. Michael Squires (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002).
“Th’art good cunt”: Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, 177–78.
“The word shit, uh”: “The Following Is a Verbatim Transcript of ‘Filthy Words,’” University of Missouri–Kansas City School of Law (online), July 31, 2012.
Legally, indecency is: “Obscenity, Indecency, and Profanity,” FCC.gov, July 31, 2012.
The FCC threatened: Federal Communications Commission v. Pacifica, 435 U.S. 966; 98 S. Ct. 1602; 56 L. Ed. 2d 57 (1978).
three of the top ten hit songs: Jon Pareles, “From Cee Lo Green to Pink, Speaking the Unspeakable,” New York Times, March 15, 2011.
Much of rap music deals with: Jay-Z, Decoded (New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2010); Tim Strode and Tim Wood, eds., The Hip Hop Reader (New York: Pearson Longman, 2008).
“Lighters”: Bad Meets Evil, “Lighters,” Hell: The Sequel (Deluxe Version), Aftermath, 2011, compact disc.
Rap battling evolved most directly from: Elijah Wald, The Dozens: A History of Rap’s Mama (New York: Oxford University Press, 2012).
Hustling, as rapper Jay-Z: Jay-Z, Decoded, 18.
On July 10, 1890: William Osler, On Chorea and Choreiform Affections (London: H. K. Lewis, 1894), 79–81.
Tourette’s syndrome is characterized: Timothy Jay, Why We Curse: A Neuro-Psycho-Social Theory of Speech (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2000), 63–80. See also Douglas W. Woods et al., Treating Tourette Syndrome and Tic Disorders: A Guide for Practitioners (New York: Guilford Press, 2007); Howard I. Kushner, A Cursing Brain: The Histories of Tourette Syndrome (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1999); Lowell Handler, Twitch and Shout: A Touretter’s Tale (New York: Dutton, 1998).
The problem was thought: For the various theories of what causes Tourette’s, see Kushner, A Cursing Brain, 45–118.
what goes on in “normal” brains: Jay, Why We Curse, 33–62; Steven Pinker, The Stuff of Thought: Language as a Window into Human Nature (New York: Viking, 2007), 331–37; Diana Van Lancker Sidtis, “Formulaic and Novel Language in a ‘Dual Process’ Model of Language Competence,” in Formulaic Language, ed. Roberta Corrigan et al. (Philadelphia: John Benjamins, 2009), 2:445–72; Diana Van Lancker Sidtis, “Where in the Brain Is Nonliteral Language?” Metaphor and Symbol 21, no. 4 (2006): 213–44.
The standard word frequency list: Paul Cameron, “Frequency and Kinds of Words in Various Social Settings, or What the Hell’s Going On?” Pacific Sociological Review 12, no. 2 (Autumn 1969): 101–4.
this one based on spoken telephone conversations: David B. Morris, “The Neurobiology of the Obscene: Henry Miller and Tourette Syndrome,” Literature and Medicine 12, no. 2 (Fall 1993): 194–214.
on average 0.7 percent of the words people use: Timothy Jay, “The Utility and Ubiquity of Taboo Words,” Perspectives on Psychological Science 4, no. 2 (2009), 155.
psychologist Paul Cameron complied word frequency lists: Morris, “The Neurobiology of the Obscene,” 196.
the top five recalled were: Timothy Jay, “Recalling Taboo and Nontaboo Words,” American Journal of Psychology 121, no. 1 (Spring 2008): 83–103.
Another piece of folk wisdom about swearing: Richard Stephens, John Atkins and Andrew Kingston, “Swearing as a Response to Pain,” Neuro-Report 20 (2009): 1056–60.
Epilogue
swearing would simply go extinct: Bernard Nezmah, “Fuck This Article: The Yugoslav Lexicon of Swear-Words,” Central Europe Review 2, no. 41 (November 27, 2000).
Russian obscenities constitute almost an entire language: Victor Erofeyev, “Dirty Words,” New Yorker, September 15, 2003, 42.
“To Is a Preposition, Come Is a Verb”: Lenny Bruce, “To Is a Preposition, Come Is a Verb,” Famous Trials: The Lenny Bruce Trial 1964 (online), July 31, 2012.
“Are There Any Niggers Here Tonight”: Lenny Bruce, “Are There Any Niggers Here Tonight?” Warning Lenny Bruce Is Out Again, Sicsicsic, 2004, compact disc.
where religious oaths, called sacres: Clément Légaré and André Bougaïeff, L’Empire du Sacre Québécois (Sillery, Québec: Presses de L’Université du Québec, 1984); “Swearing in Quebec: If You Profane Something No One Holds Sacred, Does It Make a Swear?” Economist, November 24, 2011; “Quebec French Profanity,” Wikipedia, July 24, 2012 (online), accessed July 31, 2012.
CREDITS
32 The Seven Sages, Michael Larvey.
39 The Forum of Augustus, Harvard College Library, Widener Library, Class 6029.34F.
40 The Oikema, Anne and Jerome Fisher Fine Arts Library, University of Pennsylvania.
71 Pictures from the pithos, Pirhiya Beck, The Drawings from Horvat Teiman (Kuntillet ‘Ajrud), Tel Aviv. 9.1, 198, pp. 3–68.
72 Asherah, from the same pithos, Pirhiya Beck, The Drawings from Horvat Teiman (Kuntillet ‘Ajrud), Tel Aviv. 9.1, 198, pp. 3–68.
74 Goats and Asherah, Harvard College Library, Widener Library, BL 1600.k44 1998x.
76 The “Ram Caught in a Thicket,” © Trustees of the British Museum.
102 Three Phalluses Carrying a Crowned Vulva on a Litter, lead-tin alloy, found in Bruges (Belgium), 1375–1425, Van Beuningen Family Collection, Langbroek (Heilig & Profaan [1993], cat. 0652, inv. 0967 by permission of the Medieval Badges Foundation).
122 The Conversion of Swearers, reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
125 The Warning to Swearers, St. Lawrence’s Church, Broughton, photo by Andy Marshall, courtesy of the Churches Conservation Trust, which cares for the church.
161 The Metamorphosis of Ajax, reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California.
164 A dress for Queen Henrietta Maria, © Devonshire Collection, Chatsworth, reproduced by permission of Chatsworth Settlement Trustees.
171 The Ranters Ranting, © The British Library Board, All Rights Reserved, November 29, 2011.
188 The Venus de Milo, Réunion des Musées Nationaux/Art Resource, New York.
194 A New Cock Wanted, courtesy of the Lewis Walpole Library, Yale University.
200 A mid-nineteenth-century chamber pot, courtesy Chipstone Foundation, photography by Gavin Ashworth.
204 “The Cedric,” courtesy of Simon Kirby, Managing Director, Thomas Crapper & Co., Ltd.
INDEX
Abraham, 55–60, 66–67, 73, 77
swears oath on genitals, 73, 75
Adam and Eve, 84
affirmation, 179–83
Alford, Henry, 186, 195–96
Amer
ican English, 89, 177, 193–95, 201–2, 203, 205, 223, 232–33, 256
amphibology, 130
Aquinas, Thomas, 78
architecture parlante, 39–41
Ariosto, Ludovico, 143–44
arse (ass), 30, 96–97, 111, 151, 167, 173–75, 189, 191, 221, 225, 229–30
Anglo-Saxon uses, 19, 94
in the Bible, 89–90
in jokes, 107, 184
as vox propria, 93–95, 107
arsehole (asshole), 32, 94–96, 111, 185, 251
Asherah, 63, 70–77, 103
sacred poles of, 75
as tree of life, 72–74
–ass construction, 217
assault with contumelious words. See insults in court records
atheism, 179–81
Aubrey, John, 174
Augustine, Saint, 78, 109, 115
Augustus, Caesar (Octavian), 25–26, 183
