Review of 'Nine Nasty Words : English in the Gutter' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
learned a lot about the history of curse words and was reasonably entertained in the process. 'Swears' (originating in the purest form of swearing to God) have evolved from a religious nature, to body form and functions, to group identity slurs. Since swearing is most effective when delivering a punch, the words keep evolving: I don't give damn slid to I don't give a shit and is now I don't give a fuck. And we particularly like the bite of a word that ends in a hard sound. Hence the current purchase of bitch, faggot and so forth.
I am usually a speller of the 'bad' words and this book really got me thinking about how arbitrary it is that I've decided which words are verboten. The author himself thinks the expression 'Not giving two shits' to be so much worse, visually, than 'Not giving a shit'. He also has …
learned a lot about the history of curse words and was reasonably entertained in the process. 'Swears' (originating in the purest form of swearing to God) have evolved from a religious nature, to body form and functions, to group identity slurs. Since swearing is most effective when delivering a punch, the words keep evolving: I don't give damn slid to I don't give a shit and is now I don't give a fuck. And we particularly like the bite of a word that ends in a hard sound. Hence the current purchase of bitch, faggot and so forth.
I am usually a speller of the 'bad' words and this book really got me thinking about how arbitrary it is that I've decided which words are verboten. The author himself thinks the expression 'Not giving two shits' to be so much worse, visually, than 'Not giving a shit'. He also has a negative opinion of rabbits which merited a fellow reviewer to spend almost half her review taking issue with it! Can't we simply allow people to hold contrary opinions?
Lastly, I was already a fan of McWhorter's work at The Atlantic, his podcast appearances and his substack, but his level and depth of language expertise just floored me. Linguists really are the shit!