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The word "cuss" is a dialectical variation of the word "curse". It derives from the old superstition that a person could call down the wrath of a god or other superhuman entity on someone with the use of certain words. "To swear" originally was to call upon a god to witness the truth of a statement and is still used in this way in courtrooms.

Swearing and cussing depend on TWO things:

1. An offensive element to the word or phrase, commonest examples being

a) BLASPHEMY (insulting use of the names of sacred gods, the gods' representatives, or places), or

b) REFERENCE TO BODILY FUNCTIONS NOT SOCIALLY ACCEPTED (usually those to do with sex or excretion), or

c) INSULTS to ancestors, especially someone's mother.

2. An element of personal violence - violent emotion such as anger or contempt being usual. Without this the use of 'swear words' are rendered innocuous. A wonderful example of this occurs in episode two of The Matrix when the Merovingian demonstrates the excellence of French for cursing, the language itself being so elegant and eloquent. Naturally it does not sound at all like swearing in English.

Since this type of language is usually oral and it is only comparatively recently that people have rendered oral discourse regularly into written form, these words tend to mutate rather quickly. We have seen how "curse" became "cuss". The word "ho" is a phonetic rendering of a dialectical pronunciation of "whore", and "ass" (which unfortunately gets mixed up with the word for a donkey) is a dialectical form of the word "arse" .

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13y ago

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