Vraith wrote:how interesting. I'd guess that in the states right now, and for a while, the C word is second only to the N word for offensiveness, and not by much.
But pretty much everyone I know and grew up with uses the F word [and flavorful variations] as often as comma, period, and exclamation point combined except in the most rigid/formal circumstances.
I suppose it's what you're used to, and how you are brought up, and I don't mean that in a derogatory sense. I never, ever, heard my father swear. My mother used to call me a little bu**er, but one day I looked it up in the dictionary and showed her; she never called me it again. I never heard the F word at school, or at college that I can remember - this was 60s and 70s when there was absolutely no swearing on the television, and people were more restrained - stiff upper lip and all that.
Now I find that there is also an "N" and a "W" word! What have I been missing out on all these years? On second thoughts, don't tell me.
On another tack, a friend of mine in the 60s had the LP of Hair, and there was one song that stuck in my mind. I would go around singing it. Then someone explained to me what the words meant. I had no idea - thought they were made up as I'd never heard them before
Don't think I'll quote it here 
)
they say that word for every occasion. 
