Cussing without cussing.. Possible or no?

[JamieinNH]

I was referring to wasting too much of my time on this thread, when there are actually some that are really informative.

Ed

Ah ok. Well I guess that way for you to have done that would be to not have posted to begin with.

This thread have been very informative to me, and I plan on sharing this with the members at the study. For what it's worth, I was one in the crowd that believe subbing a word for another was the same thing, if your heart "meant" the orginal word. This thread has helped me 1) back that opinion and 2) might help her stop subbing words.

I am sorry if you think a thread is uninformative, but my suggestion would be to not post at all if you believe that to be the case.

Thanks,

Jamie

 

[JamieinNH]

Also, I should point out, that even the partial spelling of the words (with asterisks, dashes or underscore) is against the rules, if I remember correctly. And I think the substitute words are as well.

I didn't know this. If it is against the rules, I didn't mean to break them, but it would have been very hard to have this conversation without explaining it from the beginning I would think.

Edit: I didn't see that in the rules. I could have overlooked it.

Jamie

 

[D28guy]

I must have overlooked that as well. I used the asterisks thinking I was doing what would be OK.

Mike

 

[Eric B]

For example, to you, what does the word "damn" mean? (You can use multiple definitions, if you wish. I'm not looking for a dictionary definition necessarily, just what it means to you.

I was always more familiar with it as just an exclamation, but since becoming Christian, I realize it as an act of condemnation. In fact, "condemn" is a related word!

As for the "c" word that you're talking about, it's another one that was not offensive, but became so. It's not from Thomas Crapper, as urban legend suggests (although he was a busy plumber and may have helped develop the modern toilet), was recorded to mean "defecate" in 1846 as a verb and 1898 as a noun. I think that at the time, it may have been a polite way to say it, but I'm not sure.

I can tell you what it meant, in writings, from different times, however: from one of a cluster of words generally applied to things cast off or discarded (e.g. "weeds growing among corn" (1425), "residue from renderings" (1490s), 18c. underworld slang for "money," and in Shropshire, "dregs of beer or ale"), all probably from M.E. crappe "grain that was trodden underfoot in a barn, chaff" (c.1440), from M.Fr. crape "siftings," from O.Fr. crappe, from M.L. crappa, crapinum "chaff." Sense of "rubbish, nonsense" also first recorded 1898.

So, it was relatively recently in the history of our language that it took on the meaning that it has today. So, if you say, "That's crap!", although today it is impolite, it was not always so.

Oh, and how could I forget: the corresponding vulgar word for the other body function: urinate. Which is found right in the KJV Bible! Wonder how many KJVO's realize that!