Melissa Mohr’s new book is published by OUP. Or O*P. The cover gives the title as Holy Sh*t: A brief history of swearing; the spine says plain Holy Sh*t. The endorsements on the cover include this, from Adam Mansbach, author of Go the F*ck to Sleep: “right from page one, Holy Sh*t is a motherfucker”; the jacket copy asks us to believe that the motherfucker is “a serious exploration of linguistic totem and taboo”. At O*P, N*cola B*rton tells us that “Holy Sh*t reveals the shifting relationship between the divine and the dirty”.
Open the book and you are in for a surprise: it has a second title, Holy Shit, given on the title, half-title and copyright pages. If ordering online, which do we search for? If asking in a bookshop, what do we say? “Holy Shhh . . . asterisk . . . T”? As Ms Mohr might say, “The h*ll with it”.
Among the chapters is one on bad language in Ancient Rome. Some readers will have picked up a bit of Latin swearing here and there, from Catullus, Martial and others, but Ms Mohr provides a sizable lexicon. Many of her words are still in use in related forms: caco, catamitus, crepitus, culus, cunnus, fello, futuo, lingo cunnum. Less easily traceable, in either English or French, are cinaedus (cf. catamite), irrumare (cf. futuo), landica (cf. cunnus), mentula (penis), meio (to urinate), stuprum (sodomy).
There are sections on swearing in the Bible --that’s where the holy comes in-- the use of bawdy in Shakespeare (who “never employs a primary obscenity”), continuing to our present all-sweared-out times, in which fello and futuo have lost their power. Otherwise genteel folks who eff and blind all day long (without a thought for others) hit the roof if you call a woman “girl” or a homosexual “pansy” or a black person “coloured”. The new swearing is neither holy-focused nor sh*t-focused, but identity-sensitive. The mystery of the modern curse is that the only word held to be unutterable in polite company is nigger, though it is commonly used by young blacks.
TLS April 26, 2013
Για όποιον επιθυμεί περαιτέρω μελέτη, υπάρχουν και βοηθήματα:
J. N. Adams. The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
Wkipedia: Latin profanity
Open the book and you are in for a surprise: it has a second title, Holy Shit, given on the title, half-title and copyright pages. If ordering online, which do we search for? If asking in a bookshop, what do we say? “Holy Shhh . . . asterisk . . . T”? As Ms Mohr might say, “The h*ll with it”.
Among the chapters is one on bad language in Ancient Rome. Some readers will have picked up a bit of Latin swearing here and there, from Catullus, Martial and others, but Ms Mohr provides a sizable lexicon. Many of her words are still in use in related forms: caco, catamitus, crepitus, culus, cunnus, fello, futuo, lingo cunnum. Less easily traceable, in either English or French, are cinaedus (cf. catamite), irrumare (cf. futuo), landica (cf. cunnus), mentula (penis), meio (to urinate), stuprum (sodomy).
There are sections on swearing in the Bible --that’s where the holy comes in-- the use of bawdy in Shakespeare (who “never employs a primary obscenity”), continuing to our present all-sweared-out times, in which fello and futuo have lost their power. Otherwise genteel folks who eff and blind all day long (without a thought for others) hit the roof if you call a woman “girl” or a homosexual “pansy” or a black person “coloured”. The new swearing is neither holy-focused nor sh*t-focused, but identity-sensitive. The mystery of the modern curse is that the only word held to be unutterable in polite company is nigger, though it is commonly used by young blacks.
TLS April 26, 2013
Για όποιον επιθυμεί περαιτέρω μελέτη, υπάρχουν και βοηθήματα:
J. N. Adams. The Latin Sexual Vocabulary. Baltimore, Md: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1990.
Wkipedia: Latin profanity