# The art of swearing in Latin ... and other languages ('cause there's an art to it)



## Earion (May 15, 2013)

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


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