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> On a slightly different note, I've heard it said that a language uses as its swear words the things most important to the culture or the people speaking that language. ie in french there are a lot of religious referances.
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> Think about the swear words you use (or don't use). Think about what they mean (or used to mean). What does this say about us?
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> Rivi"two cents isn't enough. Can I say a whole toonie's worth?"kah

There is one explanation that I heard from a teacher in high school (the one who first taught me to not believe everything I'm taught), and I haven't been able to fully figure it out. She said that at the moment a person swears, they are a danger to society. I think the reasoning went something like this: when you swear, you break the rules of society, and have, at that moment, lost self control. For example, if you take two nearly identical people in two nearly identical situations (where there is a confrontation between people), the one who swears is probably going to try to escalate the confrontation into violence (unless something else stops it). If you can lose self-control enough to start shouting profanities, then you can lose it just a little bit more without it seeming like alot. On the other hand, if you keep your self-control at the very beginning, it doesn't slip as easy later on.

Even if you're by yourself and you hit your thumb with a hammer, when you swear, you are more likely to throw the hammer than if you don't swear.

Well, that's what I can remember of the argument; anybody have anything to add?

-Enig"I swear I don't swear!"ma