We all have our favorite curse words to use when we’re feeling angry, frustrated, upset, excited, surprised. Curse words give us a colorful vocabulary that goes beyond our everyday ways of expressing emotion. But, where did those filthy (yet cathartic) expressions come from? Well, we took a deep look into some of the most common swears around.
Content warning: there will be vulgar language ahead …
Shit comes from the Old English scite, which was originally a neutral word for 鈥渄iarrhea,鈥� especially in cattle.
By the 1500s, people began to use this curse word to mean “an offensive and despicable person (usually a man).” Here’s an example from 1675: “He had basely slanderd him calling shit, thief, beast.” (Tuck that insult combo in your back pocket!)
By the late 1800s, the word could refer to anything “regarded as worthless”鈥攁nd from there, it, er, exploded in popularity, giving rise to countless new uses and phrases (give a shit,听shit happens,听shit for brains, to name a few). These days people also use it to describe a large amount of something (shit ton, anyone?), an unfair situation (shit sandwich), and fun or amusement (shits and giggles).
As a vulgar term for the 鈥渁nus,鈥� asshole is recorded in the 1800s. Arshole, with ass being a variant of arse, is even older, recorded in the 1400s.
Fast forward to the 1950s, when the word became more commonly used in reference to a听“contemptible听person.” Today, we’ve obviously kept this usage, showcasing our extreme distaste for someone by calling them … this term.
(Of course, if you drop the –hole, you’re just calling that person “a donkey.” But you knew that, right?)
There have been many tall tales about the origin of fuck. (No, it鈥檚 not an acronym!) But, while not recorded until the 1500s (profanities weren鈥檛 historically widely written down), fuck is probably from an ancient root meaning 鈥渢o strike鈥� (compare to Middle Dutch fokken, 鈥渢o strike鈥�).
Just like shit, the word fuck has countless applications: it’s a noun, a verb, and interjection. The use of fuck as an insult (you stupid fuck) is an Americanism from the 1920s.听These days, you can fuck around, over, about, up, and off; the list goes on.听Our filthy, foul mouths have created a听fuck听for every occasion.
Worried about how often you let this word slip? can give someone a boost of strength and may also be a sign of someone’s “verbal fluency, openness and honesty.”
Yes, bitch originally meant 鈥渇emale dog.鈥� And it still does today, though you are likely going to turn some heads if you call Ms. Floo-Foo McPoodles a bitch.
Bitch develops from the Old English bicce. It wasn鈥檛 until around the 1400s bitch was recorded as a disparaging word for a woman. It鈥檚 still disparaging today, though some women have reappropriated the word鈥攊n some instances by respelling it as betch or bish.
Many people consider this curse word doubly offensive. It contains damn, from the Latin damnare, meaning 鈥渢o condemn,鈥� and God, considered blasphemous (taken in vain) in this context.
That double offensiveness hasn鈥檛 stopped plenty of folks from using it鈥攕ince at least the 1400s, when the term is first recorded.
This swear word is younger than you may have guessed, first recorded in the 1900s鈥攖hough talking trash about people鈥檚 mothers is, alas, nothing new.
The phrase motherfucker (referring to someone or something despicable) was originally documented during an 1889 case argued at the Texas Court of Appeals. It was there a witness referred to a听defendant as “that God damned mother-f鈥攊ng, bastardly son-of-a-bitch,” and it so horrified the court it censored that one word in its official transcript.
In the World War II era, motherfucker became a more popular way to say someone or something is irritating or ruthless. As the 1950s rolled around, the word took a turn for the better, if you can believe it. It can be used to describe someone “formidable, strong, or otherwise admirable.” (Just ask Miles Davis, who supposedly favored this word and once complimented a听young percussionist with,鈥淵ou鈥檙e a motherfucker.鈥�)
We’ve all heard (or used) the phrase, go to hell at least once or twice in our lifetime. But听did you know that hell is recorded before the year 900? It comes from the Old English hel and hell, a term for the abode of the dead in mythology鈥攁nd especially for the wicked, hence the Christian Hell.
Hell is related to a number of similar words in Germanic languages, like the Old Icelandic Hel, goddess of the underworld. The ancient root of hell and its Germanic cousins probably meant 鈥渢o cover, hide.鈥�
The word piss might not be as offensive as some of the other curse words on this list, but it’s still foul. It can refer to anything from using the restroom to being exceedingly angry.
The word piss is first recorded around 1250鈥�1300, from French pissier, ultimately from a Latin word meant to imitate the sound of, well, peeing.听In the World War II era, it became an intensifier听(piss-poor, piss-ugly).
When formally used, the word bastard simply means a child who is “born out of wedlock.” However, when used as an expletive, it refers to an “unpleasant or despicable person.”
The word bastard has been evidenced since at least 1250, and comes from the Anglo-French bastard, in turn from the Medieval Latin bastardus. The original sense of these words is taken as the offspring of a polygynous marriage (having more than one wife) of lower status. It became an insult by the 1800s, and in 1848 it appeared along with its now obsolete synonyms harecoppe, horcop, and gimbo (“a bastard’s bastard”) in The听Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial 51吃瓜s.
The word crap (meaning “to talk nonsense” or “excrement”) is one less distasteful way to say shit. Nonetheless, the word is still considered a crude curse word.
OK, this is a very visual etymology. Crap is first recorded around 1375鈥�1425, originally referring to chaff, dregs, and other such remnants and scraps. It鈥檚 not until the 1800s we see crap recorded as slang for excrement. In the 1930s, we see crap as slang for 鈥渟tuff,鈥� as in Clean up all the crap in your room!
Check out the best fake swears on screen in our slideshow: Blurgh! You Fracking Smeghead!
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