NSFW
One of my lessons from this past week was about taboo words. I think it is interesting that we make certain vocalizations illegal. Why are certain words so profane? There are many reasons. Words have emotions attached to them from experience and culture. Sometimes the words are associate with taboo subjects. Edmund Leech identified three types of profanity: dirty words (shit, cock), religious words (omg / hell), and animal abuse (bitch, cow).
NSFW stands for Not Safe for Work. It is a way to let someone know that the contents of a message (or website) is not appropriate for a formal situation and you should use caution before examining it. One could make the argument that it was an early form of self-censorship on the internet. NSFW first appeared in Urban Dictionary in 2003 and grew in popularity, peaking in 2017. The earliest know use of NSFW - to mean not safe for work - came in an August 22, 2000 Fark post warning people about the website StileProject, "Vote for Fark in the StileProject Top 100. Not safe for work. Not safe period."
To avoid taboo words, people often use euphemisms. Since talking about sex is so taboo, I made a PowerPoint about genital euphemisms. While there is no actual nudity, there is a lot of implied nudity. You can remove the censors and see that the people are clothed. Still, you should consider this NSFW.
Do you swear? Context is important. You are more likely to swear when you are hanging out with friends than when you in a formal meeting. So, what does this say about you? People who use a lot of profanity are generally more intelligent, have a larger vocabulary, have less stress, feel less physical pain, and are more honest. Taboo words are usually ignored in education for obvious reasons, but maybe we should explore them more.
What is your favorite cuss word?
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Reference:
https://www.thoughtco.com/taboo-language-1692522
https://www.discovermagazine.com/health/worried-about-your-foul-mouth-swearing-could-actually-be-good-for-you
https://www.sciencealert.com/swearing-is-a-sign-of-more-intelligence-not-less-say-scientists
https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwwqaj/nsfw-brief-history
https://books.google.com/ngrams/graph?content=nsfw&year_start=1800&year_end=2019&corpus=26&smoothing=3
https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/nsfw