What kind of profanity is this?
https://stancarey.wordpress.com/2026/04/06/what-kind-of-profanity-is-this/

#language #swearing #slang #profanity #linguistics #words #StrongLanguage

What kind of profanity is this?

Regular readers will be familiar with Strong Language, a group blog about swearing that I co-founded with James Harbeck in 2014. If you’re interested in swearing as a linguistic or cultural phenomenon, I recommend bookmarking or subscribing to it.

New posts by our excellent contributors are less frequent now, but that makes it easier to catch up if you haven’t visited before or feel like browsing the archives. The blog has over 400 posts: fascinating and colourful explorations of profanity for readers not averse to such material.

I also contribute to Strong Language now and then, and this post on Sentence first introduces the last few that I wrote. What follows below is not very sweary – there’s one reference to a strong swear – but if this type of language freaks you out like it does Ned Flanders, or just plain doesn’t interest you, you may prefer to bail out here.

From “Be-bop-a-Lisa” in Simpsons Comics no. 6 (1994). Script & pencils: Bill Morrison; Inks: Tim Bavington; Colours: Cindy Vance. Editor: Steve Vance

I’m interested in how people refer to swearing: as bad language, explicit language, dirty language, adult language, and so on. The adjectives form an intriguing set. ‘Strong bad mature filthy language’ examines the patterns that emerge and explains why I proposed Strong Language as the name for the blog.

The title of the present post, you may have twigged, alludes to Amy Winehouse and her song ‘Me & Mr Jones’, which contains a line I borrowed more directly for ‘What kind of “fuckery” is this?’. The post delves into that word’s meanings and use, originally literal but now usually (and variously) figurative.

Also in a pop-cultural vein, John Boorman’s 1987 drama film Hope and Glory has a scene that depicts swearing as a rite of passage for a group of boys in London during World War II. My short post puts the scene in context and discusses its effects.

Most recently, I wrote about a remarkably successful euphemism in ‘Another freaking f-word’. This use of freaking first appeared in 1928, as far as we know, so its centenary is just around the corner. In the post I look at why and where it has become so freaking popular.

I finally got around to starting Deadwood, of which I collected all three seasons and the bonus movie from op shops. And crikey does it go hard on the colourful language! Quite amazing for a show from the bleepin' USA.

"I may have fucked up my life flatter than hammered shit, but I stand here before you today beholden to no human cocksucker, and holding a working fucking gold claim, and not the U.S. government telling me I'm trespassing, or the savage fucking red man or any of these other limber-dick cocksuckers passing themselves off as prospectors had better try and stop me."

OK. Give the man another whiskey, I guess.

https://trakt.tv/shows/deadwood
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0348914/

#StrongLanguage #Deadwood

Another freaking f-word. New post for @stronglang about "freaking" as a euphemistic intensifier:
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2026/01/22/another-freaking-f-word/

#language #swearing #euphemisms #slang #freaking #linguistics #StrongLanguage

"Shakespeare’s strongest language isn’t even voiced in English" – John Kelly on lewd language lessons in Henry V:
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2016/02/05/pardon-my-french-lewd-language-lessons-in-henry-v/

#FTA #Shakespeare #StrongLanguage #HenryV #literature

"Mick Herron's series of spy novels...revel in bad language, which is necessary to its comedy and to the development of character and narrative cohesion."

Michael Adams on the Slough House series, new on the Strong Language blog:
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2025/07/09/espionage-novels-that-give-a-fuck-about-profanity/

#swearing #profanity #books #SpyFiction #espionage #LiteraryCriticism #StrongLanguage #fiction

"We know the characters by their swearing." Michael Adams on Mick Herron's Slough House novels. New on the Strong Language blog:
https://stronglang.wordpress.com/2025/07/09/espionage-novels-that-give-a-fuck-about-profanity/

#swearing #books #SpyFiction #espionage #profanity #LiteraryCriticism #LitCrit #StrongLanguage #fiction