Bad language has gained new respectability, and swear words which oncewere taboo have lost their shock value, writes Shane Hegarty
Sailors and troopers will not want to hear this but, according to the new edition of the Collins English Dictionary, there are only 16 words left in the English language that can be considered truly taboo. The f-word and its variants are there, as is the c-word. Both Jesus and Christ make the list.
Fanny is there too, even if it seems more likely to raise chuckles than blushes. Frig is still taboo, although frigging is not.
Many swear words, though, are no longer considered so shocking. Turd, fart, ass, bollocks and shag have been downgraded to mere "slang". Cobblers and sod off both get a belated reprieve. We use swear words more and more, according to the publishers, so we notice them less and less. Next time you want to go to a Billy Connolly show, you can tell your friends that he swears like a primary-school teacher or a ballet dancer.
"I think that it has to do with the more frequent use of these words," says Jeremy Butterfield, editorial director of Collins Dictionaries. "As people become more exposed to them, they lose their power to offend. More importantly, they reflect the change in social attitudes and habits. Most of these words have to do with sex and body parts. But we are more liberal now and talking about these things is less of a taboo. So when we want to find words to describe these things we use slang, because these are more natural than using medical jargon."
The prevalence of swear words in movies and on television has meant that people are absorbing them in an almost passive way, according to Butterfield. Newspapers may attempt to cover up their modesty with a strategically placed asterisk, but it may only desensitise readers to their shock value.
In Tuesday's The Irish Times, a priest casually described the Spire of Light unveiling ceremony as "crap". In Wednesday's edition, an opinion piece by Bob Geldof contained one use of the word "fuck" and one of "bullshit", but elicited no complaints. It might be argued that the context of the piece - Geldof's anger at continued poverty in Africa - as well as his reputation for colourful language allowed him leniency, but The Irish Times seldom receives calls about the use of bad language in the newspaper.
RTÉ, on the other hand, has seen an increase in complaints relating to bad language, most recently following Gerry Ryan's expletive-heavy interview with Colin Farrell for the Ryan Confidential series. The station, though, likes to believe that it has a responsible attitude towards swearing, preferring not to show censored "airline" versions of movies, but to air them at proper times and to include a warning in advance of broadcast if needed.
With no defined watershed for the radio, RTÉ finds that people are more likely to complain about bad language during school holidays, when children may hear it. While it generally finds that the Irish have a high tolerance of foul language, an RTÉ spokesman says that "public tolerance is moving but there is a significant proportion of the audience whose tolerance is not moving, and we do need to find a balance between the two".
The Irish seem to have a perception of themselves as being ripe in their language compared to other nationalities, especially the English. A nation that once rioted over the word "shift" (referring to a ladies' slip) in Playboy of the Western World sometimes seems quite proud of its earthy lingo. Not so, says Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, author of Irish Words and Phrases as well as of The Irish Times series, The Words We Use. The Irish swear no more or less than any other nation.
"There are swear words in every language, it just depends on who you are talking to. There are always people from particular places and backgrounds who swear more than others." He points out that there have been times when some of the words now considered shocking were in common usage.
"Take the c-word, for instance. By the 18th century most of the shock value had gone, and there was even a laneway near the Savoy Theatre which until Victorian times was officially named Gropecunt Lane. It's a good example of how these words come and go." There were some fine dictionaries of slang produced during this time, he adds, such as The Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue which was produced in 1811 and filled with obscenities.
The Irish, however, do have a rich resource of swear and slang words to choose from. The Irish and English languages have been cross-fertilising for hundreds of years, leaving the Irish people with, according to Ó Muirithe, 75 slang words for "penis". Culture also influences the balance of the language. According to Jeremy Butterfield, the English and Irish have far more euphemisms for drunkeness than, for example, the Spanish.
Could the day be coming when there will be no words left that are truly taboo?
"It's very hard to predict," says Butterfield. "The logical conclusion is that these words will ultimately lose their taboo value. It's already happening with the f-word."
Diarmaid Ó Muirithe, though, thinks that these words will always shock. "I'm sometimes appalled by the language from the younger generation, especially young girls. They are particularly foul-mouthed. Listening to them would raise the hair on your head."
Arse
Crap
Goolie
Gobshite
Hot pants
John Thomas
Nuts
Shag
Words that are no longer taboo, according to the Collins English Dictionary
