Probably via the navy?

Nah pretty sure that was us **** Irish 🙂

I did read somewhere that other languages never had a concept of swear words, insults were proper statements about fat hairy mothers and the like rather than being offended by a particular word.

However swearing did cross over into other languages over time.

The scots invented the swear word and it remains our greatest export

(from an american colleague- “It’s not so much that you guys swear a lot, it’s the way you do it. You can make even tame stuff like “you dick” seem like the most deadly insult ever made”).

Personally I blame the guy who invented the asterisk. Before that you could go for months with out seeing swearing. Now you see asterisks all over the asterisk shop. It’s asterisk ridiculous .Bleedin asterisks are taking over!.

Whoever invented it, it’s a thing of soaring, majestic beauty when you see a true Malcolm Tucker masterclass, elevating it to the status of an art form.

I don’t know if that works in other languages

I don’t know of another nationality which swears like the Basques. Ironically there are no swearwords in Basque so they use Spanish to do it.

My first landlady here, a well-to-do old lady was really foul-mouthed. I remember asking her what type of dog she had, and she told me it was a ‘lame coño’ which essentially means lapdog but if you translate it literally… 😳

(edit: don’t google that if you’re at work!)

Probably via the navy?

Swearing, drunkeness, fighting, debauchery all exported from these shores by Britains finest !!!

I don’t know about Brits, ever checked out Yiddish for colourful swear words?
Putz, yutz, schmuck, schmoo…
There are lots.
Here’s a few: http://www.trollden.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=49:yiddish-cuss-words&catid=34:languages&Itemid=58
http://nawcom.com/swearing/yiddish.htm

The Brits swear a lot less than the Spanish.

No idea who invented swearing, probably the first caveman trying to hit something s/he was holding with a rock – and missed…

I don’t know of another nationality which swears like the Basques. Ironically there are no swearwords in Basque so they use Spanish to do it.

The Spanish?

****,the **** ****’s ****.

The scots invented the swear word and it remains our greatest export

I think perhaps the further from the equator you get, the more sweary you get. The eskimos had 50 words for “**** me it’s cold.”

I’d like to stake a claim for the North of England for bringing portmanteau swearing to the world, cockbadgers.

Southerners are unable to swear effectively. “Can’t” is not a swear word.

The Basques and Spanish are amazing. I remember when my friend Carlos met Ed Oxley and his young family and started using the literal translations of how he would speak in Spanish. Within two minutes he had called Eds son a f-ing Yorkshire c-word. In front of Eds wife and v. young daughter. I was lost for words, I had to literally drag him out of there!

I love the poetry of the Spanish swearing. They are the only nation that could look you in the eye and threaten to crimp one off in your milk.

Try calling me a can’t and see where it gets you! 😉

The c-word is coño here and is very acceptable. One of the local towns has a series of mountain bike trails, one of them is called coño del mundo or **** of the world. The local government has that printed on flyers and their website. It just doesn’t have the same significance here. Try saying in a restaurant though that your meal was of the communion wafer or saying to someone that you will give them a communion wafer…. then you are being offensive!

My parents live near a marine reserve in spain called el cabron – the bastard. Goolge also suggests arsehole and shithead as alternative translations.

The Spanish use the word coño for loads of things, but you’re quite right the literal translation is certainly banned by the BBC.

Southerners are unable to swear effectively. “Can’t” is not a swear word.

Do me a favour, “coont” is definitely not a swearword.

Northerner swearing, to me, sounds like some twee words your grandmother might use.

Swearing is the one area where Glaswegians can take pride in their cultural dominance. 🙂

Southerners are unable to swear effectively. “Can’t” is not a swear word.

Do me a favour, “coont” is definitely not a swearword.

You’re both right.

who gives a ****?

In Salford, the c-word is optimised by an umlaut over the “u”. It’s very effective. Although I prefer snip-nosed **** pig. It’s just a bit different.

Yiddish swearwords? Your list conjured up an image of cleaning jewelery in a quiet, French town, CountZero. Most people around here make do with only one swear word which can be spoken to express almost any feeling: “putain”. Women, especially young women, seem to use it most and most eloquently.