I don't hold with this "lack of vocabulary" argument. It's nonsense.

To paraphrase Billy Connolly, if you can give me a non-sweary equivalent to "f*ck off" I'll gladly use it. And it certainly isn't "go away."

That said, I agree, people swear too much, myself included. I think though there's a difference between swearing and inappropriate swearing. I'd be happy swearing like a navvy in front of my mates, but I wouldn't do it in front of my mother and I dispair when I hear people bellowing it to each other across the street.

I'd agree with the point Toys made too; broadly speaking, you choose to take offence, not cause it.

ah Toys the Buddha and the gift argument
If a person gives you a gift and you refuse to accept it then who does it belong too? Same if you dont accept the insults. I see what you mean in general with general swearing not really aimed at you …I dont want my 5 year old asking me what f@ck means though when he heard it in a park though. Not when it is though,

Don …Gog also from Uni days…if only you could get work there I would never have left

… reminds me of this:

http://marnanel.org/the-tripod-stand

cougar – we are talking about the words used in different contexts. Billy Connolly's "F*ck off" used as an expletive having no equivalent is one thing; it's the use of the same word in place of adjectives or adverbs or just as a pause mechanism that I am referring to.

I popped into our facilities dept earlier and overheard this choice sentence "You won't f*cking believe this but when f*cking Trevor took his whole f*cking family to the f*cking pub on Sunday his f*cking mother in law only f*cking asked him to take her f*cking home early so he missed the whole f*cking second f*cking half – silly f*cker".

The "Victorians" are right.

The whole purpose of refraining from swearing is that it has real impact when you really need it.

If you swear all the time it just becomes more lingual poly-filler.

A swear word used appropriately can help emphasis a point but to use it almost every other word shows a lack of intelligence..Example I went to a Roy "Chubby" Brown show once & he said **** every other word, now that was funny for about oh 5 minutes..but 45 minutes late I was bored out of my skull & so decided to **** off to the nearest bar!

ps I was on the ranges once with the Army & one of the blokes had a stoppage, when asked by the NCO what he was doing his reply was: "Sir the **** fecker is **** fecked.." I & several others p1ssed ourselves with laughter..

That quote has also been attributed to John Emburey of Middlesex and England cricket fame, who upon being asked about the state of his just broken finger responded with the immortal 4 word sentence

'Facking facker's facking facked!'

I hope in your story the bloke was severely beasted for misaddressing the NCO. NCO's are called by rank. Sir is reserved for officers and WO1/WO2's, iirc.

The weird thing is, the words we use as swear words now, haven't always been that offensive.
Back in the mid-to-late Medieval period those words were in everyday usage as evidenced by the common street name of 'gropec*nt lane' meaning the place where the whores worked. They were crude yes, & not used in polite society (i.e the Gentry & above) but they weren't really shocking either.
If you wanted to REALLY offend back then you would use religious terms.
Terms like 'God's blood' 'Christ's bones' etc. This would make people stop, turn white & cross themselves in the st.
We still have the vestiges of this today – every time you shout "Jesus Christ!" you are harking back to a medieval swearing tradition 😆