The Etymology of Swear Words (#83)

Shit

We have Old English to thank for one of the most commonly used swear words in the United States. Old English words such as scite (dung), scitte (diarrhea, especially in cattle) and scitan (to defecate), all rooted in the Proto-Germanic skit-, evolved into Middle English schitte (excrement) and shiten (to defecate). It then evolved some more to the word we know and love today.

According to OED, "shit" has been used to mean an "obnoxious person" or “an offensive and despicable person”(usually a man)since the 1500’s. By the late 1800s, the word could refer to anything "regarded as worthless"—and from there, it, er, exploded in popularity, giving rise to countless new uses and phrases (give a shit, shit happens, shit for brains, to name a few). These days people also use it to describe a large amount of something (shit ton, anyone?), an unfair situation (shit sandwich), and fun or amusement (shits and giggles).

The dictionary also has a list of common phrases involving "shit" and the approximate year they were first used. Here is some of what they found in their research:

1922: "not give a shit"

1937: "up shit creek"

1942: "shit list"

1960s: "shit-faced"

1989: "same shit different day"

Bullshit

To trace the history of this word, you have to break it down into its component parts first. We know where "shit" comes from, so it's time to explore when "bull" first started to take on more meaning beyond the name for male cattle.

Using "bull" to mean a lie or falsehood can be traced back to the Old French word bole, which means "deception, trick, scheming, intrigue" according to the OED. Bole developed into the Middle English "bull," meaning "false talk, fraud," and was used in the 14th century.

America is credited for making "bullshit" into slang, but the word did exist before it became widely used. Most notably, it was part of the title of an unpublished T.S. Eliot poem called "The Triumph of Bullshit."

Fuck

The origin of "fuck" is one of the hardest to trace, as it was banned from early written work and dictionaries. There have been many tall tales about the origin of fuck. (No, it’s not an acronym!) But, while not recorded until the 1500s (profanities weren’t historically widely written down), fuck is probably from an ancient root meaning “to strike” (compare to Middle Dutch fokken, “to strike”).

Etymologies from various sources all tend to agree that the word probably developed from various Germanic languages. The verb form of the word in German is ficken. In Dutch, fokken means "to breed or beget." Norwegians have the word fukka, which means "to copulate." Swedish also has focka (to strike, to copulate) and fock (penis).

According to OED, "fuck" did not appear in any English language dictionary from 1795 to 1965. The use of fuck as an insult (you stupid fuck) is an Americanism from the 1920s.The Penguin Dictionary finally made a bold move to include it in 1966 and from there it was added into other dictionaries.

As with "shit," here are some commonly used "fuck" phrases and the approximate date when it began:

1916: "fuck up"

1929: "fuck off"

1960: "fuck-all"

Motherfucker

The Oxford English Dictionary cites the first known instance of "motherfucker" being used in a 1889 Texas trial where a witness stated that the defendant in the case was called "that God damned mother-f--king, bastardly son-of-a-bitch."and it so horrified the court it censored that one word in its official transcript.

The World War II era brought the word into popular usage, as motherfucker became a more popular way to say someone or something is irritating or ruthless. As the 1950s rolled around, the word took a turn for the better, if you can believe it. It can be used to describe someone "formidable, strong, or otherwise admirable." 

It was perhaps most famously captured by Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, which features a character who basically uses it as every other word in conversation.

Damn

"Damn" has gone through a long line of evolutions, starting from the Latin words damnum meaning "damage, hurt, harm; loss, injury; a fine, penalty" and the verb damnare meaning "to adjudge guilty; to doom; to condemn, blame, reject" (OED).

Old French picked it up as damner, a word with a very similar meaning. It then made its way to Middle English as dampen.

In other "damn" related information, "god-damn" was used in the late 14th century, according to OED. It came from the Old French word godon, which was apparently "a term of reproach applied to the English by the French." 

Additionally, many people consider “goddamn” doubly offensive. It contains damn, from the Latin damnare, meaning “to condemn,” and God, considered blasphemous (taken in vain) in this context.

Then the euphemism "dang" was first used around 1780. It's somehow satisfying to know that "damn" came first in our language.

Crap

Is "crap" still considered a swear word in today's day and age? We get the sense that we've been desensitized to it, that doesn't have the same bite as some of the others on this list. But no matter. Swear word or not, let's take a look at where it comes from.

Crap is first recorded around 1375–1425, originally referring to chaff, dregs, and other such remnants and scraps.

"Crap" has a basis in farming terminology, of all things. It is thought to have roots in Old Dutch (krappen meaning "to cut off, pluck off") and Medieval Latin (crappa meaning "chaff"). "Chaff" is defined as "the husks of corn or other seed separated by winnowing or threshing."

Old French took the Latin word and turned it into crappe. Middle French saw it as crape, a word meaning "siftings" which does have a tangential relation to chaff in that it indicates a separation process. This made its way to Middle English as crappe, which referred to "grain that was trodden underfoot in a barn, chaff."

As a farming term, "crap" tended to point towards the stuff that was unwanted or discarded. It's no surprise that the word has continued to have that definition as time progressed. In the early 15th century, it was used to reference "weeds growing among corn." In the late 15th century, it was "residue from renderings." Using it to mean "rubbish, nonsense" was first recorded in 1898.

In the 1930s, we see crap as slang for “stuff,” as in Clean up all the crap in your room. 

Hell

We've all heard (or used) the phrase, go to hell at least once or twice in our lifetime. But did you know that hell is recorded before the year 900? It comes from the Old English hel and hell, a term for the abode of the dead in mythology—and especially for the wicked, hence the Christian Hell.

Hell is related to a number of similar words in Germanic languages, like the Old Icelandic Hel, goddess of the underworld. The ancient root of hell and its Germanic cousins probably meant “to cover, hide.”

Piss

The word piss might not be as offensive as some of the other curse words on this list, but it's still foul. It can refer to anything from using the restroom to being exceedingly angry.

The word piss is first recorded around 1250–1300, from French pissier, ultimately from a Latin word meant to imitate the sound of, well, peeing. In the World War II era, it became an intensifier (piss-poor, piss-ugly).

Bastard

When formally used, the word bastard simply means a child who is "born out of wedlock." However, when used as an expletive, it refers to an "unpleasant or despicable person."

The word bastard has been evidenced since at least 1250, and comes from the Anglo-French bastard, in turn from the Medieval Latin bastardus. The original sense of these words is taken as the offspring of a polygynous marriage (having more than one wife) of lower status. It became an insult by the 1800s, and in 1848 it appeared along with its now obsolete synonyms harecoppe, horcop, and gimbo ("a bastard's bastard") in The Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words.

Arsehole/Asshole

The word is a derivation of "arsehole," which developed from the Middle English arce-hoole. This in turn was evolved from the Old English earsðerl, which is the Latin anus combined with pyrel ("hole"). 

As a vulgar term for the “anus,” asshole is recorded in the 1800s. Arshole, with ass being a variant of arse, is even older, recorded in the 1400s.

Since we're on the topic, "ass" (when it means backside, not the animal) is also a derivation of "arse," and it was first used as nautical slang in 1860.

According to OED, "asshole" came to mean "contemptible person" in the mid-1930s.