Glossary
Glossary of terms
The technical words used on this site, defined briefly. Where a term has its own page, the entry links to it.
- Approximant
- A speech sound made with the articulators close but not touching: l, r, w, y. Swear words across languages tend to avoid them. See The sound.
- Cognate
- A word in one language that shares an ancestor with a word in another. German ficken is a cognate of fuck; Latin futuere is not.
- Coprolalia
- Involuntary utterance of obscene words, a symptom experienced by roughly one in ten people with Tourette's syndrome. See The science.
- Descriptivism / prescriptivism
- Describing how language is actually used, versus prescribing how it should be. This site is descriptive about the word and openly prescriptive on one page, which says so.
- Dysphemism
- The opposite of a euphemism: a deliberately harsh word chosen for effect. "Fucked" for "broken" is one.
- Euphemism
- A mild word used in place of a harsh one. See Euphemisms.
- Expletive
- Strictly, a word that fills space without adding meaning ("it" in "it is raining"). In ordinary use, a swear word, because swear words so often fill space without adding meaning.
- Expletive infixation
- Inserting a swear word inside another word: abso-fucking-lutely. See Grammar.
- Folk etymology
- A popular but false story about a word's origin. The acronym theories of fuck are the standard example.
- Fricative
- A consonant made by forcing air through a narrow gap: f, v, s, z, th.
- Grawlix
- The string of symbols (@#$%!) used in comics for swearing. Named by the cartoonist Mort Walker in 1964.
- Hypoalgesia
- Reduced sensitivity to pain. Swearing produces it; the Keele studies measure it. See Why we use it.
- Intensifier
- A word that strengthens another without changing its meaning: very, really, fucking.
- Lalochezia
- The emotional relief obtained by swearing. A rare word, kept alive largely by people who like having a word for it.
- Minced oath
- A swear word altered to be acceptable: zounds, gosh, frigging, feck.
- Obscenity
- In law, material that tends to "deprave and corrupt" (Obscene Publications Act 1959). In ordinary use, sexual or excretory swearing, as distinct from profanity.
- Plosive
- A consonant made by stopping the airflow and releasing it: p, b, t, d, k, g. Fuck ends in one.
- Profanity
- Strictly, irreverent use of religious words. Now, any swearing. The drift in meaning mirrors the history on the Religion page.
- Register
- The level of formality of language in a given situation. The word belongs to informal register and creates trouble when it crosses into formal.
- Semantic bleaching
- The loss of a word's literal meaning through frequent use as an intensifier. "Fucking freezing" has nothing to do with sex.
- Slur
- A word that insults a person by reference to a group they belong to. Not a swear word in the sense used on this site, and not listed here.
- Sociolinguistics
- The study of how language varies with social factors such as age, class, sex and region. Most of the Statistics page is sociolinguistics.
- Taboo
- A word or subject that a culture forbids in ordinary speech. The force of a swear word is the force of its taboo, which is why invented swear words do not relieve pain.
- Watershed
- In UK broadcasting, 9pm, after which content unsuitable for children may be shown. The word is confined to the far side of it.