Swearing: A F**king Long History

Betwixt The Sheets: The History of Sex, Scandal & Society

History Hit

Society, Sex, Scandal, Education, History

4.8 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 9 January 2024

⏱️ 45 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Have you ever wondered where the &%@! swear words come from? Well today, Kate is going Betwixt the Sheets to find out.

Linguist legend Deborah Cameron is back on the podcast to tell us more about the history of some of your favourite curse words. From the f-word and the c-word, to nicknames for nether regions; we're looking at the etymology of these words, and discovering when they were deemed offensive by society.

Saxon origins, medieval myths and internet abbreviations - you'll never think of swear words in the same way again.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Lady Killers is back with me Lucy Worsley on BBC Radio 4.
0:07.0	Join me and a crack team of female detectives to reinvestigate more astonishing crimes from the past, all committed by women.
0:19.0	We premeditated to take his life.
0:22.0	The new season of Lady Killers is coming soon. Listen wherever you get your
0:26.8	podcasts.
0:29.4	Hello my lovely betwixters it's me
0:35.2	T' Kait Lister how the fuck are you?
0:38.6	Why am I swear before I've even given you your fair dues warning?
0:43.0	Well, it's because you really need one this time because we are talking about the history of swear words.
0:48.0	So fucking buckle up.
0:50.0	Here it is. This is an adult podcast, broken by adults to other adults about adult things covering a range of adults subjects in an adult way and you should be an adult too and if you're not an adult you need to off right now
1:00.9	For the rest of you I am ready to do this if you are it will come as
1:06.5	absolutely no surprise to any of you after that little lot that I do like to swear I do you know it's an art form when you can do it well and I to be
1:17.2	honest I think that it's a sure sign that you're actually a rather wonderful person
1:22.0	Do you happen to have a favorite swear word, oh lovely betwixtor,
1:25.0	your go to in moments of anguish, joy and despair?
1:29.0	Which one is it?
1:30.0	Which one? I think my favorite is cunt, you know?
1:32.0	It's just so much fun to use that one
1:34.5	it's always a fun question to ask and when I was chatting to none other than
1:39.0	Miriam Margulies recently I asked her what her favorite swear word was.
1:44.0	Cun face. I don't know why it works so well but it's lasted through the centuries
	...

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