![]() ![]() What’s acceptable in one place at one time may not be in another. When words become profane, it’s a social change based on cultural beliefs, norms and expectations.the “indecent finger.” Rumour has it, the emperor Caligula belittled his subjects by making them kiss his middle finger rather than his hand. Back then, it was called the digitus impudicis, a.k.a. The earliest record of it dates back to ancient Greece in playwright Aristophanes’s 419 BC play The Clouds, in which Strepsiades gives Socrates, well, The Finger, before wagging his penis at him. ![]() Take, for example, the most iconic: The Finger. Dirty words don’t have to be spoken - they can be expressed in gestures.And people with brain damage swear a lot, for obvious reasons, meaning the automatic, reflexive swearing that bursts out of us when we stub a toe or drop something uses different parts of the brain than the rest of language. In fact, frequently, even when brain damage reduces most language, people can still swear. Damage to language-supporting brain regions doesn’t impair all language equally.Across the world, profane language tends to come from at least one of these four domains. While historical religiosity is the best predictor of whether language will have a system of profanity, the second best marker is language relating to sex and sexual acts, the third being bodily functions and, finally, slurs.Manage Print Subscription / Tax Receipt. ![]()
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