We got some flowers when Allison was born, and after some time, the flowers died and need to be thrown away. I took them to the trash and dropped them in. For some reason, the visual image of flowers in a trashcan has always been profoundly saddening to me.
This has been on my mind for a while, and only more so since Allison arrived. There's not a good conversational word for... well, here's my point... for "poop". Not that you talk about "poop" or "pooping" a WHOLE lot in everyday conversation, but sometimes it does come up. And what are our options?
"Poop" is too childish. "Shit" and "crap" too vulgar. "Feces" is too clinical. And the same applies for the act of creating one of these things. Nothing feels conversationally appropriate to me. Is it not possible to have a normal, everyday conversation about poop? I'm finding the answer is no.
This leads me to another concept that I'm absolutely fascinated by: the concept of swear words in a language. The fact that saying to a toddler "Do you have a poopy diaper?" is perfectly appropriate, but saying "shitty" instead of "poopy" would be frowned on, in spite of their meaning the EXACT same thing! Body parts have their own gamut of names, some of which can be used with impunity, and some strike fear int the hearts of men and women everywhere (the dreaded "c" word).
I'd really like to learn more about the history and linguistics of cursing, because the concept really doesn't make any logical sense to me, but yet is very real and holds me in its power.
Fascinating.
2 comments:
I've also thought about how arbitrary swear words seem to be and pondered about their creation and elevation to swear word status. I also wonder how easy or difficult it would be to create a new swear word in our ever evolving/developing language. Matbe at the same time we could create a more user friendly term for 'dropping the deuce'.
History of words and all that is really interesting. Not just swear words but any word with power beyond the meaning of the word ('love' is a good one in the other direction, but still arbitrary).
You can do quick wikipedia/google searches and see the history of some common swear words and a few quick facts that the concept of swearing is fairly universal (all languages have the concept and types of swear words in concept).
Either way, I agree with the need to come up with a better term to use for those of us with young kids. It turns out that our conversation frequently runs into the need for a good word for 'dookie'.
Teri hates euphemisms for it, by the way. I used to say 'drop the deuce' a lot. Then, I switch to 'dookie'... then, I started saying 'okie, dokie dookie' (Reference to Gummi Bears cartoon). Then, the other day I said that I need to go 'okie dokie'. Jax really liked that one.
Post a Comment