How much do you swear?

[Mike]

What do you consider swearing/profanity? How much of it do you use and in what contexts?

[poorpete]

Fuck you.

[Mike]

Pete wins. I can't top that.

[poorpete]

Sorry, had to. I rarely say the F word, which is helpful around kids. Semi-less helpful is that when in a hurried panic, I do tend to say "shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!" But of all the things, I'm not too worried about them taking it up.

I have no issue with people using swear words, only how. I mean, Cyrano de Bergerac could say a good insult without swearing, but still doesn't take the sting out of it. Also work meetings, I'm usually not cool with it. Unless of course, it's me saying "shit shit shit shit shit shit shit!"

"With your face as lacking in all fucking distinction--as lacking, I say, in interest, as lacking in fucking pride, in fucking imagination, in fucking honesty, in fucking lyricism--in a word, as lacking in nose as that other offensively bland fucking expanse at the opposite end of your cringing fucking spine--which I now remove from my fucking sight by stringent application of my fucking boot, Fuckface!" - Cyrano de Bergerac

[Stan]

For me, swearing and writing SAS code are intimately linked. That's one of the reasons why I work with my door shut. When working at home, apparently not only do I swear, I sound angry even when I'm not - which the kids find slightly alarming. My most common swear while working is monkey fucker.

When the kids were younger, I tried to swear less around them so they wouldn't get in trouble at school. I wound up saying nonsense sounds or nonsense words at times. I still do that a fair amount in lieu of swearing.

At work meetings, I never swear. Some docs and professors never swear, some do quite a bit. It doesn't phase me, but I don't want to offend the non swearers by accident.

[Mike]

I swear a lot. Never in work settings except for a handful of people I am close to.

All words carry layers of meaning, and swear words often convey nuances that other words cannot. And it's not just emphasis and passion. Even in more casual uses, profanity implies a certain intimacy or familiarity between speaker and listener. I like profanity.

On the other hand, there are people like my brother-in-law who average probably 1.6 swear words per sentence. That's a bit much. It loses its magic at some point

[Bonefish]

I am a carpenter. Not a preacher. I cuss, A LOT

[Phoebe]

At work I almost never do, though I may have rarely lapsed into a damn/crap/hell/bs or some word I consider lesser. I used to swear in the private context a great deal, as there is a certain art form to it, and I can still appreciate that, but over the long haul of having kids I tried to reform my language. I'm sure my husband would say I still do it, as he hears it more than anyone else would, but especially lately I have been trying to set a good example and decide not to swear as much as possible. When I work out I sometimes burst out with a choice word because ... pain! Argh!

[Tahlvin]

Very, very rarely outside of immediate family (my wife and kids), including work and social situations. However, at home with just the wife and kids, I certainly do. I used to try not to around the kids, but gave up on that some years ago when it was clear the older two were hearing it anyways from their friends at school. And I'll still frequently just ramble off nonsense words or things like "fork" or "shirt", etc. "Charles Dickens's chickens" was a favorite of mine for some years. But I no longer worry about letting the profanity fly when, for instance, I accidentally bite my lip so hard I end up taking a chunk out of it. Which happens way too often, if you ask me!

[Phoebe]

I was distracted the first time I read your comment, so I thought you were saying that to punish yourself for cursing you would bite your lip to squelch it so hard that a chunk came out of the lip. I feel greatly relieved that is not what you're actually doing to your poor face. Like I've heard of the swear jar but that takes it to a whole new level entirely.

[bralbovsky]

Regularly but not frequently. Lately more on certain topics, mostly for emphasis. He's an idiot is good, but he's a f...ing idiot is emphatic.
In some company I try not to at all, and will occasionally just silence out the word. I used to do this in class, just leave a breath instead of a word, and it got the point across.
I'm generally with Cyrano, but research has shown swearing to reduce perception of pain from injury.
When the kids were small I tried Damnation and Hellfire instead of the more common anglo saxon choices. They picked all of them up just the same. Though it was unique to have a three year old shouting "Hellfire!" when her ball rolled under the bed.

[Iantha]

I swear all the time, but rarely at work and never at school, unless it's my psych class. My psych prof (the chair of the department) drops the f-bomb all the time and asked me very pointedly in front of the whole class if I had fucked up his presentation, to which I responded "I'm not fucking responsible for your fucking presentation and I very rarely fuck anything up."

But it's a Catholic college and I work at a Catholic organization which also happens to be in the healthcare field. Turkish swears all of the time as well, being a product of a corrections officer and a woman who plays it fast and loose with R-rated vocabulary, so we've emphasized appropriate time-and-place usage for her, which we try our very best to model.

[Kyle]

In my personal life- constantly. Look, I teach a history class to teenaged homeschoolers and I swear at that. Because if they’re not old enough to hear “shit” and “damn” then they’re not mature enough for the work in the class.

I allow my kids to swear as long as they demonstrate they know when to use it and when not to.

In my business life- it depends on the client. I have super conservative clients that I don’t swear around- but I also don’t tell them that I’m an atheist (which would be worse than dropping an F-bomb around them).

The only words that are off limits to me and my kids are ethnic or gender slurs. Which means that I’ll swear like a sailor and then in the same breath yell, “Son of a Biscuit!” But my daughters have started a campaign to call everyone and everything “cunts” which is pretty hilarious and a not subtle way that they’re taking power away from that word. And again- really funny.

[Bonefish]

That's awfully Australian of them, Kyle

[Ronster]

None unless you count "son of a biscuit", "crap", or "screwed" Not the way I was raised either. I grew up with a knowledge of many colorful metaphors in our home.

I am the statistical outlier

[Bonefish]

There are so colorful, none vulgar swears though. Dagummit, Dagnabbit, Mamajama, Mamazama, Mudskipper...

I've also taken to giving people new nicknames, that sort of serve the place of a swear. So instead of saying "Lissen here, Motherfucker", I'll just say :"Lissen here, BILLY!". His name isn't billy. But it works a bit.

Still hard to cut down on the profanity.

[Eliahad]

I don't swear a ton and definitely not in front of my students. If I really need to swear to release some tension in front of them, I usually just go, "Aw, swear words." Which works surprisingly well.

[Iantha]

[Eliahad]

Oh, I am so going to try that one next time!

[El Jefe]

A lot.

A LOT.

Even more than I even realize. It was not uncommon for me to get the follow-up with the supervisor when I was working dispatch. "Stop cursing when you're on the phone with the techs."

"I didn't. I made sure to censor myself."

"You've just used four curse words in the last thirty seconds."

"No I didn't, did I?"

Every other dispatch around me is vigorously nodding their heads.

It was a good thing I worked in a shithole company that had absolutely no control over its employees. My family cursed like sailors growing up. It's just a normal thing to me. Something I really, really, really have to focus on to even notice. Considering my current issues with focus...censoring myself doesn't work very often.