Forbidden Words

You all know what words I mean. Some describe functions people do every day; some describe a function that had to happen before any of us were born; others denote body parts that fully half the world possess. TV shows routinely bleep out these words, as though our ears would fall off if one naughty word slipped through. Euphemisms are created, which are awkward. How did all this begin? Wouldn't we be less uptight if this practice ceased? (No, we shouldn't utter ethnic slur words.)
 
I'm not sure this has a beginning. properly speaking. As far back as we can find evidence, humanity has had a strained relationship with language. We have always assumed that some words were more powerful than others, some should not be uttered, some could hurt people. These days, we're comparatively enlightened in this regard, actually.
 
Well, Québec-style profanity is also words les sacrés (literally the "sacreds", as in sacred words) because of the fact that various words from the liturgy are used as profanity, especially since the response in the old days for doing this was something like "don't you use that - it's sacred!"
 
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