K’noath

Linguist Geoffrey Hughes writes that “people swear by what is most potent to them”. What is considered to be “most potent” changes over time, although taboo has often focused on the religious (hell), the sexual (fuck), and the excretory (shit). More recently, racial, sexist and other discriminatory epithets have become our most taboo and controversial terms.

The first recorded instances of swearing in any language date from Ancient Egypt, around 1198–1166 BCE, with the threat that those who failed to make an offering to the gods would have to copulate with a donkey. Examples of swearing can be found in classical Greek and Latin (a favourite curse of), and we also have evidence of swearing from medieval Europe. By the time we get into the medieval period, much of what was considered taboo was religious, reflecting the primacy of Christianity in Western Europe. Christians feared their souls being damned, and this made curses that involved damning a person’s soul to hell especially powerful.