Let's get this done: swear word hierarchy

[ScotlandR]

These are all the swear words I can think of off of the top of my head:

Bloody
Arse
Bugger
Twat
Fuck
Shit
C-word
Shag
Bollocks
Dick
Wanker

Is it swearing to call someone a fanny? What about asking them not to 'fanny-about'?

It surely depends how a word is used

Crap for example can also be slang, bloody is a legitimate word as is bitch and bastared I guess

But cow can be a swear word too can it not?

I see shit as a swear word but crap as just a rude word.

When trying to work out if something is rude or unacceptable, I try to imagine a small child saying it and whether or not I'd be pleased with them.

If my youngest (8yrs old) said 'crap' I'd tell him off...if my 19yr old said it, I wouldn't bat an eyelid.

I tend to use 'cockmuncher' as my insult of choice. I'd place it below cunt and fuck, but above wank. About the same level as bollocks (as in, "what the bollocksing hell?")

I like to say 'bloody bollocking hell' at home on my own when there's a cock-up of some sort. I wouldn't use 'cunt' or 'fuck' other than with family and close friends, and 'cunt' only in the context of 'cuntweasel', ie George Osborne or similar.

Thinking about it, I'd say I was more careful about blasphemy than actual big bad sweary words.

I don't like "tit" - but when driving, I enjoy nothing more than calling all the other drivers I deem worse than myself, fingw*kingto*ers. Somehow it relieves the tension. I don't do it in any other context except after phone cons with the ex. (whispered of course).

Boo are you a synaesthete?

I think some of them depend as to whether you are calling someone it, or using it after hitting your thumb (for example).

I wouldn't call someone a shit, but might say it in another context.

Buggerykak is my swear word of choice

Cunt, fuck and all that don't really bother me. I don't tend to roll them out in front of colleagues or grandma and don't swear in front of DD but I am not mortally offended.

Bitch, slag and whore do offend because I think they are misogynistic.

Shakespeare was a fan of getting the word 'cunt' into his plays. One has the man laying his head on a woman's lap "in the country way". Can't remember which sorry.

Always made me giggle that he had gone to some effort to do that.

I had a Great Auntie Fanny

Her real name was Frances but everyone called her Fanny.

I would quite happily use all the words (apart from the N one). I can't stand the word minge. I don't know why, it just makes my stomach turn.

kreecher, agree. Minge is a horrible word.

And "titties". Not sure if its a swear word but it makes me want to slap someone.

When we play Rude Scrabble you get double points for all swear words except the "Holy Trinity" - cunt, fuck & twat. You get triple for them. Very pleasing.

Brecon, love the notion of only using "cunt" in a compound word and cuntweasel is one of the best. I have also heard cuntbutler but now really sure what that means to be honest. Anyone?

My favourite at the moment is to mutter "you fucking spanner" when someone cuts me up. However now Scotland has reminded me of wankstain - much better!

It's an interesting subject, I think cunt is probably the worst one, but then it depends on the context, it can be just as offensive to say one of the milder words in certain circumstances. For instance, if you are working and have an obligation to be polite and courteous at all times, then even crap and arse would be bad.

Bugger is an interesting one, I never thought about it until I watched a film about Quentin Crisp. During that time, the word bugger was used to describe a homosexual, obviously to do with buggery, the type of sex that gay men have. But nowadays it's quite a mild swearword that I often hear children being described at when they are being, well, little buggers :D

I think that as long as we know when to use swearing and when not to, then it's fine, it annoys the hell out of me when you hear chavvy teens effing and blinding, with every other word being fuckin this and fuckin that. I also think it reduces the impact of the words, if you say it all the time it means nothing, but if it's a carefully placed FUCK then it can have real impact.

I think that for the purposes of this discussion, a swear word should be a word that has the capacity to offend in itself rather than because of any latent or implied meaning. Ergo, faggot or n**r are rude because of the homophobic/racist implications, whereas fuck is simply rude.

In order of offensiveness:

C word
Fuck
Twat
Cock
Shit

Don't really have time to be more comprehensive. Once got a bollocking at school for calling someone a twat right in front of the teacher. Didn't know what it meant and assumed it was simply a derivation of twit.

Bloody stopped becoming a swear word when Lou used it in Neighbours about 20 years ago. Couldn't believe it when I watched that as a young'un.

MrsGee. I think titties is very Dick Emery, it is indeed another horrible word. Somebody told DD about them a couple of months ago. I was really surprised, the last time I heard of them was in the 70's

Twat is almost as offensive where I come from (NW) as cunt. Twat is similar to twit in the NE where my husband comes from. That made for a toe-curling exchange the first time I brought him home to meet my parents and he described someone as a "twat". I didn't know where to look. My parents nearly died a death.

Compound swears are the best.

One of our suppliers at work are regularly referred to as "a shower of fucking cockcramming cuntmongers"

I have been watching Deadwood recently and it has reminded me how much I enjoy using the word cocksucker. Fuckwit is also good.

Kreecher, ah yes Dick Emery.

My FIL says titties - sadly once in relation to myself, which immediately put him on my shit list.

Oh and DH favours bell end as a swear word.

hmm, twat here is about as offensive as knob! As in - you silly twat!

I dont find any word offensive, tis just a word afterall. Will be teaching my children that certain words used with particular intent/ occasion/ audience is unacceptable though of course. I do try not to use swear words infront of them, and of course other children and adults i dont know. But i really dont 'feel' anything about any word really. Cunt and prick are my top faves

Ahhh... I was like as to why twat was so high up on so many of your lists! It means closer to twit for me (I vaguely remember being told that twat means pregnant goldfish like bitch means female dog, iyswim?)

My DPs family are very anti-swearing. Which is unfortunate, as I like my language colourful. (I maintain though, my life's been more up'n'down and interesting than the IL's, so I have had more reasons and opportunities to explore the more exotic uses of arsemonger, wankstain and shitstealer.)

But I agree with deepheat, the N word isn't a swear, it's racial abuse. It doesn't MEAN anything rude, unlike wankstain, shitface or dogfucker, it just IMPLIES rudeness in it's very existence, iyswim?

Interesting about twat. DH is a Manc and it really is inoffensive there. He called DD a twat in front of my Mum (London). She nearly killed him.