英语语法：93 Swear Words in Text

Grammar Girl here.

Today's show is still work-safe and family-friendly, but we're going to talk about how to deal with swearing in novels, quotations¹, and other types of text.

My friend Scott Sigler and I were talking about his new book, The Rookie, the other day, and he mentioned that he had to do a lot of extra work because of the swearing in it, which made me start thinking about swearing in general.

Here's what happened.

Writing Out the Swearing

The Rookie is a crazy book about a pro² football league 700 years in the future. Scott describes it as Any Given Sunday meets The Godfather meets Star Wars. So, as you can imagine, language among such characters isn't always as pure as the driven snow.

Scott gave away The Rookie as a free podcast with adult language, and then edited it to create a young adult version to sell as a hardcover book and iPhone app. He had to modify language to fit a young adult audience, yet still keep the story integrity and intensity³.

Sometimes he was able to just drop the offensive word and the paragraph kept its punch and meaning. I'll read a little bit of it, so you can hear it in context.

Here's one section before editing:

They can’t handle being in the same cities with the aliens, being on the same buses, shuttles and transport tubes. I mean, have you ever seen a Sklorno up close?” Stedmar’s face wrinkled with disgust. “You can see right through their skin. And they drool. It’s a big [bleeping] adjustment.”

In that case, it's pretty easy to just take out the expletive:

"You can see right through their skin. And they drool. It’s a big adjustment.”

Other times, you can't just drop the expletive, you need to replace it to communicate the same intensity, anger, or disgust. Again, I'll read it all the way through first so you can hear it in context.

Here's a section before editing:

It was too much to bear. Quentin turned and stormed away, heading out of the landing bay and back to his room. Help? From a [bleeped] unholy Sklorno? As if Quentin were some bush league quarterback who needed to work on his [bleep] route passing? [Bleeping] Pine. He’d show that [bleep]; one way or another, he’d show him!

Now, listen to the rewrite. Scott took out a bunch of the cursing, but also replaced [bleep] with "jerk."

Help? From an unholy Sklorno? As if Quentin were some bush league quarterback who needed to work on his route passing? Pine. He’d show that jerk, one way or another, he’d show him!

Replacement⁴ Words

There are all sorts of replacement words for swear words that range in their own level of offensivness. "Jerk" is a pretty mild thing to call someone compared with some of the other options. "Heck" and "gosh" are mild replacements⁵ to keep people from using religious words in vain. Some people might find certain replacements for the f-word sightly more offensive, words like "freaking," "friggin'," and "effing." I always find it really funny when science fiction shows make up new "futuristic" swear words like "frak" and "frell."

The Grawlix

So those are two ways to get rid of potentially offensive language: just take it out or use a milder replacement. But there are also other ways way to deal with it in less formal print. One is to use a string of characters like they often do in comics. When a comic book character swears, you read something like asterisk⁶, dollar, hash, percent, exclamation⁷ mark (*$#%!).

And believe it or not, there's actually a name for that string of characters. In 1964, a cartoonist named Mort Walker named them grawlix. At least that's the word that caught on. He initially⁸ named four different ways of representing swear words: grawlixes, jarns, quimps, and nittles (1). In his first notation⁹, the grawlix may just be a swirl¹⁰ symbol (2), one of a few symbols for denoting a swear word; but as far as I can tell, grawlix is the term most people use today to refer to the entire string of symbols.

Implied Swearing

Grawlixes are often read out loud as "bleep." For example, in 2004 there was a movie with a grawlix in the name and it became known as "What the [Bleep] Do We Know?" Although I couldn't find proof, I have a theory that using the word "bleep" to indicate a swear word came about after radio stations starting playing a "beep" over swear words to obscure them.

I may be unusual, but I don't read grawlixes as bleeps, I read them as funny words like "brickinbrackin." The cartoon character Yosemite Sam was the king of those kind of implied swear words. He was always saying things like "yassin sassin snazzum frazzum" and "Come outta there, you blabber-spat-nazzed trap!" Those are another option when you want to imply swearing without actually swearing.

More About the Grawlix

Back to grawlixes, the symbols are usually the symbols above the numbers on a keyboard, but I've noticed that comics sometimes mix in stars, skull¹¹ and crossbone symbols, swirls¹² and the like. Also, as far as I can tell, the order or number of symbols used to cover up the swear word is random¹³. A writer on the blog HalfBakery proposed creating a code for assigning specific grawlixes to specific swear words so people could know what the writer intended (3), but I don't think the idea caught on.

Asterisks¹⁴ and Disemvoweling

A slight modification¹⁵ to the grawlix that has caught on is to directly replace some letters in the swear word with asterisks. So instead of just typing random symbols, you replace a swear word with something like f***. That method usually leaves enough information so people can work out what the word is meant to be, but the offensive word isn't actually typed.

It's kind of like the trend on blogs to disemvowel offensive comments. "Disemvowel" is a neologism that means to remove all the vowels¹⁶ from words. Disemvoweling suppresses comments that moderators think are out of line, but in a way so that the posts aren't technically¹⁷ censored¹⁸ because readers can usually work out what the words mean if they try (4).

Maledicta

Finally, here's a bit more trivia: swear words are sometimes called maledicta. "Maledict" is an archaic¹⁹ adjective meaning cursed, which comes from Latin root words meaning "to speak ill" of something. There's a journal about offensive words that goes by the name Maledictaand a book about swear words called Opus Maledictorum.

The Rookie

Also, Scott Sigler gave me a discount code for Grammar Girl listeners who buy his novel The Rookie. If you like the idea of a scifi, crime, and football, you can save $3 by using the code GRAMMAR when you order the book at.... The link will also be in the complete transcript²⁰ of this podcast, which you can find at the Grammar Girl section of QuickAndDirtyTips.com.

Stitcher

Finally, if you want to get Grammar Girl and other great shows from Quick and Dirty Tips streamed to your iPhone try Stitcher free today at stitcher.com .

That's all. Thank for listening.

 

1 quotations   

n.引用( quotation的名词复数 )；[商业]行情（报告）；（货物或股票的）市价；时价

参考例句：

• The insurance company requires three quotations for repairs to the car. 保险公司要修理这辆汽车的三家修理厂的报价单。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• These quotations cannot readily be traced to their sources. 这些引语很难查出出自何处。 来自《现代汉英综合大词典》

2 pro   

n.赞成，赞成的意见，赞成者

参考例句：

• The two debating teams argued the question pro and con.辩论的两组从赞成与反对两方面辩这一问题。
• Are you pro or con nuclear disarmament?你是赞成还是反对核裁军？

3 intensity   

n.强烈，剧烈；强度；烈度

参考例句：

• I didn't realize the intensity of people's feelings on this issue.我没有意识到这一问题能引起群情激奋。
• The strike is growing in intensity.罢工日益加剧。

4 replacement   

n.取代，替换，交换；替代品，代用品

参考例句：

• We are hard put to find a replacement for our assistant.我们很难找到一个人来代替我们的助手。
• They put all the students through the replacement examination.他们让所有的学生参加分班考试。

5 replacements   

n.代替( replacement的名词复数 )；替换的人[物]；替代品；归还

参考例句：

• They infiltrated behind the lines so as to annoy the emery replacements. 他们渗透敌后以便骚扰敌军的调度。 来自辞典例句
• For oil replacements, cheap suddenly looks less of a problem. 对于石油的替代品来说，价格变得无足轻重了。 来自互联网

6 asterisk   

n.星号，星标

参考例句：

• The asterisk refers the reader to a footnote.星号是让读者参看脚注。
• He added an asterisk to the first page.他在第一页上加了个星号。

7 exclamation   

n.感叹号，惊呼，惊叹词

参考例句：

• He could not restrain an exclamation of approval.他禁不住喝一声采。
• The author used three exclamation marks at the end of the last sentence to wake up the readers.作者在文章的最后一句连用了三个惊叹号，以引起读者的注意。

8 initially   

adv.最初，开始

参考例句：

• The ban was initially opposed by the US.这一禁令首先遭到美国的反对。
• Feathers initially developed from insect scales.羽毛最初由昆虫的翅瓣演化而来。

9 notation   

n.记号法，表示法，注释；[计算机]记法

参考例句：

• Music has a special system of notation.音乐有一套特殊的标记法。
• We shall find it convenient to adopt the following notation.采用下面的记号是方便的。

10 swirl   

v.(使)打漩，(使)涡卷；n.漩涡，螺旋形

参考例句：

• The car raced roughly along in a swirl of pink dust.汽车在一股粉红色尘土的漩涡中颠簸着快速前进。
• You could lie up there,watching the flakes swirl past.你可以躺在那儿，看着雪花飘飘。

11 skull   

n.头骨；颅骨

参考例句：

• The skull bones fuse between the ages of fifteen and twenty-five.头骨在15至25岁之间长合。
• He fell out of the window and cracked his skull.他从窗子摔了出去，跌裂了颅骨。

12 swirls   

n.旋转( swirl的名词复数 )；卷状物；漩涡；尘旋v.旋转，打旋( swirl的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• Swirls of smoke rose through the trees. 树林中升起盘旋的青烟。 来自辞典例句
• On reaching the southeast corner of Himalaya-Tibet, It'swirls cyclonically across the Yunnan Plateau. 在到达喜马拉雅--西藏高原东南角处，它作气旋性转向越过云南高原。 来自辞典例句

13 random   

adj.随机的；任意的；n.偶然的(或随便的)行动

参考例句：

• The list is arranged in a random order.名单排列不分先后。
• On random inspection the meat was found to be bad.经抽查，发现肉变质了。

14 asterisks   

n.星号，星状物( asterisk的名词复数 )v.加星号于( asterisk的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• He skips asterisks and gives you the gamy details. 他曲解事实，给你一些下流的细节内容。 来自互联网
• Make lists with dashes, asterisks, or bullets if you use HTML email. 如果你写的是HTML格式的邮件，用破折号、星号和子弹号立出清单。 来自互联网

15 modification   

n.修改，改进，缓和，减轻

参考例句：

• The law,in its present form,is unjust;it needs modification.现行的法律是不公正的，它需要修改。
• The design requires considerable modification.这个设计需要作大的修改。

16 vowels   

n.元音，元音字母( vowel的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Vowels possess greater sonority than consonants. 元音比辅音响亮。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• Note the various sounds of vowels followed by r. 注意r跟随的各种元音的发音。 来自超越目标英语 第3册

17 technically   

adv.专门地，技术上地

参考例句：

• Technically it is the most advanced equipment ever.从技术上说，这是最先进的设备。
• The tomato is technically a fruit,although it is eaten as a vegetable.严格地说，西红柿是一种水果，尽管它是当作蔬菜吃的。

18 censored   

受审查的，被删剪的

参考例句：

• The news reports had been heavily censored . 这些新闻报道已被大幅删剪。
• The military-backed government has heavily censored the news. 有军方撑腰的政府对新闻进行了严格审查。

19 archaic   

adj.(语言、词汇等)古代的，已不通用的

参考例句：

• The company does some things in archaic ways,such as not using computers for bookkeeping.这个公司有些做法陈旧，如记账不使用电脑。
• Shaanxi is one of the Chinese archaic civilized origins which has a long history.陕西省是中国古代文明发祥之一，有悠久的历史。

20 transcript   

n.抄本，誊本，副本，肄业证书

参考例句：

• A transcript of the tapes was presented as evidence in court.一份录音带的文字本作为证据被呈交法庭。
• They wouldn't let me have a transcript of the interview.他们拒绝给我一份采访的文字整理稿。