Is Swearing Good for Your Brain? | Otherwords
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- čas přidán 8. 06. 2024
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Does swearing get a bad rap? There's evidence that the shouting obscenities has an evolutionary purpose... and may be good for your psyche!
Otherwords is a new PBS web series on Storied that digs deep into this quintessential human trait of language and fınds the fascinating, thought-provoking, and funny stories behind the words and sounds we take for granted. Incorporating the fıelds of biology, history, cultural studies, literature, and more, linguistics has something for everyone and offers a unique perspective into what it means to be human.
hosted by Dr. Erica Brozovsky, Ph.D.
written by Andrew Matthews
directed by Andrew Matthews & Katie Graham
produced by Katie Graham
animated & edited by Andrew Matthews
executive producer Amanda Fox
fact checker Yvonne McGreevy
Assistant Director of Programming (PBS): Niki Walker
Executives in Charge (PBS): Maribel Lopez
music by APM
images by Shutterstock
My Mom was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia about three years ago. I called her just now to let her know that she's still going to be able to cuss for a good long while, and we laughed really hard. Thanks for bringing a little light to an otherwise dark situation!
That's beautiful 😭
Glad to have been able to brighten y'all's day! - Dr. B :)
Great delivery 😄
♥️
❣
Considering how swearing A) reduces physical and emotional pain, and B) builds solidarity and trust, I guess that's why "Swearing like a Sailor" is a thing (since life on the open sea involves painful amounts of labor, and you need solidarity with your shipmates if you don't want to die).
Haha that's such a good point! I never understood that expression until now... Like why are sailors singled out and not pirates?
I think it’s more that more than most professions it just isolated groups.
@@senseofmindshow because the navy, pirates and merchantmen were not above kidnapping men when they needed labor. Press gangs used to be a major problem in any port town. So you had the same mix of people in all three groups as folk moved around.
In the Czech language, we say that someone swears as a paviour (a tiler), as we don't have an access to the open sea. But this might be just a regional phenomenon here, not a generally used expression.
Although for some, swearing does the opposite and rather than building trust, breaks it; especially if you were brought up in an environment where family aggressively swore
Gandalf yelling "You shall not ____ing pass" made my entire morning ✨
Me to, but afternoon
Imagine if that went down in LOTR. The Balrog then goes, "Oh, @*^#! He really means it. I better not chance it!"
Best thing I’ve seen all f***ing week
Should've kept that in the movie
As a student, I find that the more honest and fun a teacher is, the more likely they are to swear sometimes. I really like when this prim and proper facade is gone and we're treated equally
Agreed ^^
One of my jobs is a tour guide, it's fun to go from the usual formal speak to adding in slang or even the occasional family-friendly swear word like "sucks" or "freaking" or even "damn" and hell". Only time I dropped an s-bomb is when I tripped and fell. It got lots of laughs, I almost wanted to go "I meant to do that".
I'm so glad that the meme of "f*** it we'll do it live" made it into this video!! Always a staple in my friend group.
was going to comment the exact same thing
I was glad to see a dig at Bill O'Reilly too😅
Could someone explain this? 😕
@@varuns9723 It's a meme coming from an outtake that appeared on YT in 2008, where Bill O'Reilly gets pissed off due to the teleprompter having issues. He yelled "F**k it! We'll do it Live!!"
You can write that phase and find the video.
It also got parodied a lot.
Same! We use it at work all the time if someone isn't getting us what we need and we have to handle it ourselves.
She didn't bring this up, so I will add...
The majority of words that English speakers consider swearing, though not all, are of Saxon origin and were deemed vulgar as an attempt by the Norman invaders to put down the culture they conquered.
Very interesting.
Yep! In addition, most of our barnyard animal names (cow, pig, etc) were Saxon, but most of our meat names (beef, pork, etc) were Norman. Really subtle indicator of who had the wealth and who did the work. I find linguistic things like that fascinating.
@@athena8794 Yes, I believe this was covered on the channel NativLang in a video about the different layers of outside influence on English that has given rise to so many semi-synonyms, that would be synonyms if they weren't context-dependent
Is there something specific I can google so that I can look into this more? This is a cool fact I learned today.
@@kenster8270 I can't find that video 😭 do you remember that name of it???
It makes me laugh when I see parents effing and blinding with each sentence that comes out of their mouth and yet when their own children swear just once, they either reprimand their own child for swearing or blame everyone else except themselves for their kids picking up a swear word.
Yeah, own up to it. I try to teach my spawn what's not an appropriate time and place to do it, so it's not okay at school but if they let an f-bomb fly at home, I'm just ignoring it. After all, I know who they learned it from, and it wasn't the playground.
@@eliscanfield3913 I feel like a good approach (if I ever have kids that is) is to allow cursing but not used to insult someone. So "eff this" would be ok but "eff you" might not be
@@joselynvifquain9406 Yeah, that's part of my rule, too.
Harmless faux swears?
@@eliscanfield3913 I like that!
In Norwegian, swear words are still mostly focused on religion, while words referring to feces and bodyparts are considered very mild. (In general, at least...)
or when they made a slip in an episode from Johnny Test- where the dog made a swear word. Still cracks me up to this day. We Norwegian are though as nails and can handle some form of swear words, even in media. haha
That's interesting!
I wonder how the norwegians using swear words that involving religion in it, maybe some example?, I just wonder, because swear words mostly focused on bodyparts, animal, feces, etc, it's something new to me
@@buwhy9898 Norwegian swearing centers around invoking the name of God or the devil, hell, demons etc. As for examples, yelling "Satan!" or "Hell!" or a combination of the two like "Satan in Hell!" are pretty common, and considered on par with the F-word in English. (You can also switch the word Satan with "The Devil" if that's your fancy.) "The devil take you!" is the Norwegian "F you!" Likewise, the Norwegian WTF is "What the devil?" It's worth noticing that the Norwegian word for devil (djevel) is not often used this way. Usually, it's an older word (Fanden) that has been abbreviated to "faen" that is used, as that refers to the Devil himself, not just any devil or demon.
Also, OMG, while being pretty mild as swearing goes, is taking the Lord's name in vain, which puts it in the swearing category.
As for feces and excrement, even kids use those words and no one bats an eye, unless it's in a particularly crude form. Kids will tell their parents that the test was "hard as sh*t" (or sh*t hard, as we say).
(Edit: Also we don't really differentiate between human and animal poop here. In other words we don't specify who or what produced the poop. So words like Bullsh*t or Horsesh*t are pretty redundant in Norwegian. Poop is poop and sh*t is sh*t when it comes to swearing.)
When it comes to body parts, especially genitalia, it's a sliding scale. Some words are considered pretty vulgar and crude, while others can be downright cute. Calling someone an A-hole is rude, but not because of the word itself, more because of the intent. Like, no one likes being called a jerk, even though the word itself is pretty harmless.
I hope this answered your question. :)
Honestly other than racist slang, i don’t think swear words are that aggressive, the tone of your voice is what causes things to sound aggressive, like “how could you not even do that one thing” in the right tone is far more aggressive than any swear word. I swear with and at my mom all the time but with no aggressive intention its just a part of communication. That kind if subtlety is lost on allot of people where the word itself is the bad thing.
this makes a lot of sense especially the part about trust like i think most ppl can relate to the point of friendships where you feel comfortable about swearing around someone because you have the understanding theyre comfortable with it.
also i love the replacement words for the edits at the end 😆Butterfrogger is something im gonna use in the future
🧈🐸 - Dr. B 🤭
I love to make up replacements but in a swearing situation I always forget them and just let fly with the originals. Still it's fun to create them:
Son of a bishop!
Blasted dastard!
Fudgebucket!
Just a muff-huggin' minute!
Shibboleth!
@@pbsstoried I don't have the first emoji yet, so I ended up with tofufrogger! 😋
@@dontaylor7315 I don't use _bastard_ because the reason why it's taboo is stupid and now I have a niece who was born "out of wedlock." But even before her birth, I used _bastid,_ which I don't know if is original to me but wow Google dictation knows it already!
@@dontaylor7315 Oh and two friends who were adopted and born in the year of the Rat decided that they were *rat bastards,* which I thought was hilarious!
One of the things I've always found interesting was the hierarchy of swears in different regions. I've lived in the deep south and the northeast of the US, and down south I was taught G*d D@mn was one of the worst swears I could say, but when I moved up north, it was considered so tame teachers could say it in front of students with no repercussions. But something that stayed the same was that words for female genitalia are considered harsher than male genitalia in both regions. Extrapolate as you will from that.
Though, calling a guy a pr*ck (compared to the milder d*ck) is almost as strong as calling
a woman, uh, you know...
@@hopsiepike not where I'm from.
Ericka has such a good taste of humor and she covers great topics every time. Love this host ! 👏♥️👑🧠
I'm incredibly fond of the presenter. My only complaint was at the end. She wore glasses to promote the other content, but doesn't wear glasses when she's the host of Otherwords. Tsk, tsk, I hope she isn't vain.
@@grf15 concept: sometimes we wear contacts, sometimes we wear glasses. It could be that the lights on set reflect off her glasses, so she chooses to wear contacts. At the end of the video she’s clearly in her office. Maybe she only needs reading glasses, and happened to be wearing them. Nothing to do with vanity. It’s been a year so I bet you won’t see this. Tsk tsk, you sound like a jerk.
Random relevant word fact:
The word for the series of typographic symbols representing profanity in cartoons (and often in this video) is a "grawlix." The term was coined by Beetle Bailey cartoonist Mort Walker (though the practice of using it precedes him).
Despite knowing the origins of "zounds," I apparently never realized it was pronounced to rhyme with "wounds," which seems obvious in retrospect!
Yeah, the pronunciation surprised me too; I always said it to rhyme with “hounds” instead of “wounds.”
I relate hard with the part where swearing could help with forming bonds but on the opposite side. I have noticed occasionally people don't like that I decided early on in my life to not curse. I don't care if other people do and actually find it funny but it seems to rub people the wrong way when I don't curse.
I curse rarely enough (in public) that I've gotten a double take, lol. That was a baseball teammate.
I'm guessing it's probably because most of the time when someone chooses not to curse it's because they disapprove of anyone cursing. Obviously you've said this isn't the case for you, but I'm betting the thought process is that you're *saying* you don't care if other people do but you're silently judging people for it (not saying you are just that people might be thinking that). It's like when people say they're deeply religious but they don't judge others for sinning, love the sinner not the sin, blah blah, but you still get the impression that they're disapproving. The person in question might not actually care, but the other might still feel judged because they're assuming the religious person's motivations.
If you really strongly prefer not to curse, I would maybe try to ease people's minds a different way. It's the taboo breaking that makes people feel more comfortable with you, right? So maybe tell a slightly raunchy joke or something like that where you don't have to swear but you're still establishing that you're not going to be judging from a perceived moral high ground? That would be my best guess as to how to deal with that, but take it with a grain of salt because I swear like a trucker 😅
@@eliscanfield3913 I'm sure I'd get a similar reaction if I did too lol
@@EdslilNeko I think you're right. A few times I've found out from people who didn't curse around me that they didn't because they thought I would have issues with it. Usually I feel like they’re silently judging me as too juvenile since I don't curse though lol but I see your point there. No matter how much I say "It's fine. No judgment" few people will take that at face value. I know if someone told me that I would still feel a bit judged.
Taboo breaking to put people at ease is very eye opening. A lot of the things I try to avoid that I feel may give people a bad impression of me at the same time may make people not trust me as much since I’m not joining in (I’m just guessing that but it’s interesting to think about). I think your best guess is the best bet. 😂 I’m no stranger to a fun raunchy joke or double entendre so that may be the big ace up my sleeve if I don’t want to come off as too high and mighty. Thanks for your insight.
@@gemguardianzero No prob! Obviously it's a fine line to walk between making a good impression and not coming across as stuck up or unfriendly. But I'm betting if you show you're willing to joke around it'll balance out any discomfort people might have about the language you choose not to use.
The part about the worst German swear words being related to animals such as dogs and pigs is outdated. E.g. "Schweinehund" (pig-dog) used to be a tremendous insult during WW II, but nowadays, nobody uses it.
They do exist still, but are usually considered rather childish, like "blöde Kuh" (dumb cow) or "dumme Gans" (stupid/silly goose).
I'd say when you really want to swear in modern Germany, you'd either use insults to someone's mother (we have son of a b****, too) or you'd basically use Anglicisms like "f*ck" or its German counterparts. Oh, and in Bavaria or Southern Germany in general, swearing in reference to the cross is also still a big thing ("Kruzefix" being "crucifix", used as a general word people sometimes use when sth. goes wrong or somebody just won't listen).
That's hilarious
when I was at school (~ 15 years ago) "hundesohn" was still one of the worse things you could call someone
Southern Germany being more Catholic than the North.
I remember reading that using the verb "fressen" to refer to a person instead of "essen" was very offensive, is that outdated too?
@@ulti-mantis No, this is rather accurate. If you say that somebody "frisst" (from Infinitive: fressen), it means that this person eats like an animal, so in a very unappetizing way (or just very very much). This is because when talking about the intake of food, you'd use "essen" (= eat) for humans, but "fressen" (roughly translatable as "to feed on") for animals, therefore dehumanizing the eating person
What I learned today:
Swearing is good but swear responsibly.
As a multilingual person hearing people curse in English isn't as bad as hearing speakers of my native language do it. It's like an immediate turn off for me when people around me swear, but I guess English curse words just don't have the same weight to me although I speak it fluently. Another factor could be that curse words in my language are centered more on cursing out somebody's mother as opposed to just expressing frustration or anger
same
This is called "reduced emotional resonance",
you feel that your native language swears are stronger because your brain developed such a connection between language and feelings since you were young and through different situations,
unlike a second language,which your brain deals with as a bunch of sounds detached from feelings.
I love Otherwords so much!!! & it's really nice that educational channels/shows have moved on from the "we HAVE to drop an episode very week" model, it allows great shows like this the time they need to be crafted so well!
That's a very good point! Indy channels ought to be taking more advantage of that fact instead of getting stuck in the MSM scheduling groove.
I'm having a really difficult day and it's good to know all the cusses under my breath are actually helping.
This was really well crafted and entertaining. Great work! I always look forward to more of this series.
Fun fact, the first written record of Hungarian swearing comes from one of our 14th century kings. There's no "commoners only" association either; hidden or sometimes even blatant swearing even turns up in works of poetry. It's something of an art form, and it's quite hard to pin down a central theme because we have them all: sex-related swears, excrement-related swears, blasphemies, and even sickness-related insults like the Dutch...
Well, I swear freely and without shame, but "butterfrogger" is my new favorite.
In Italian most swears revolve around genitalia and sex, though the worst ones tend to involve mothers or god. There's a particular category name just for religion based ones.
One of the most bizarre I've ever heard comes from Sardinia, my friend explained to me they have a super mega cuss word to call you a bastard with an unknown father AND mother
Tongan is that way too ( & Ive heard it's true for a few other languages too) I've often wondered where english picked up swears like F___ etc 🤷 and they must have really been evil before..
Funny fact: In Tongan one of the usual swears translates to arsehole face 🤣🤣 it's always a funny one to hear
Most foundlings whose mothers were traced were born out of wedlock. It’s hardly the child’s fault though.
@@Jester.D.Joker5612 we have a bum face equivalent too! 😂
@@kellydalstok8900 the nuance it's totally different though. Being a foundling had its own stigma that lost its meaning nowadays though the swears persist. This particular Sardinian swear implies that 1) one's mother had different partners that makes it impossible to determine one's father and 2) in Italy we jokingly say that the mother is always certain because she physically gives birth to someone, in this case the insult implies that, although impossible, the mother can't also be determined. 😅 I don't know if I explain myself well enough
Edit: by the way I'm in no way commenting on the meaning of this swear, I was struck by the nonsensical nature of it.
@@Jester.D.Joker5612 Today I Found Out has a hilarious and well researched video on the history of the F Bomb. It's great. They very clearly thought "No matter what we do, this one is getting demonitized. Might as well go whole hog."
I tend to save swears for special occasions so when I use them, the people around me know that sh*t just got real.
I love Otherwords! It's so interesting to learn the multiple meanings and origins of words, as well as other cultures.
Thank you enjoyed this. I remember accidentally swearing in the Sacre Coeur Basilica on a trip to Paris. My friend just said something like "Go NOW!!!!" and as I was walking to the door I noticed so many people looking at me with daggers in their eyes.
40 years ago. Housekeeping dept. Coworker. Salvatore. Almost indecipherable Italian accent. All but the profanity. That was quite understandable.
Enjoyed this, f$cking awesome!
I believe in using almost all of my vocabulary. That includes swear words, when necessary, funny, or emotional.
TBH, the only words I won't use are racial/ethnic slurs. Because f*** that s***.
Okay, 'butterfrogger' is my new favourite way to not swear
You stay through the credits...you get rewarded.
Looks like a promising start to the new season. I appreciate the specification on "vulgar", but there's a related topic that might merit it's own video in the future: This may be more stereotype than fact - so correct me if needed - but it's my understanding that so-called vulgar language was historically associated more with men (or at least male-centric spaces) than women (at least so-called "proper" women). There are still cultural taboos about not "swearing in front of the ladies", and there may be some overlap with class connotations as well, since the speaking habits can vary a lot by social strata (TVTropes has at least one entry about the phenomenon).
Yeah, and women tend to get more flack for swearing then men because it is considered unladylike or low class. So you are right, I don't think it's a stereotype. I think this is lessening in taboo for women in general but I still see females get shamed more for it.
Also, I love the thumbnail image. I would not have thought that Erica had such savage side to her until now.
I work in a small shop, and we've had people who swear different amounts come and go, but I think we definitely do bond in part because of the openness and honesty of that language being used.
So cussing is better for releasing emotional energy
Okay, it's my favorite CZcams show, my favorite host (by a longshot), & now my favorite thing to do? When it rains it pours, I guess, but what a wonderful day to be alive!
I could wish Dr B. had a new video every week. She is so informative, and makes an excellent delivery of that information. Maybe break off her series into its own sister channel, so we could see her talk about language every week. I'd love that. More Dr B!!
Thank you for bringing this show back! I was so sad that it mightve been cancelled!
1:11 could not hit "like" fast enough after this hahaha
I've noticed that I immediately like people more when I hear them swear at work. Within reason, if it's every third word then it becomes something else.
"Butterfrogger" added to personal lexicon, thanks!
Haha! Thanks for showing the "fungi behind the f***ks" scenes at the end.
Love the BIll O'Reilly slam right at the end.
Dr Erica's bleeped swears were so adorable! She's so wholesome I love her!
Excellent episode, can't wait for the next one!
I only found otherwords recently. Now I click like before I play the video. So entertaining and the host presents the material in such an engaging manner.
My stretching class instructor always encourages us to swear during our splits to deal with the discomfort 😄
This is awesome! Great work for all involved!
I chuckled the whole way through, so I just had to watch this all again.
I remember the Mythbusters did an episode that did the same experiment. Now I want to search for it and rewatch 😅 Dr. B sounds adorable when she swears, it doesn't sound hostile at all!
I remember seeing something somewhere about "screaming" while in pain can reduce the pain, as the "screaming" can disturb the pain signals sent by the brain, and in this case, the swearings have the same function as the screamings.
FYI Rich people have always swore in their vernacular, only reserved them in private places among their peer group, only made it etiquette to cut the words in public in the good old days. To do so, set them apart from the general public.
My favorite one so far hehe Thanks Dr. B!
S-tier moire pattern glasses at the end 👌🏽👌🏽👌🏽
Also, 👏🏽👏🏽👏🏽 for "F, we're doin' it live!"
Can't have an episode like this without at least a small nod to George Carlin's "Seven Words" routine and his ever-classic riff on the "proper use" of F*ck. Both of which can still make me laugh until I cry!
I want to be the kind of person who almost never swears, but there are way too many times where it’s more than appropriate to tell someone to f*ck off.
"We'll do it live" hahaha brilliant!
This was awesome! Thanks Dr B!
I think this is a brilliant episode! Thank you 💗
Loved the episode! Thanks, you made my ***ing day!
This is such a good channel, love the videos!
I loved the "we'll do it live" bomb!
This is the best otherwords episode, period
OMG this was so well written! entertaining and funny! great job on this one!
5:57 I'm just imagining how different that scene in LotR would have been if Gandalf actually said that. 😁
Love this channel. Please do a show on all the uses of the word , ✋ hand.
Thanks, Doc. This was a fun one.
Glad to see you again miss!
Otherwords, hands down, has the best intro of all of the series on this channel.
Hell's bells! You're so funny, doc! 🤣
I am now tempted to write my thesis on swearing and how it (in moderation) can be good for you.
Sincerely, a grad linguistics student.
Best curse word replacement came in the 1993 film 'Rookie of the Year'. When Henry gets his cast removed from breaking his arm, his arm snaps down and hits the doctor in the face by accident. The doctor then shouts out "Funky butt-loving" to avoid actual cursing in front of the kids and the boy's mother. It makes me laugh every time I think of it or watch that scene.
I laughed every time you swore. Very well done!
I always try my best not to swear so that when I do it has more of an impact on the person who I am speaking to. Plus as the video said it is a great alternative to violence which has its limits compared to words that can be echoed and vibrate within someone for a life time.
Those are such cute outtakes! XD It reminds me of that old Orbitz gum commercial. What the French, toast!
5:25 lol, just like in Indonesian (esp Javanese), we can basically turn any animal into swear word
anjing/asu (dog)
jangkrik (cricket)
babi (pig)
kirik/monyet (monkey)
bajing/bajingan (squirrel)
kampret (bat)
kambing/wedus (goat)
etc
When I was a teen, my mom said it was best not to swear constantly but to it was okay to do on certain occasions, like when you stubbed your toe. I guess she was right!
This explains why I mainly only swear at work. 12 hour shifts on my feet all day, along with being very uncomfortable with social situations, it helps to dull the pain.
Definitely sharing this with my friends who swear
This was a butterfrogger great episode
i just discovered this channel and love it
I love it when people get bleeped out, exactly for words like butterfrogger XD
It's like some censor decides they said something so bad no ears should hear it, and my mind always fills in the gaps with something hilarious
Those "censors" are a bunch of scut-snuffing frogflushers, if you ask me...
I have a suspicion she supplied all or most of the bleeps herself, just as a joke.🤣And then ended by revealing the euphemisms she invented, making it a double joke.
This is my favorite episode ever!
Thank you
This is F@NKING GREAT! Do it MOAR!
That was ****ing awesome!
I love the post-credit reveal that no curse words were ever actually said
You mentioning dictionaries made me remember I once looked up "prostitute" in a Portuguese dictionary, and was greeted with a list of translations of more than half a page. And I don't know what you call the author of a dictionary, but he ended it with in parenthesis a Danish proverb that things you love have many names! ("Kært barn har mange navne" - translates as "a dear child has many (nick) names")
And no I don't remember how I came across that translation, I think I would have been perfectly fine getting along with the few synonyms i already new if I truly needed that.
"F*CK IT WE'LL DO IT LIVE"
AMAZING use of this reference.
Ok, this is now my favorite ****ing episode
Omg “fk it, we’ll do it live!” Sold me on subscribing 😂
"we'll do it live" hahaha great reference.
To everyone fascinated with swear words, slang, and the usage histories thereof, check out Green's Dictionary of Slang.
I definitely have to add "butterfrogger" to my curse vocabulary.
This made my day! Another interesting fact, swearing appears to be the only time English speakers use infixation: abso-#$@*&ing-lutely!
Have a great day everyone!
For me, the words still feel gross, no matter the benefit... I picked it up shortly before my dad passed away and now I can't stop... 😩 Still, it makes sense why it's often, I am an emotional person.
the Bill O'Reilly easter egg got me !
That was bleep-bleep'ing awsome.
I learned at school that my peers would pay more attention to what I was saying, if I swore. My mom was the school librarian, so I was marked a *buzzkill/GoodieGoodie.
I still don't swear around my parents or at work...but around my friends...a different story.
I was suggested this video after watching A Simone Giertz video. That algorithm is pretty impressive.
Butterfrogger! I'm gonna have to remember that one XD
My dad used to literally wash my mouth out with soap if he heard me say "Oh Hell" or "damn it". But I guess that treatment never worked. I'm a senior citizen with a foul mouth when I get angry over dropping food on the floor, bumping my head, or stubbing my toe, for instance. The other day I took a tumble on some slippery ice and said a cussword in surprise. People ran to help me up and asked me if I was hurt. I reassured everybody and made them laugh with my reply, "Thanks, I'm OK. Nothing was hurt except my G**d**md pride!"