our beautiful English language is being defiled

Quite Elegran

I agree Elegran.

Well put as usual, Elegran.

I was going to comment on the difference between using a swear-word (or hinting at one) for emphasis in what you are saying and using it as a weapon against someone - calling the "You f****r" for instance.

And also, on the way posters can be insulted by implication, without a bad word being used - accused of selfishness, hypocrisy, smugness, pride, boasting, excluding others, hundreds of things which exist only in the mind of the reader. Is that worse or better than a general swear-word?

According to Wikipedia,
"Fuck has become increasingly less vulgar and more publicly acceptable, an example of the "dysphemism treadmill", wherein vulgarities become inoffensive and commonplace."

Thank you Ethel, I have learned a new expression today. I rather like dyphemism treadmill and shall store it up for future use.

Try not to worry about these things. The words themselves don't really matter, it's the intent with which they are spoken that is important.

Having said that, if the C-word, which according to Wiki is the most offensive word in the English language, became subject to the dysphemism treadmill, even I might feel that was a step too far.

I don't like it over-used, but there are times when I use swear-words for emophasis. If you over-use any tool it can become too blunt for when you really need it, so I keep them for occasional use.

Some posters have a low flash point when it appears to them that others are not using their heads, and strong words appear. Thank your lucky stars when you only get the acronyms.

sunseeker No! Never that. Different altogether.

(You gotta love some posters on here!)

(the grin was in response to the original post)

I agree Kitty

For heavens sake, what are we, a bunch of mealy mouthed old grannies?

I don't really like swearing but admit to doing it when sorely tried or when it might add comic emphasis. Swearing is a part of our rich language and language usage evolves all the time.

I saw the post to which I think you are referring and I don't think it was that bad!

I too dislike the use of swear words, unfortunately it is a fact of life these days - you can't put the genie back in the bottle. I fear as we have become desensitised to the F word we will start to hear the, as yet, rarely used C word used more often.

I rarely swear as I think the English language is rich enough that I can express my feelings without it.