The Joy of Swearing -- Politics Requires it

 Vocabulary Expansion in Political Times

The Joy of Swearing

 

         It’s notable that there’s been an expansion of language following the election of Mr. Trump. Before his election we seldom heard words like megalomania, misogynist, bloviate, xenophobe or sycophant in daily conversation. Now they are quite frequent. This expansion has impacted the vocabulary of many of us.

Then there are other ways, less sophisticated ways, that our vocabularies seem to be building.  This is often seen in people who barely used the words damn or hell before. My sweet sister-in-law is one of those people. Raised, as I was, in a small Midwest town in the fifties, swearing wasn’t a big part of our communication. Growing up, the word “pee” to describe urination was considered vulgar. Even using the term “it sucks” was not appropriate. I still don’t like that one, and when our kids were little made our home a “suck free zone” They usually warned little friends whom they thought might slip up.

Back to my sweet sister-in-law. She is a quietly witty woman. Once, after I told her I was so mad at my husband that I hadn’t spoken to him all day, she asked, “Has he noticed yet?”

 Now we get on the phone each week and let it fly. She described this change in language to her equally dignified brother, when he came for a visit.  After a lifetime of never even using the “f” word, she warned him about this change. He innocently asked, “What do you mean?” Her answer, “Well, it begins with ‘mother’.” He was a little shocked, but not surprised. He watches the news too.

My nephew taught high school English for years. He commented that recent conversations with older adults include frequent use of the gerund form of the f word. That’s the one with the “ing” ending. 

There seem to be a lot of us senior citizen potty mouths these days. We’ve done all the customary positive things in the way of community or political action, but we're still pretty distressed. So now many of us are finding a bit of unexpected relief in using language that we have apparently saved for these trying times.