Sex, God and Excrement

Like many of the world's inhabitants, I stubbed my toe today. Whilst you may find this amusing (and hearing my Hugh Grant-esque shriek of 'bugger!' may well be somewhat funny), I, naturally, did not. Indeed, as I've already alluded to, my brain and tongue immediately lurched for a syllable or two of the Anglo-Saxon.

What struck me about that moment was that forcing out an expletive made me feel better, not merely because I love swearing (I bloody do). The pain in my toe ebbed, tangibly, and I wondered why. I imagine a sensible person would've cleaned up some of the blood first, but never mind.

It would appear that it is fairly settled science that swearing is useful as regards pain relief. An American study, published online on July 13th in NeuroReport (http://journals.lww.com/neuroreport/) found that if participants were to hold their hand in freezing water for as long as possible, they would cope better and endure longer if they swore (when compared to not swearing or saying a neutral word such as 'table). Interestingly, one participant, when asked to list five swear words they might exclaim after suffering pain, failed to come up with a single curse and was thus cut from the study.

However, it seems that this was the first and only study to look at the phenomenon, and it's worth noting that the sample size was small (67 participants), and that the neurology of pain is a complex matter (see here for example http://thalamus.wustl.edu/course/body.html). As such the findings may not be conclusive, but there is a satisfyingly inherent logic behind it all.

The proposed rationale behind the pain relief is that the act of swearing triggers a sort of internal feedback mechanism, triggering the sympathetic nervous system (the fight or flight mechanism, as it is more colloquillaly known). The key outcome is a surge in adrenaline throughout the body. Adrenaline acts within the nervous pathways, effectively helping to dampen down the pain signals which reach your brain from the periphery. It is a compelling argument as it is demonstrable that swearing has this effect (your heart jumps a little when you swear, a classic sign of increased adrenaline), and that adrenaline acts as an analgesic.

This may, in itself, provide some insight into the linguistic origins of swearing. I've always been interested in how we invoke God ('deistic' swearing) and bodily functions ('visceral' swearing) when we swear. English has a curious linguistic make-up, but it is unmistakenly the Germanic origins of our venacular that inspire our swearing. There are numerous examples of this, from German's 'Scheisse' and our 'shit', or the Afrikaner's 'Fokk/fokken' and our 'fuck' (it is worth pointing out that it is a fallacious folk etymology that suggests that fuck is an acronym of the pharse' Fornicated Under Charles the King). But why sex, and why God?

Based on what I've already written, the visceral element of swearing is more readily explainable. Words invoking sex are highly evocative, and inducing thoughts of such will obviously have a physiological effect. It seems possible that what really upsets us with swearing is not the sound of it on our ear, rather its physiological impact upon us. When someone incants a word pertaining to faeces, we feel a revulsion that goes beyond the sound and tone of the letters compiled together - it appeals to something more basic, an evolutionary part of us that acknowledges that excrement is brimming with potential disease. As such sex and excrement can be seen as positive and negative elements of the visceral swearing spectrum. It would of course be foolish and simplistic to ignore cultural and historical influences in swearing - the worst swear word by anyone's standards is undoubtedly the word 'cunt', a Victorian era word for a prostitute. Considering the sexual repression that marked that era in British history, it is no stretch to say that physiology alone cannot describe how that word came to be so reviled. It is worth noting that the -unt suffix is, dispassionately, more guttural and perfunctory sounding than -uck or -it, and so we cannot ignore the purely linguistic implications of spelling either!

Deistic swearing is a far more challenging topic. Any notion of God must, by my logic, become part of language later than any vocabularly to do with bodily functions (it seems odd to suppose a child, for example, would discuss Hume with you before it told you thatit needed to go to the toilet). I have no doubt that the word God and notions thereof can inspire physical feelings within people that are of a potency. But I doubt that the visceral swearing explanation fits our purpose. It seems to me that a cultural explanation is more likely. Early societies which grappled with God were invariably polytheistic, prone to Shamanism. I would surmise that it is this that provides our first insight into how we came to 'blaspheme' on stubbing our toes. There were undoubtedly certain words that simply could not be uttered within these cultures save by those ordained by communities with the right to utter them. Words acquiring a taboo status undoubtedly develop a power and a mystique that others simply do not. It may well be that the fear involved in speaking such words may lead to a 'visceral swearing' type response, but this seemingly must have followed from the cultural constraints applied.

Obviously, this is a fairly redcutionist view, and it is likely that there are a plethora of other factors I've neglected. It is at least pleasing to note, however, that even stubbing one's toe can be interesting - and if you disgaree? Well, fuck off :)