Fuck
Fuck
36 languages
Article
Talk
Read
View source
View history
Tools
Nevertheless, the word has increasingly become less of a pejorative and more
publicly acceptable, an example of the "dysphemism treadmill" or semantic
drift known as melioration, wherein former pejoratives become inoffensive and
commonplace.[3][4] Because of its increasing usage in the public forum, in 2005
the word was included for the first time as one of three vulgarities in The
Canadian Press's Canadian Press Caps and Spelling guide. Journalists were
advised to refrain from censoring the word but use it sparingly and only when its
inclusion was essential to the story.[5] According to linguist Pamela Hobbs,
"notwithstanding its increasing public use, enduring cultural models that inform
our beliefs about the nature of sexuality and sexual acts preserve its status as a
vile utterance that continues to inspire moral outrage." Hobbs considers users
rather than usage of the word and sub-divides users into "non-users", for whom
"the word belongs to a set of taboo words, the very utterance of which
constitutes an affront, and any use of the word, regardless of its form (verb,
adjective, adverb, etc.) or meaning (literal or metaphorical) evokes the core
sexual meanings and associated sexual imagery that motivate the taboo."; and
"users", for whom "metaphorical uses of the word fuck no more evoke images of
sexual intercourse than a ten-year-old's 'My mom'll kill me if she finds out'
evokes images of murder," so that the "criteria of taboo are missing." [6]