Formulas in Swearing

Swearing appears to be fairly random in its makeup, especially in the semantic latitude and anomalous conjunctions of adjectives and nouns. However, there have developed over the centuries certain combinations of highly charged words that have common semantic, alliterative, rhyming, and rhythmic features. They have become established through traditional use as idioms, and are thus not readily accessible to logical explanation.

Some have grown up as units like son of a bitch , developing a great range of applications to both persons and situations. They can also be elaborated on, as in “son and heir of a mongrel bitch,” by Shakespeare in King Lear (II ii 22). Others, like goddam , shift from their original semantic function to become general-purpose counters, as in “I don’t give a goddam” to “I don’t give a good goddam.” These are more in the nature of clichés or fixed forms than formulas, which tend to be made up of certain common features and interchangeable elements. One typical arrangement, found in you bloody bastard! and the stupid old fool! comprises [article + adjective + noun] or [pronoun + adjective + noun]. Alliteration is the dominant feature in the first example, as it was in “I don’t give a good gooddam.” Other features are rhyme as in Hell’s bells! and assonance, as in Stone the crows! and the archaic naval oath Shiver me timbers!

As is also typical in swearing formulas, there is no obvious semantic relationship between adjective and noun: Thus bloody, fucking , and other highly charged adjectives can be combined with a great variety of incongruous nouns, as in bloody hell! or with each other, as in bloody fucking hell! Although the choice of words appears to be random, the order is certainly not: bloody always comes first. Thus fucking bloody hell! is not idiomatic, any more than are such arrangements as old bloody fool! or old stupid arsehole! Furthermore, the use of old is typical in formulas, largely for rhythmic purposes, as a make-weight. Historically it first appears in the Wife of Bath castigating one of her husbands as “olde barelful of lyes” ( Prologue , l. 302), and it continues to thrive in modern parlance in he’s an old rogue , as opposed to you old scoundrel , which does not have to be age-specific. Also used in the same way is little , as in dreadful little man and stupid little fool .

Rhythm is an important aspect of formulas in swearing. There also seems to be an undoubted phonetic preference for words beginning with certain particular consonants, frequently combined by means of alliteration. This phonetic preference is in itself an indication that formulas are not random.