Word-Field of Swearing

The word-field of the modes of swearing is diverse, being made up of a range of terms deriving from Anglo-Saxon, Latin, and Greek origins. Those in the following discussion styled in bold type have their own entries. The general terms to swear and swearing derive from Anglo-Saxon swerian , which had only the formal sense of “to swear or make an oath,” but none of the modern informal senses. It had an unexpected relation andswarian , the origin of “answer,” indicating the seriousness of the term in the past. We still use the formal sense in the idioms “to answer to a charge.” The formal term oath similarly derives from Anglo-Saxon að , as does plight from Anglo-Saxon pliht , still used in the archaic wedding formula “I plight thee my troth,” in which troth is an old personalized form of truth. Curse , from Anglo-Saxon curs , was often used in medieval religious contexts to mean “excommunication,” although the ulterior roots of the word are uncertain.

The most general term deriving from a classical root is vow , recorded from the thirteenth century, from Latin votum , curiously also the origin of vote . In the following century came pledge from Latin plebium . Most of the more technical legal terms have classical origins. From Latin jus , meaning “law” or “right,” come perjury , “the violation of an oath,” and jury , the group formally sworn to deliver a true verdict. Less obvious is injury , originally meaning a wrongful act or treatment. In earlier times this included intentionally hurtful or offensive speech, recorded from the sixteenth century, as in John Florio’s translation of Michel de Montaigne’s Essays (1603): “He began to raile upon them with a thousand injuries” (I, xlvi). The old sense of the word survives in the South African legal category of crimen injuria, the offence of using grossly insulting language. Also deriving from this root is abjuration, a formal renunciation under oath. Other classically derived terms are asseveration, attestation, and imprecation. The various modes of infraction, described by the classical terms blasphemy, malediction, obscenity, and profanity have their own entries.