Swearing
ˈswɛːrɪŋ/
noun: swearing
the use of offensive language.
"there's a lot of swearing in the show"

It happens on my favourite podcasts. It happens when I am at the shopping centre, passing strangers on the street, or listening to the radio. Truly, it happens a lot and way more than it used to. Or probably should.

My mother would say that there is a better way of saying it. English teachers like myself might argue that it shows a lack of curiosity with language.

But in an era when freedom and license have been confused, swearing is ubiquitous. It is almost passe, so often punctuating a sentence as to make no impression at all, except the impression that one is cool or tough or part of the group. I swear now and then, usually when no other word will do at that moment, or I have suddenly become angry. Within a second I realize that I could have said it better, using language that conveyed a more exact meaning. Perhaps I just mean I could have said something pithier or more erudite or something infused with sarcastic resonances.

Now having said this I do derive great joy from hearing the odd explosion in the right circumstances. The other day I heard an interview with a Scottish comedian who was laying into Donald Trump and his vast mendacity. "Donald Trump is a cunt" she said, which sounded very funny in a Glaswegian brogue and which was, after all, dead-on true. It was also a nice piece of assonance, fitting, if you think about it, for such an arse of a man.