The thought of defining and describing the attire that covered the lower half of a man’s body was just too steamy for words!įrom the earliest compilations, lexicographers have been skirting around taboo language. However, at the height of Victorian prudery, the OED went so far as to offer the word ‘ineffables’ for trousers. That’s because dictionaries are both cultural and commercial products: the data they present is intended to be sufficient that the reader should be able to understand the core lexicon of a language, but by its very nature, swearing is often in the margins.įor the ease of the contemporary researcher, the current version of the Oxford English Dictionary (OED) has a wide range of swear words, with notes on their power and usage. And while dictionaries are an information boon to readers and writers everywhere, they’re pretty useless when it comes to researching swearing. “In much of the English-speaking world, Oxford is synonymous with the dictionary. Emma Byrne – author of Swearing Is Good For YouĪhead of her profound and profaine Oxford talk next week, Emma Byrne, author of Swearing Is Good For You, shares her titillating insights of the rise and fall of taking offence through the centuries.…
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