Reserve #?*! for Special Occasions
Now that financial inflation has been brought under some control, it might be time to pay attention to a similar phenomenon: swearword inflation. Just as a dollar today isn't worth anywhere near what it was in 1939, neither is a swearword. Acceptability has devalued it.</br></br>One important milestone on the road to acceptance of swearwords was reached when the publishers of the 1969 American Heritage Dictionary took what was then regarded as a bold step forward. They included in their book the definitions of some short, direct words, associated mainly with digestion and procreation, whose existence had not previously received official recognition.</br></br>Other steps have followed. Very recently, after an orientation course for new congressmen at Harvard's Kennedy School of Government, one distinguished academic publicly criticized a prominent attendee for inattention, arrogance and generally behaving like a horse's hip -- though hip wasn't exactly the word he used.</br></br>One trouble with the new frankness is lack of elegance. When a professor from a leading institution berates a U.S. congressman, one might wish for more interesting and specific language. More important, however, swearword inflation robs us of a needed weapon exactly when we need it most. Consider: If it is permissible and customary to waste coarse language on minor discomforts or even ordinary conversation, then when truly powerful swearwords are required -- say, when you're driving through rural Maine at night during a blizzard and get your second flat tire -- there's nothing extra available; the cupboard is bare.</br></br>There is, however, hope that this problem, like many others that have appeared intractable, will be solved. One reason for hope is that fashions in language swing wildly back and forth; today's freedom was preceded by a level of repression that seems to us now to have been ridiculous.