Why do people swear?

“On the whole, I adore them [cats]. But I don’t like it when they suddenly jump on you… and then turn round and show you their arsehole.”

Hugh Grant on The Graham Norton Show, December 2019

Do you swear a lot or just occasionally? What sort of situation would make you want to swear? Canadian-american psychologist and linguist Stephen Pinker has identified and labelled five reasons why people swear.

Cathartic swearing is in response to pain, annoyance or bad luck. Imagine you’ve just stubbed your toe against a door and feel intense pain. When something like this happens, you might say: “Fuck!” “Damn!” or “Shit!”

Abusive swearing is used to cause hurt, to intimidate people, or sometimes under one’s breath or in the safety of one’s car. Imagine you are in your car and have been indicating for a parking spot, but another car comes from the opposite direction and drives into the spot before you. You might want to shout any of the following: “Bastard!”, “Arsehole!” (US: asshole), “Dickhead!”, “Wanker!” (US: jerk).

Dysphemistic swearing is used to express or emphasize the negativity of a situation. The speaker wants to make sure the listener knows how awful something is and will use ugly and taboo words to do so:

Emphatic swearing is used to add emphasis to a statement, in situations where swearing won’t cause offence — among friends, for example. After a meal you enjoyed very much, you might say: “That was fucking delicious!”

To complain about someone who has annoyed you, you might say: “He’s fucking useless” or “She’s always fucking late.” In British English, “bloody” can be used instead of “fucking” and isn’t considered quite as offensive: “I can’t believe it — I’ve forgotten my bloody phone again!”

Idiomatic swearing refers to expressions that include taboo words. They’re generally used informally to get attention or to seem cool or macho. So someone might say, “What the fuck?” rather than “What on earth was that about?”, “I can’t be arsed” instead of “I can’t be bothered”, or “I have to go to work on Saturday — what a pain in the arse!” rather than “What a pain in the neck!”