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COMMENT PAGE FOR:
URI Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Effects of Novel Swear Words
dspillett wrote 3 hours 1 min ago:
> This is the first study to find that new, made-up âswearâ words
do not have similar pain alleviation effects to regular swearing.
I think this is in part due to the nature of the words, they
âappealâ (perhaps come from) a much older part of our minds than
the idea that they might be offensive. The most effective swears are
generally about procreation and other bodily functions - the things
that we cared about before we even had that much of our current
language.
Another side effect of this seems to be visible in those with dementia
and other age or illness related degradations: some can barely say a
few words normally but can still string a perfectly coherent set of
expletives together when they need or want.
card_zero wrote 6 hours 52 min ago:
URI [1]: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Fictional_English_curs...
xarope wrote 7 hours 46 min ago:
As a kid, I vaguely remember appropriating some that I thought were
from Tin Tin/Captain Haddock, but when I look in the list[1], I don't
recognize my favorites :-(. [1]
[edit] holy mackerel, you odd-toed ungulate, I found some!
URI [1]: https://tintin.fandom.com/wiki/List_of_Captain_Haddock%27s_Cur...
somedude895 wrote 8 hours 19 min ago:
For the past few years I've made a conscious effort to not use swear
words like "fucking" and "shit" casually. I feel like if they're
overused they lose their power, to yourself and to others around you.
Everyone of us knows that guy or girl that never normally swears, so
then when they do you know it's serious.
BiteCode_dev wrote 2 hours 57 min ago:
My alternative is to use old-fashioned swear words like Fudge,
Poppycock, Scullion or Harlot.
It satisfies my urge, and it sounds funny.
somedude895 wrote 1 hour 45 min ago:
Oh frick yes. It also makes you sound like a goodie two shoes
schoolboy from a 1950s movie. Has delivered quite a few laughs and
joy to people at work.
gmac wrote 7 hours 2 min ago:
Right on topic, since overuse does in fact reduce their power to
relieve pain:
URI [1]: https://www.jpain.org/article/S1526-5900(11)00762-0/fulltext
HK-NC wrote 1 hour 12 min ago:
Do habitual swearers need to resort to racial slurs for pain
relief?
lxe wrote 9 hours 32 min ago:
This was the first paper I read almost to completion. What a
fascinating read. It's cool to see the hypotheses be refuted through
experimentation. TL;DR: twizpipe and fouch don't help with pain, while
"fuck" does.
1317 wrote 10 hours 39 min ago:
See also this wonderful video with Stephen Fry and Brian Blessed
URI [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2eWDmUl4_Y
Cthulhu_ wrote 3 hours 48 min ago:
Uncensored section:
URI [1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lBhPDxszukU
phantomathkg wrote 10 hours 40 min ago:
So this is like a more rigorously version of Mythbusters' No Pain, No
Gain test then.
ascorbic wrote 8 hours 41 min ago:
The MythBusters test was inspired by an earlier study. It's quite a
well-studied effect now. Here's a review of the literature:
URI [1]: https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10....
fracus wrote 9 hours 5 min ago:
Mythbusters shouldn't have ended when it did. I wish all 5 of them
could have made an arrangement where it could continue.
dtgriscom wrote 13 hours 43 min ago:
I spent two years of high school learning Russian. I can't remember
much of it, except the section of the alphabet that sounds like
swearing: Ñ, Ñ, Ñ, Ñ, Ñ, Ñ
(pronounced, approximately, and with
feeling: "er ess teh, oo eff HAH").
neoden wrote 9 hours 16 min ago:
Oh, Russian is exceptionally well built for swearing. It provides
possibilities barely imaginable from the perspective of languages
such as English because of how mutable and composable word structure
is. With roughly the same base set of 3-4 swear words the actual
number of different forms that could be used goes to thousands and is
hard to count, each word having its own shade of meaning and
sometimes many more than one.
oxonia wrote 4 hours 58 min ago:
Tell us more.
kulahan wrote 13 hours 49 min ago:
I read once that there is a common structure to swear words. If you
think about it, fuck, cunt, shit, crap - they all have kiiind of a
similar vocal feeling.
I wonder if different fake swear words may have had a different
outcome.
Cthulhu_ wrote 3 hours 57 min ago:
The Farscape ones are great. Frell and dren have similar vibes.
carpo wrote 14 hours 6 min ago:
When my kids were younger I tried to to replace my swearing by saying
"sugarplum fairies". It was fairly successful in becoming a natural
replacement. However, the other day I kicked my toe really badly and
instinctively yelled "sugarplum FUCKING fairies" and my kids (now early
teen) found it extremely funny.
goopypoop wrote 14 hours 51 min ago:
Can I swear in pain enough to Clockwork Orange myself? Could prove
cheaper than the fucking swear jarrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
adammarples wrote 15 hours 23 min ago:
What the jiggins!
anoncow wrote 16 hours 26 min ago:
There is also an impact of swear words on pleasure. Also on strength
and performance -
URI [1]: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1469029...
throwaheyy wrote 17 hours 14 min ago:
"Theres a fucking goat outside."
"No, it's just 'a goat'."
"No! It's a fucking goat!"
bregma wrote 3 hours 38 min ago:
Why do you ask, Two Dogs?
chrisweekly wrote 11 hours 5 min ago:
what do you call...
a deer with no eyes?
no idea
a deer w no eyes and no front legs?
still no idea
a deer with no eyes, no front legs, and no balls?
still no fucking idea
hn_go_brrrrr wrote 9 hours 17 min ago:
This joke only works in the right accent, where "idea" is prounced
"idear".
ascorbic wrote 8 hours 35 min ago:
Or non-rhotic accents, where neither have the final R sound
irrational wrote 15 hours 9 min ago:
Personally Iâm more into sheep, but I wonât kink shame.
goopypoop wrote 13 hours 22 min ago:
Inside you there are two fucking wolves
techdmn wrote 17 hours 34 min ago:
Many years ago, my daughter (maybe six at the time), lost something
semi-important to her, I don't recall what. I think it might have been
her username / pictorial password card for her school network account.
Anyway, we were looking for it, and she said "Dad, dad, I don't know
where it is, I feel like I'm going to say a bad word".
I, having just read an article like this, said "That's ok, sometimes
saying a bad word can help you process your emotions and feel less
stressed. Do you want to go down to the basement where nobody can hear
you, and say the bad word?"
"Yes". She goes down the stairs, I close the door, and she yells at
the top of her lungs: "I can't fucking find it!". I managed not to
laugh, she comes back up, "Do you feel better?" "Yes." Great moments
in parenting. :-) (We did eventually find whatever it was.)
jacobgkau wrote 15 hours 10 min ago:
To think, you could've taken that opportunity to point out to her
that saying the bad word didn't actually help her find it. Or you
could've told her immediately that you heard her through the door
because she yelled. Instead, you raised a casual swearer who's
unaware of her surroundings. I hope nobody ever has to live in an
apartment next to her.
Cthulhu_ wrote 4 hours 1 min ago:
No, but it did teach her you can't just blurt out words like that,
teaching self-control. In theory anyway. And she was aware of it -
the fact she removed herself etc taught her not to be a casual
swearer.
The trick isn't to hide them from bad words - no matter how much
censorship you apply to TV, film, youtube, whatever they will learn
them. But it's to teach them when to (not) use them. If done right,
they'll know they shouldn't just casually use it.
Anyway, love seeing people without kids chime in.
johnisgood wrote 4 hours 58 min ago:
I mean, if there is a pattern of her going to the basement to yell
whenever, then yeah, it would indeed be bad parenting, and I would
not want to live next to her either when she becomes an adult. :D
As long as it was a one time thing, sure, but if she was
conditioned to believe it was "the right way to swear", then nah.
That said, I could not give a fuck about who swears and who does
not swear, but I do give a damn about volume.
(Says the guy who is going to get married to a Latina soon.)
close04 wrote 5 hours 2 min ago:
> you could've taken that opportunity to point out
Let the kids make some "mistakes", and let them think they got away
with it. It gives them the some agency, it encourages them to
explore and push boundaries, as long as you're there to make sure
they don't cross a line they can't come back from. Light swearing
is not where you need to draw that line.
techbrovanguard wrote 5 hours 54 min ago:
i will never understand people that are puritains about swearing
bombcar wrote 2 hours 51 min ago:
Thereâs a special form of embarrassment when your five year old
suddenly announces to the entire preschool that they âcanât
fucking find the truckâ.
Some donât handle it well.
supermatt wrote 6 hours 37 min ago:
Itâs bold of you to critique someone elseâs parenting when
itâs clearly your own parents who raised the sanctimonious little
cunt (not a curse, just an observation) in this conversation.
lxe wrote 9 hours 31 min ago:
Sir, this isn't Instagram
sunrunner wrote 3 hours 35 min ago:
(Knowingly going against all HN comment guidelines...)
And with a few more paragraphs it would also be perfectly
formatted for LinkedIn.
sunrunner wrote 14 hours 15 min ago:
> saying the bad word didn't actually help her find it
Any proof of this?
qualeed wrote 14 hours 45 min ago:
It's comments like this that really make participating on this
forum not fun.
It's a cute story. Fuck is just a word. They aren't going to grow
up to be a bad person because they said it as a kid, and it's wild
to say stuff like this to someone when you have literally no other
context about their life or upbringing.
Your weird negativity to a stranger and implying they aren't doing
a good job parenting based on them sharing a couple sentence long
story is, in my opinion, a worse character trait than saying fuck
every now and again. You have 0 idea what kind of kid they are
raising.
Oh the horror of a "casual swearer"!
galaxyLogic wrote 13 hours 31 min ago:
There are T-shirts that say
"Fuck You You Fucking Fuck!".
See:
URI [1]: https://www.etsy.com/market/fuck_you_you_fucking
bombcar wrote 2 hours 52 min ago:
It also can be almost any part of a a sentence. âFuck the
fucking fucks.â Versatile!
johnisgood wrote 4 hours 56 min ago:
I have a pretty amazing t-shirt that says "Fuck you" all over.
I believe it is available in a hoodie version, too. I do not
mind wearing it to the doctor's office either. Even though they
may not speak English, everyone knows what "Fuck you" means.
gsinclair wrote 14 hours 6 min ago:
Praise be to this comment!
slowmovintarget wrote 17 hours 57 min ago:
"Glenfarclas!" I frequently exclaim to the bewilderment of my child.
EvanAnderson wrote 15 hours 27 min ago:
I spelled around my daughter. This worked until, between 3 and 4 y/o,
she asked a preschool teacher what "F-U-C-K" spelled. The teacher
asked where she'd heard it and she said her father spelled it a lot.
IAmBroom wrote 17 hours 45 min ago:
There's a lovely story of a dad who's wife said, "Lil Johhny said a
bad word today. Go talk to him." Or something to that effect.
"Johnny, Momma tells me you said X. That's pretty bad, but at least
you didn't say the worst word..."
"What's that?" "Can't tell you!" "OK, but you have to PROMISE you'll
never say it in front of Momma. It's booglashek."
Next day, all his friends were over, calling each other booglasheks.
smitelli wrote 16 hours 57 min ago:
Percy Livermore: We must rid our speech of slang. Now, besides
"OK", I want you all to promise me that there are two words that
you will never use. One of these is "swell" and the other one is
"lousy".
Lucy Ricardo: OK, what are they?
Percy Livermore: [with emphasis] One of them is "swell" and the
other one is "lousy".
Fred Mertz: Well, give us the lousy one first.
layer8 wrote 18 hours 2 min ago:
(2020)
mjanx123 wrote 18 hours 9 min ago:
The origin of language
Finnucane wrote 18 hours 10 min ago:
You'll sing a different tune when you're getting fouched in the
twizpipe.
Cthulhu_ wrote 3 hours 50 min ago:
Getting frelled in the eema, if you will.
MattPalmer1086 wrote 18 hours 15 min ago:
At school my German teacher loved to teach us the longest swear word in
German (or so he claimed). He would illustrate it by pretending he hit
his thumb with a hammer, and then he would let out this wonderful long
stream of invective, but which is one word in German. He would then
translate it all for us.
No idea if it helps with hitting your thumb with a hammer, but
memorable teaching!
MisterTea wrote 18 hours 3 min ago:
> longest swear word in German
Inquiring minds want to know...
schandmaul wrote 8 hours 52 min ago:
Himmi Herrgott Sackl Zement Zefix Halleluja Mi Leckst Am Oarsch
Scheiss Glump Faregets
Edit: Itâs irrelevant if you write it as one word, you certainly
say it as one.
thaumasiotes wrote 7 hours 29 min ago:
> Itâs irrelevant if you write it as one word, you certainly
say it as one.
True, but you say everything as one word. You produce "It's
irrelevant if you write it as one word" as one word. It has
substitutable parts, which is also true of German compound words.
People are shockingly gullible about the fact that compound nouns
in German are written without spaces while the grammatically
identical compound nouns that are so common in English are
written with them, as if spaces occurred in speech.
CamouflagedKiwi wrote 4 hours 51 min ago:
No you don't. There are stress patterns in words that wouldn't
exist if a sentence was all one word - in English words have at
most one primary stressed syllable, and a sentence may have
multiple such syllables.
cubefox wrote 6 hours 18 min ago:
> People are shockingly gullible about the fact that compound
nouns in German are written without spaces while the
grammatically identical compound nouns that are so common in
English are written with them, as if spaces occurred in speech.
Yeah. And distinctions that don't even occur in speech are
arguably not suited to define the general concept of "word".
You wouldn't know from speaking that "coalmine" has no space
but "file name" has. I would count them both as single words,
because they are single compound nouns.
The "space theory of words" would mean that languages without a
writing system don't have "words", or that people who can't
read also can't distinguish "words", which is clearly nonsense.
falcor84 wrote 5 hours 41 min ago:
Is "file name" really two words? I can't remember a time I
ever saw `file_name`, it's always just `filename`.
cubefox wrote 4 hours 32 min ago:
Well, I would humbly propose that "file name" is one word,
even if it is written with a space, and despite consisting
of two words.
MattPalmer1086 wrote 17 hours 45 min ago:
I wish I could remember. Words in German can be long as they are
composed of other words. It was along the lines of thunder and
lightning and terrible storms blight you! But I think there was a
bit more to it than that.
EDIT; and the teacher may have made the entire thing up of course!
Loved his lessons.
vincent-manis wrote 14 hours 26 min ago:
Untergrundbahnhofzeitschriftsplatz: Subway station newspaper
stand
chrisweekly wrote 11 hours 14 min ago:
The root primitives are so easy to discern and interpret:
under,ground, train,yard
time,writing
place
nothrabannosir wrote 10 hours 13 min ago:
(Bahn is more like track, not train)
scns wrote 5 hours 37 min ago:
Sorry to be a pedant but bahnhof means train station
Izkata wrote 5 hours 25 min ago:
..and then "autobahn" would be..?
detaro wrote 5 hours 21 min ago:
almost as if word meanings were dependent on context
("railway" would probably have been a more accurate
than "train", but going "actually it means track" is
just not helpful in this context)
cubefox wrote 17 hours 23 min ago:
By the way, English also has compound nouns, only they are
sometimes written with spaces and sometimes without. Sometimes
even with dashes. E.g. compare "coalmine" and "file name".
Compound nouns can get arbitrarily long too, e.g. "file name
length limit history blog post introduction".
sib wrote 15 hours 12 min ago:
While English has compound nouns, they are different in that
they are not (generally) single words.
For example, the lovely and memorable
Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitätenhauptbetriebswerkbauunterbe
amtengesellschaft
would be translated into something like
"Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main Maintenance
Building of the Danube Steamboat Shipping Company"
cubefox wrote 6 hours 10 min ago:
That translation is inaccurate because the original is a
compound noun, while your translation isn't. The translation
posted by knome is more accurate.
> While English has compound nouns, they are different in
that they are not (generally) single words.
That's if you define "word" as anything that is separated by
spaces in writing. But you could instead count all compound
nouns as words. That would have the advantage of not being
dependent on arbitrary rules in the writing system.
knome wrote 10 hours 12 min ago:
Squashing "danube steamboat shipping company electric
services main maintenance building subordinate officials
association" into a single word vs leaving it spaced out is
kind of irrelevant. It's like getting excited over PascalCase
vs snake_case.
swinglock wrote 8 hours 22 min ago:
Instead try for example "washing machine motor" and you'll
find it's a feature fixing issues with clarity, not a style
preference.
philwelch wrote 14 hours 38 min ago:
It just takes longer to standardize them but English
absolutely has compound single words. Examples include
âfolkloreâ, âpancakeâ, âmanslaughterâ,
âoatmealâ, âpocketknifeâ, and âgunmanâ.
TulliusCicero wrote 13 hours 4 min ago:
Right, they're just typically limited to two subwords.
philwelch wrote 9 hours 56 min ago:
Albeit rare, triple compound words are nonetheless
commonly used and recognized in English. Many of them
sound formal and archaic but they are nevertheless still
in common usage nowadays, not merely a relic of the days
of highwaymen and crossbowmen. The archaic examples
heretofore used notwithstanding, it would be false to
claim that there are no triple compound words whatsoever.
(Inasmuch as I've made my point, I will spare you any
further woebegone prose.)
joenada wrote 4 hours 15 min ago:
This guy writes.
sib wrote 11 hours 45 min ago:
And you can't typically just make them up as you go along
and have them accepted as "words."
SoftTalker wrote 17 hours 17 min ago:
And they work as swears too.
Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch
etc.
cubefox wrote 16 hours 56 min ago:
Though I believe that's technically not a compound noun. (Fun
fact: "compound noun" is a compound noun.)
slig wrote 18 hours 19 min ago:
Anecdotally, I find swearing in German and Italian satisfying and
people around usually don't understand, so no issues there.
HK-NC wrote 45 min ago:
Ibyend to use Italian when mildly annoyed and German when utterly
pissed off. How about you?
fuzzy_biscuit wrote 16 hours 37 min ago:
I swear in Italian and Russian. Great minds think alike!
pif wrote 16 hours 55 min ago:
I had been working at CERN for a bit less than a year, when my
Russo-Israelian coworker, who had never visited Italy, erupted in a
perfect "Porca puttana!" that made me question my manners in the
office.
codeulike wrote 18 hours 30 min ago:
Twizpipe
bombcar wrote 2 hours 48 min ago:
Iâm going to keep this as a replacement for âpieholeâ the next
time I need it with a twizzler eater.
timewizard wrote 18 hours 31 min ago:
Anecdotally I find swearing makes it worse. Now I just saw "ow!" or
"that hurt!" Which honestly feels like it synchronizes my brain past
the insult and I can move on much faster past it.
Supermancho wrote 9 hours 46 min ago:
In primates there are commonly 3 noises as a reaction to danger.
Initially the work from the 70s-80s on vervet monkeys [1] which was
then found to be generalized for a host of other primates
~1 for danger in the air
~1 for danger on the ground
misc for unspecified danger
I would bet that modern swearing maps to these calls in a less
specific way. Equivalents of "this shite" "that arsehole" and
"damnnit" may have an evolutionary origin.
URI [1]: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7433999/
ArtRichards wrote 4 hours 4 min ago:
I was looking for this comment!
That being a possible reason why certain words alleviate, they
actually operate at a different level in our conciousness.
kulahan wrote 13 hours 59 min ago:
I use a mix of both, but when Iâm in really serious pain, I also
find itâs more effective when Iâm just like âWew. WOW. Yeah
thatâs pretty good there. Phew. Wow. WOOOW.â
I dunno why, but wow seems to work well for me.
ethan_smith wrote 14 hours 33 min ago:
This matches research on pain catastrophizing vs. neutralizing - your
approach of acknowledging pain directly without emotional
amplification may be activating different neural pathways than those
enhanced by taboo-word usage.
Cthulhu_ wrote 3 hours 55 min ago:
Yeah, I never get the compulsion to swear when doing something
stupid to myself lol. People have impulse control, but it may be
stronger in some than others.
MisterTea wrote 17 hours 59 min ago:
Similar: I say something amusing/funny, e.g. I hit my head on a piece
of metal and yelled "ah ya mother was a tin can you metal bastard"
which breaks your thought from the pain. Screaming
fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... only keeps you focused.
bombcar wrote 2 hours 49 min ago:
This is the Captain Haddock method. Itâs quite effective as you
get distracted thinking up new terms.
chrisweekly wrote 11 hours 9 min ago:
hahaha, I'm going to try this
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