this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
268 points (99.6% liked)
A Comm for Historymemes
3100 readers
872 users here now
A place to share history memes!
Rules:
-
No sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, assorted bigotry, etc.
-
No fascism, atrocity denial, etc.
-
Tag NSFW pics as NSFW.
-
Follow all Lemmy.world rules.
Banner courtesy of @setsneedtofeed@lemmy.world
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
view the rest of the comments
It's not random. French and Latin were the languages of the ruling class -monarchy and Church, while the poor used Old English. That's why the animal is 'Cow', but the meat is 'Beef'.
Also why swear words are swears. They're what the common people called things, and it was a way of denigrating the proletariat to regard it as foul language.
Shit Vs excrement
Fuck Vs copulate
Etc
As someone who avoids swearing, this really makes me want to start
You'd have to google individual etymology if you wanted an answer for that.
Most of our short abrupt words came from Vikings like Skull and most of our swear words. Not the culturally superior Saxons