Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language (Hardcover)

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Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

If you find obscenity in print shocking, skip this review and stay away from Wajnryb's very objective—and entertaining—study of the etymology of taboo expressions. Australian linguist Wajnryb, a columnist for the Sydney Morning Herald, doesn't shy away from listing the most offensive English terms. Her wit and informal, anecdotal style are supported by a prodigious amount of research. According to Wajnryb, "cunt" is easily the most insulting word in English—whether applied to a man or a woman. The origins of "fuck" are shrouded in mystery (contrary to common belief, it is not Anglo-Saxon); since it's the most widely used curse word and can be employed as a noun, verb or adjective, the author says, it has recently lost some of its impact. Wajnryb points out that men curse, or are reputed to curse, more than women, and frequently designate female organs in a hostile manner intended to humiliate women. Wajnryb also examines blasphemy, utterances that derive their power from degrading religion. Especially interesting is the author's exploration of cross-cultural cursing. Even in Japan, where there are allegedly no taboo words, a closer examination uncovers a complex tongue in which insults are hidden in language that serves to enforce social rank. (July 13)
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From Booklist

Fans of the extravagantly profane HBO drama Deadwood now have a boon companion in Wajnryb, who will edify them on the finer points of swearing. And she also appears to have Al Swearengen's refined sense of humor; she opens each chapter with remarks from a famous historical figure (Michelangelo is attributed with the quote, "You want what on the fucking ceiling?"). Wajnryb notes the strong cultural taboos against profanity--even her fellow linguists have a longstanding aversion to investigating its history--and the existence of the language police in the form of an Illinois institute called the Cuss Control Academy and their futile efforts to clean up our vocabulary. She then launches into a detailed categorization, noting the differences between, for example, blasphemy, invective, and vulgarity. She observes that all cultures engage in swearing and analyzes their motivations for doing so, such as the need for letting off steam. She then discusses individual swear words in terms of their flexibility and historical context. In the words of Bono, who was duly fined by the FCC, it's "fucking brilliant." Joanne Wilkinson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 304 pages
• Publisher: Free Press (July 5, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743274342
• ISBN-13: 978-0743274340
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #510,546 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Swearing Seriously Studied, but Fun, Too., July 14, 2005

By	R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

There can be no more gleefully erroneous title for a book than _Expletive Deleted: A Good Look at Bad Language_ (The Free Press) by Ruth Wajnryb. In Wajnryb's book, the expletives are decidedly not deleted, although in this review, proper fellow that I am, I will try to avoid the worst ones. Thus every member of George Carlin's infamous list of the seven major words you can't say on television is here, along with lots of others, plus some guest appearances by swear words of other languages. There is plenty of sexual language, of course, but there is little titillating here. Though Wajnryb is a witty writer and puts in many good jokes of her own and others, this is essentially a serious study. Wajnryb, after all, is not a stand up comic like Carlin, but a linguist who sometimes has to explain, with as little apology as possible, that bad words are a proper subject of academic linguistic study. For instance, she writes that it might be mysterious that anyone would want "... to get into the grammatical knickers of cross-cultural swearing is anyone's bet, but linguists do things like that." She delves into details of that particular aspect of bad language, and many others, and entertains throughout.

Why do we swear? Wajnryb does not want to consider the question other than linguistically (not, say, psychologically), and sees swearing as a meaningful use of words, a use which has characteristics and patterns. In other words, it has meaning and it has uses. One use is catharsis. Stub your toe, and you are likely to say a swear word loudly, even if there is no one else at home. The same words that might be used for a stubbed toe, however, can be used against other individuals. This is abusive swearing, and it was examined by (of all people) the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. A completely different category of swearing (Coleridge didn't get around to this one) is social swearing. The more relaxed a group is, and the less mixing of sexes within in, the more likely the participants are to use swear words, not in shock or anger, but just as a sort of a social lubricant. It is playful and jokey. Many of Wajnryb's examples come from her native Australia, where they are much more likely to use the term "bloody" than we are, and an example of such swearing is an "infix", a technical linguistic term meaning that the swearword is inserted into another word for emphasis: one mate might reply to another when asked if he wants a drink, "Abso-bloody-lutely".

Among the most interesting aspects of swearing that Wajnryb describes is our clever capacity to get around it. We have rightly come to see as stupid the do-gooder efforts of such prigs as Thomas Bowdler, who wanted to make Shakespeare's words safe for children, but we still find ways to swear without swearing. As the taboo on "the" word has been reduced, so, too, has the number of asterisks risked in print; "f***" became "f**k", then "f*ck" and now is regularly written in full. Blanks are often used, as in "F---", so that the compound "blankety-blank-blank" can be spoken as a swear substitute. We also change words to their close kin, so someone might say "That's just too freaking bad," and he knows what he really means, as do his hearers, and he gets the approximate use of the word without incurring any penalty for actually using it. So, too, with "frigging," which has given birth to the delightful portmanteau word "frigamarole." "Bloody" itself may have derived from the religiously more improper "by Our Lady," so it is itself a euphemism, but it is now itself euphemized by "ruddy", "blooming", or "bleeding". When Eliza Doolittle exclaimed, "Not bloody likely!" in the 1914 production of _Pygmalion_, it was so scandalous and delightful that swearers commemorated it with the exclamation, "Not _Pygmalion_ likely!" Even this sort of change would probably not gratify the president of a real organization, The Cuss Control Academy (who is the author of the book _Cuss Control: The Complete Book on How to Curb Your Cussing_). Those who campaign against swearing insist that swearers are not only naughty, they are lazy. Not so, demonstrates Wajnryb; her instructive book shows that swearing is something people have inventively worked on for centuries, and they use according to understandable linguistic principles. It's a damn fun book.

7 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Wajnryb should have her word processor washed out with soap., August 5, 2005

By	Chris McGlothlin - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

But this book is one f***ing good read!