TIPs to Swearing in the FR setting

[Hoihe]

It's victorian but..

[LeslieMS]

I am curious about a few words, actually - borderline words, perhaps, and some certainly worse than others. Are any of these appropriate for use in the server?

Arse
Hells
Bloody
Bollocks
Bugger
Feck
Tosser
Twat
Wanker

Bastard is another that I am curious about, not necessarily as an insult but rather used in its original lexical role to denote somebody of illegitimate birth.

Bearing in mind that we can get away with mild curses such as damn (not in the context of the hells necessarily), Sh--(For 'flavor' add an e) and a few others sprinkled in heavy moderation... I'd say these alternatives are relatively safe to use. Though for consistency's sake I would VERY scarcely use F-Bomb equivalents.

The best guideline I could suggest, is don't use words you can't hear on American broadcast TV. (Not Cable, and I don't know how it works in other countries, so I specified for clarity's sake.) The server is a PG-13 rated server. This means the 'cursing' (alternatives or present day words) is used with moderation.

As for the word Bastard? It is my opinion that even when not used in its Lexical role... it is alright to use Very occasionally. Especially with the chart, there is an abundance of alternatives. However, it is one that I've always saved for truly special occasions. Even the Bhaalists looked surprised when the not-yet-saint Meri, in a fit of frustration and rage, spat out between clenched teeth and with clenched fists: "Damn these Bhaalist Bastards to the Nines!"

If you are wary of using Hells profusely, The Nines has proven a good solid stand in that carries the same weight.

Scarlett uses arse and bugger rather regularly. As I say... it is my opinion... but I am fairly certain that whole list is acceptable.

As for Greenwood's list of actual swearing equivalents, I personally don't use them. This is just a preference (and a lack of being able to remember them). As far as I know, the staff has not outright banned them. They were omitted from the initial list in this thread as they were a bit more direct than the initial, overall goal. Unless DMs and Moderators say otherwise, those -might- be okay. My only other suggestion there would be, when someone asks, explain what they mean in a Tell, rather than out in the open, just to be on the safe side.

On another note... Poor Charraj. =P Charraj, gods bless the poor mage... has become synonymous with wizardly wrongs and magical mishaps of all shapes and sizes. But he's adorable regardless or so Scarlett thinks.

Wow Maecius... that list makes my notes look... inadequate. They do spectacular work at the Candlekeep site.

Hope that helps everyone!

[Deathgrowl]

If you are wary of using Hells profusely, The Nines has proven a good solid stand in that carries the same weight.

Neeshka in the Original Campaign says "Hells, hells, hells. Was that alright?" whenever she fails to open a lock or disarm a trap or whatever. One would thus think that using "hells" should be appropriate for the setting, yes?

I'm all for using "the nines", though.

[LeslieMS]

Hells is indeed perfectly appropriate. In fact it is far more proper than just Hell in this setting. (I secretly cringe when someone says hell in character, and have been amused by the clever responses when Scarlett asks: "Which one?" hehe) However, I've come across some who are a bit... queasy about the word Hell in any form. Hence the suggestion there as an alternative with the same implication

[Be The Leaf]

Darn them! Darn them all to heck!

Going too soft just sounds silly. But agreed, the F-Bomb is somewhat out of place, not only for the purposes of keeping our land of genocide, murder, and evil family-friendly, but also in terms of not fitting the setting.

[Hoihe]

"Why in the bloody 197th layer of abyss did that troll-faced ogre-spawn womaniser of a stinking cow think his grey cloak will bring him any closer to me?" *mutters*


- Calinde to Averëon about Arren Grey

[Hoihe]

Go to minute 7:00 and onwards for Shakespeare going full-contact verbal assault.

[burbles]

Calinde is such a charm

Even the Bhaalists looked surprised when the not-yet-saint Meri, in a fit of frustration and rage, spat out between clenched teeth and with clenched fists: "Damn these Bhaalist Bastards to the Nines!"

Isn't it perfectly alright to hate another church the more the sainter you are? ;p

I think (a) hell is not that bad, and I'd omit it for non-tiefling\pries\mage when possible too. "Damn" and it's equivalents, however, are absolutely essential for any character, but I don't see sound equivalents, yet.

[Ol' Kel]

Arse
Hells
Bloody
Bollocks
Bugger
Feck
Tosser
Twat
Wanker

To add on Lesie's wonderful vocabulary:

Kel's Guide to being an Obtrusive Bugger:

Gob shite - Ye smelly piece o' runny gob shite!
Fark (feck) - Farkin' kettlepot!
Blazes - What in in the bloody blazes!
Sodding - Ah, ye soddin' oaf!
Egads (ye gods) - Egads! Whut are ye doin'?!
Blooming - Bloomin' basterds, all o' ye!
Oaf - Yer an oaf!
Berk - Ye bloody berk!
Ejit (idiot) - Yer a worthless ejit!

Apparently my first word has been censored. Hm. Guess it is a little much?

[ohboy007]

Grrr, hate it when it doesn't post what i write...Ok I was just saying wouldn't there be a difference in the "foul" language used by commoners and rogues and those of the elites? Even the FR Goddess of the Sea is known as the "Bitch Queen" so is that word ok to use sparingly? I heard someone say that they thought it was funny to hear modern swears used in a more medieval setting but many of those swears do in fact come from a time even before the Dark Ages when Christianity piousness ruled. Shakespeare may have wrote for the commoner but his works still kept in mind the upper classes so I just wanted to have some peeps illuminate this for me. Don't want to break the rules of course. So give me your opinions you "yellow bellied knock knee'd dung trolls!" lol

An excerpt of what i ran across on ancient swearing:

There are two words on that list of Hebrew cuss words for bitch: zonna - (germbag), bitch; and kelba - bitch. While my linguistics are rusty, I believe that kelba is from a Semitic root word (klb -- kalb or kelb) for dog and the addition of the "a" at the end denotes a female = bitch, the classic definition that exists yet today in English and used in dog-breeding circles to designate a "female dog."

That got me to wondering - has BITCH always been a derogatory term for a female? Or was it corrupted somewhere along the line? Why would the ancient Semitic peoples use the term "female dog" in a derogatory sense as applied to human females, and when did this come about?

According to my trusty "The Woman's Eycyclopedia of Myths and Secrets" by Barbara Walker:

[Bitch] became a naughty word in Christian Europe because it was one of the most sacred titles of the Goddess, Artemis-Diana, leader of the Scythian alani or "hunting dogs." The Bitch-goddess of antiquity was known in all Indo-European cultures, beginning with the Great Bitch Sarama who led the Vedic dogs of death. The Old English word for a hunting dog, bawd, also became a naughty word because it applied to the divine Huntress's promiscuous prietesses as well as her dogs.(1)

Harlots and "bitches" were identified in the ancient Roman cult of the Goddess Lupa, the Wolf Bitch, whose priestesses the lupae gave their name to prostitutes in general.(2) Earthly representatives of the Wolf Bitch ruled the Roman town of Ira Flavia in Spain, as a queen or series of queens named Lupa.(3)

In Christian terms, "son of a bitch" was considered insulting not because it meant a dog, but because it meant a devil - that is, a spiritual son of the pagan Goddess.

[ohboy007]

Also there is a word for "(fun person) (fun person)" in Hebrew which i thought was kind of funny. Like really?! twice?! lol But this goes to show I believe that the ancients were more profane than even I believed at once. Still if these terms are a no go I'd just like to know. Also "feck" is one I always heard on all these RP servers i played on but is that really suitable here as well?

Ok, seems that word can not be used because when I typed the (s-word(ly) s-word) here it said "fun person" instead lol. But it's the s-word used for supposedly "loose women" which was a common insult back in the ancient biblical days.

[Managarn]

I think to call someone a dog was used as an insult way before. As a dog is not a person so you are essentially saying to someone, you are as worth as much as a dog or less than a human being. Bitch does mean a female dog and as such the term bitch to insult a woman could simply be to say shes a dog. It just doesnt sound as mmm poignant to call a woman a dog.

[scriver]

That honestly sounds like a load of crap. Artemis-Diana, the Scythian Goddess? Yeah, right. Not only are Artemis and Diana two separate deities (and from to separate pantheons - Greek and Roman religions were very similar, but not the same) and Diana, or Athena, had nothing to do with hunting; Scythians were animists, and they certainly didn't belong to the info-european tradition. It sounds to me, without having read the book of course, like the author just mashed together two independent female deities into a Goddess figure, then forced that Goddess onto a people best known for having female soldiers and possibly being the origin if the Amazonian myths. And then she tries to use this as the explanation for why "bitch" is a curseword in English, a culture that had nothing to do with Scythians, ever, even indirectly? Not working. While it's well known Christian missionaries demonised pagan symbols and deities to further the conversion, they did so with the local cultures. Having the Brits or Gauls or Germanians demonify a Scythian goddess symbol would make no sense.

No, there is a much more simple reason "bitch" is considered a curseword. All around the world, "dog" is considered one of the most ignoble animals and one of the gravest insults you can call another person. Female dogs are, of course, in the patriarchal societies consider even further below, not to mention that when they're in heat, they'll get mated with by every single male around - thus "bitch" became synonymous to being the (germbag) of the lowliest creature. "Son of a bitch" thus simply means "son of a woman that's been sleeping around (=(germbag))" and/or "somebody who can't be sure who his father is" (which was the only thing considered important in a patrilineal society, of course). Occham's Razor, people.

[Hoihe]

Bumpity bump so new players see it!

[Rainbow Prism]

Was 'leucrotta' added as swearing?

Originally name of monsters that populate regions of Dalelands and Silver Marshes, it's name became a swearing that was equal to show of anger, frustration, cursing at something going bad and so on.