Why is the word "BASTARD" no longer used in legal contexts ?
459275
Because unfortunately we live in a world to politicly correct for its own good, im not a fat guy any more im horizontaly challenged, people arent stupid they are less than average, girls who sleep around are dirty they are attention deprived and so on and so on.....i say if they are a bastard you call it like you see it
1089802
I used to be the "arresting officer" and 'dude" or "man" were the more polite things people called me.\n\nTrust me, what you call a police officer does not affect him one way or another. He's heard it before.\n\nDon't misunderstand, some cops will use it as an excuse to jerk some guy's chain, but only because he wants to jerk chains, not because he cares what some drunk thinks.
966468
Probably the most used and common swear word is the F-Word (F**K). Many others as the M-Word (M*****F*****) derive or are complemented by the F-Word, and most of the others (like As*Ho*e) and (cu*t) have an actual meaning but have become swear words.\n\nSo, the only interesting one to research is the F-Word. Here some theories about its origins:\n\n1. The American Heritage Dictionary says its first known occurrence in English literature was in the satirical poem "Flen, Flyss" (c.1500), where it was not only disguised as a Latin word but encrypted - gxddbov - which has been deciphered as fuccant, pseudo-Latin for "they f**k."\n\n2. When doctors wrote a diagnostic notation on the documests of soldiers in the British Imperial Army reporting sick and found to have Sexual Transmitted Diseases., the abbreviation F.*.*.K. was stamped on his documents. It was short for "Found Under Carnal Knowledge."\n\n3. In the 15th Century, when a married couple needed permission from the king to procreate. Hence, "Fornication Under Consent of the King" (F.*.*.K.).\n\n4. May be an acronym of a law term used in the 1500s that referred to rape as "Forced Unnatural Carnal Knowledge" (F.*.*.K.).\n\n5. Referring to the charge for prostitution in England: "For Unlawful Carnal Knowledge (F.*.*.K.)."
1097116
The fighting-words doctrine was first articulated in Chaplinsky v. New Hampshire, 315 U.S. 568 (1942). Chaplinsky was convicted of violating a New Hampshire statute that prohibited the use of offensive, insulting language toward persons in public places after making several inflammatory comments to a city official. The Court, in upholding the statute as constitutional, set down those famous words: \n\nThere are certain well-defined and narrowly limited classes of speech, the prevention and punishment of which have never been thought to raise any constitutional problem. These include the lewd and obscene, the profane, the libelous, and the insulting or "fighting" words — those which by their very utterance inflict injury or tend to incite an immediate breach of the peace. It has been well observed that such utterances are no essential part of any exposition of ideas, and are of such slight social value as a step to truth that any benefit that may be derived from them is clearly outweighed by the social interest in order and morality.
957756
Usually when people write f**** you,  they would be using a coarse slang. They would use it as an intensive to express annoyance etc.
528391
Although I'm a firm believer in freedom of speech I find it quite disturbing that people don't have a problem with using this word in front of anybody, at any time.\nIt negates any sign of intelligence that you would not find it in your vocabulary to communicate disgust, anger and other emotions without resorting to a word that literally means fornicate or sexual intercourse. Aren't our brains a little more evolved than that?\nIf you want to use it, you have the right, but other people have the right NOT to hear it everywhere!
6498
ummm...they come from damnation which is a synonym for condemnation.  to damn is to condemn.  people use it but don't really know what it means.  when they say it, they're actually condemning the person to hell, or in the case of "goddamn" asking God to sentence the person to hell.  it truly is a curse on someone.\n\ni'm not sure when it was first used, but it would have started as a regular word used as "to condemn".  most likely, it was a religiously-affiliated word considering its topic of hell and God.
358389
It is Esq.  It stands for Esquire, and it used to mean the person was a landowner.  It is now appropriate to be used by both male and female lawyers.
949667
I think it's because the "n" word has historically been such an oppressive, negatively-charged word... it was used in a very derogatory way back when slavery and segregation were a normal part of life.  For white people to use the word in modern times is like giving a nod of approval to the way black people were treated back then.  Black people using racial slurs to refer to white people is still a bit unpleasant, but it doesn't have quite that same historical undertone to it.
1094818
Never heard of that one!! Despite spending even longer in England than pniccimiss!!\n\nBut there are always new slang terms evolving, so it may be in use among the 'yoof' of today!!\n; )\n\nIt's not an official or colloquial 'English' term though, but it could become one with frequent use!
538418
Not sure if this is what you mean, but there is a literary device called 'bathos', from the Greek for 'deep'.\nThis is used when someone speaking in a very formal register suddenly drops into a very coarse, informal register- usually slang. This is most commonly used for comic effect (arguably ...;-)). For example:\n\n"I resepectfully submit, Your Honour, that this reprobate be incarcerated for as long as the law will allow, as he is a complete dickwit"\n\nA very poor example and, yes, not funny; but you get the gist...
323764
"Bollocks" is a swear word meaning testicles in British English. The word is often used figuratively, most commonly as a noun to mean "nonsense" or as an expletive following a minor accident or misfortune, but also in a number of other ways; as an adjective to mean "poor quality" or "useless", and in various compound expressions (see below). Due to its versatility, bollocks has been called the Swiss Army Knife of andrological profanities.\n\nPerhaps the best-known international use of the term in this sense is in the title of a Sex Pistols album. Testimony in a resulting lawsuit over the "obscene" term demonstrated that in Old English the word referred to a priest, and could also be used to mean "nonsense" (see Never Mind the Bollocks, Here's the Sex Pistols for details).
403575
http://search.yahoo.com/search?ei=utf-8&fr=slv8-frz&p=history%20of%20the%20word%20%22divorce%22\n\nno one person...it simply evolved from Latin as most all our words do....and it did so stemming from the need to identify the act of when a marriage had to be dissolved...Unfortunatley there have arisen these "necessities" throughout the course of history due not only to marital misbehavior, but poor judgements in entering marriage....it's just sad, but that's my take on it.
100933
Its one of those scenarios where they obviously do not understand the terminology used on the net. Unfortunately not everyone has been around long enough to remember what was used last year even let alone 6 or 7 years back.\n\nDont worry about it. Seems to me they are just a bt sensitive and did not understand what you were actually saying.\n\nBtw, for those who dont know, check the link.
1061426
Absolutely.  It's rarely used, but can be uniquely effective in family court.  While describing your stupidity during marriage and one year prior to marriage, cite examples, consequences of your ignorance and poor judgment, and try to make references to other people - family, friends,work associates - who can support your claim of intollerable, irreversible stupidity, hence your asking the court to annul the marriage on the basis that you never gave much thought to the marriage in the first place and didn't realize it would turn out the way it did.  Whamo....it's annuled.
1150629
This is a hot topic today, considering the secularist attacks on some of our (U.S.) society's traditional practices...\n\nHowever, I believe most courts will allow you to swear in "...under penalty of perjury" as opposed to "...so help you God."
888755
I'd say quite the opposite in fact. Rude Brittania came about because young people became too wise to the PC brigade who had given them the impression through constant exposure in the media that they mattered above anything else and that nobody could even look at them the wrong way no matter what they did. I believe it started out with the childline campaign of the late 80's where children got wise to the fact that if their parents told them off or smacked them for doing something wrong, they could ring up this service and get their parents in trouble. It was the right-thinking parents and elder members of society that therefore lost their 'freedom of speech' to chastise these tearaways and because they were not punished the kids then grew up doing whatever they wanted to do without thought for the consequences of their actions.