Innocent Swearing: Difference between revisions

== [[Literature]] ==

* The novel ''My Best Fiend'' had one chapter where the headmistress was cracking down on swearing at the school. When the main character's friend fell and got a nasty gash on her leg, and all the other kids were crowding round, she shouted "She can't move her bloody leg!" A variant, since she ''did'' know "bloody" was a swear, but that wasn't what she ''meant''; she meant the leg was covered in blood. She explained this to the headmistress, who agreed that [[Have a Gay Old Time|it was a shame perfectly good words]] ''[[Have a Gay Old Time|became]]'' [[Have a Gay Old Time|swears]].

* Two-year-old Friday Next in ''[[Thursday Next|Something Rotten]]'' learns naughty words (notably "bum", "bubbies", "arse" and "pikestaff" [[Foreign Looking Font|rendered in an Old English font]]) from St. Zvlkx. Thursday speaks as if she isn't certain what he said the first time he uses them, but the second time she tells her son, "If those are rude Old English words, St. Zvlkx is in a lot of trouble--and so are you, my little fellow."

* In [[The Jungle (Literature)|The Jungle]], little Antanas learns "God damn" and starts repeating it after his father reacts to his saying it with laughter.