Filthy English: The How, Why, When and What of Everyday Swearing by Peter SilvertonMy rating: 3 of 5 stars
Well researched etymological study of swearing in the English language that although full of interesting information (Tony Blair was fond of the "C" word apparently) becomes rather dull to read through due to often becoming essentially a list of the origins of foul-mouthed words - my 10 year old self would never have thought that swearing could be boring.
Structured differently this could have been much more successful; where Silverton moves away from listing words and talks about aspects like how quickly swear words lose (or gain - as with racial slurs) their power over time, censorship and how many of our swearwords have been imported (or at least bastardized) from overseas it's fascinating but a missed opportunity for the level of research that's gone into it.
View all my reviews
No comments:
Post a Comment