This. People who swear do it so frequently it looses the power. It shows a lack of vocabulary more than any sort of moral failing. If you only swear rarely you get a lot more impact when you do, vs. the person who cannot avoid every 3rd word being a blue one.

Also, there are some truly eloquent swears out there!

Words are vulgar because they are overused.

It's the original definition of "vulgar" - "characteristic of or belonging to the masses." Hence, it became taboo for the upper classes to utter vulgarities, because it signaled lack of learning.

TV Tropes has an article on that: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PrecisionFStrike

Contrast: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClusterFBomb

Yup, some people swear so much it becomes a stop- or filler word, padding out a sentence unnecessarily.

I mean you could insert a variation of "fuck" half a dozen times in the above sentence and it would add nothing of value to it.

Emphasis.

Am I suggesting you should do this with all your sentences? Absolutely not. However, I would certainly not read the two sentences the same.

(Food for thought: spices do not generally add nutritional value to food. Yet, each has their own preference as to whether, and how heavily their food should be spiced.)

> It shows a lack of vocabulary more than any sort of moral failing.

Here, now, I call nonsense on that one. I (probably?) swear more than most of my friends in private, casual communication circles. I also have a much greater vocabulary than any of them (this is not hubris --- I'm frequently told to explain words I use; I chalk this up to being better-read throughout my life). It just doesn't follow that because a person favors certain words, that they must not understand or feel comfortable with others.

I don't think vulgar goes along with basic, the four letter, Germanic versions of fornicate and defecate have a whole range of varied, nuanced, often contradictory meanings that capture the irreducible complexity of lived experience.

The Latin derived versions just make everything so bloodless, so focused on one particular aspect of the concept. They really are the simple words, even if they have more letters.

What many people consider the strongest English vulgarity is derived from the Latin cunnus.

I'm amazed at British TV shows even whimsical gameshows where everyone swears like a sailor. But when someone dares to say the "c word" it's bleeped and everyone gasps.

I recall that the c-word used to be common too, then the idea that it was "the female n-word" was imported from the US.

As someone who has an Australian friend, the avoidance of that word is definitely not universal.

But not so much in the UK, right?

That's a good point!

I meant basic in the lowbrow/highbrow sense, not with regards to complexity, but I understand your point.