Coño is an example of a swear word in Spain that has been de-semanticized - ie it is no longer a vulgar c word. Cacking was invented and semanticised from day one as a profanity suitable for British TV; and hostia, the innocent holy communion wafer, has taken on a vulgar meaning in conversational catholic Spanish. Go figure the wonders of semantics!

De-semanticise coño

In real English, de-semanticised means that words that were once profane, have become shadows of their former insulting selves.

If you ask an 18 to 80 year old male what coño means literally, they will probably smile and say the c word. 18 to 80 women will either blush and tell you not to be so rude, or point to a patch down south. A grandma will slap your face!

In Spain you will hear everyone, from toreador to toddler utter the word coño, a sort of cross between exasperation and bloody hell. It is amazing how those 4 letters were a complete taboo for hundreds of years, but have been incorporated into the everyday language of innocence today.

Semanticised - hostia and bollocks

On the opposite side of the profanity coin, simple, innocent words can be made vulgar!

Hostia which, in Spanish, is literally the wafer at a communion, is nowadays incorporated into every working man's conversation on every building site and in every bar in Spain. It is hard to translate its meaning exactly, because the tone and emphasis of a word makes a big difference in meaning in conversation. Let's just say the biscuit has given way to the bastard.

On a similar vein, in the 70's, The Sex Pistols released an album, Never Mind the Bollocks. Their record company probably did their homework better than the civil liberties people who tried to get the title banned for being offensive. According to the judge, the Anglo Saxon b word is per se, not rude at all, it is good old English. It is only well spoken poorly educated civil liberties folks in the 20th century who saw it that way. ie the "good guys" semanticised the innocent word into an oath.

Invented swear words - cacking

Last on this linguistic list, in a category, (or is it a world), all of their own, we find made-up swear words. Cacking is a weird English word, because popular mythology says it was an expletive invented for TV - cacking crap TV at that!

There is an horrendous soap opera set in Liverpool, called Brookside. It was baaaaad. In order to convey the Liverpudlian propensity to swear, without getting the program banned, the writers came up with a supposed substitute for fucking. So, Cacking hell, mate, wa sa abou' ? spoken with venom, was rude and threatening on TV but not in real life.

The program's catch phrase should have been, Brookside is fucking crap, and it should have been taken off the air in a blink, but instead, they insisted on cacking well pimping the culture of a dockland city with about as much class as a cacking turnip.

How to swear politely

When you next decide to insult someone bigger than you, try a new approach. You cacking gollicker will not get you punched in the mouth, but it will make you feel good when venting your spleen. Win-win, coño!

If you have any thoughts on such a rudely educational post, please fire away with comments and posts.