{"id":141639,"date":"2019-12-25T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2019-12-25T18:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/?p=141639"},"modified":"2019-12-17T16:48:20","modified_gmt":"2019-12-17T21:48:20","slug":"on-cussing-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/12\/25\/on-cussing-2\/","title":{"rendered":"On Cussing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em>We\u2019re away until January 6, but we\u2019re reposting some of our favorite pieces from 2019. Enjoy your holiday!<\/em><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/duck2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-134958\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/duck2.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"850\" height=\"575\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/duck2.jpg 850w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/duck2-300x203.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/duck2-768x520.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (min-width: 62.5em) 67vw, 100vw\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>So. We cuss. Some of us cuss by saying <em>mercy me<\/em> or <em>suffering succotash<\/em>. I like to say <em>shooty-pooty<\/em>, which I learned from a nice Baltimore boy back in 1963. It\u2019s a Cub Scout version of <em>shitty-pity<\/em>, which is a cutesy diminutive for just plain <em>shit<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>This kind of substitution for a cuss word is what linguists call an <em>amelioration<\/em>. It softens the blow while still addressing the topic. This is not the same as a euphemism, by the way, which tries to evade or screen the subject. Americans are big on substitute amelioration. We invent thousands of them daily, it seems. <em>Darn<\/em> for <em>damn<\/em>, <em>gosh<\/em> for <em>God<\/em>. They often sound as though we started to say the taboo word but caught ourselves.<\/p>\n<p>Almost all of us have darker vocabularies if we\u2019re pushed. We all have strong vocal reactions to pain and surprise, to anger or fear. We often use the same language in response to the strong positive stimulus of pleasure or awe or humor. Cuss words and phrases, whatever they may be in our individual vocabularies, are the most potent words we have for expressing emotion.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/blog\/2019\/03\/26\/on-cussing\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read more &gt;&gt;<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Katherine Dunn argues the potency of a well-placed cuss.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1723,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60329],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-141639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-best-of-2019"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.4 (Yoast SEO v25.4) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>On Cussing by Katherine Dunn<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" 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