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Filthy English: The How, Why, When and What of Everyday Swearing
When the Sex Pistols swore live on tea-time telly in 1976, there was outrage across Britain. Headlines screamed. Christians marched. TVs were kicked in. Thirty years on, all those words are media-mainstream - bandied about with impunity on TV and in the papers. This is the story of our bad language and its three-decade journey from the fringes of decency to the working centre of a more linguistically liberal nation. Silverton takes a clear, comprehensive and witty look at swearing and the impact of its new acceptability on our language, our manners and our society. He considers how we have become more openly emotional, yet more wary about insulting others. And how it's seemingly become alright to say **** and **** but not ****** or ****. This is the story of that cultural revolution, written by one who was there at the start, proudly striking some of the first blows in the long struggle for the right to reclaim filthy English and use it.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published December 1, 2009
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Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews
August 10, 2017
I am not quite sure what this book wants to be. For a serious linguistic paper, it is not in-depth enough and relies too much on anecdotal evidence and not enough on actual research. For a typical popular science book that is supposed to appeal to people with no previous knowledge of linguistics, it is far too dry and consists of too many lists. There are just long lists of dates detailing which dictionary added which swear word when and even longer lists of what different things mean in other languages.
Those lead to another problem. I can obviously only judge the German ones but what the author claims is just wrong. In one chapter he writes that Fünf gegen Einen (Five against One) was German slang for masturbation. I never heard that one and a quick survey among my (online)friends brought no results either. It’s possibly something regional or (more likely) terribly out of date but it’s definitely nothing as omnipresent as the English wanking to which he compares it (that would be wichsen just in case you need to know). Later he describes Schweinehund (pig-dog) as one of the worst German swears which again is wrong. It can be used as an insult but rarely is (your “inner pig-dog” is that voice that tells you that you rather stay lazily at home and watch TV instead of doing sports or some work). I can’t say much about the other languages – except that he has the oddest way to explain Russian spelling and I only understood it because I re-read the passage repeatedly and knew enough Russian to eventually get what he was trying to say – but it does not give me much confidence that the passages on other languages are better. It is understandable that it might not be that easy to find native speakers who are happy to talk about swearing but I’m wondering anyway why a book that’s called Filthy English needs that much information about non-English swearing.
Now I am trusting the author to at least know his own language so I won’t question the claims he makes about English and one could simply ignore everything about foreign languages. However, that still leaves you with a quite boring book. As mentioned a lot of it are just lists of the first appearances of various words in print (which is actually somewhat interesting) and very extensive lists of which dictionaries first printed fuck or wanker when (which really isn’t at least not in that much detail). The stories about how people reacted to the first fuck etc. in a newspaper, on TV or on a record again are quite intriguing but the author’s personal anecdotes about his experiences with swearing are mostly too drawn out (and full of self-important name-dropping).
DNF at 60% .
Those lead to another problem. I can obviously only judge the German ones but what the author claims is just wrong. In one chapter he writes that Fünf gegen Einen (Five against One) was German slang for masturbation. I never heard that one and a quick survey among my (online)friends brought no results either. It’s possibly something regional or (more likely) terribly out of date but it’s definitely nothing as omnipresent as the English wanking to which he compares it (that would be wichsen just in case you need to know). Later he describes Schweinehund (pig-dog) as one of the worst German swears which again is wrong. It can be used as an insult but rarely is (your “inner pig-dog” is that voice that tells you that you rather stay lazily at home and watch TV instead of doing sports or some work). I can’t say much about the other languages – except that he has the oddest way to explain Russian spelling and I only understood it because I re-read the passage repeatedly and knew enough Russian to eventually get what he was trying to say – but it does not give me much confidence that the passages on other languages are better. It is understandable that it might not be that easy to find native speakers who are happy to talk about swearing but I’m wondering anyway why a book that’s called Filthy English needs that much information about non-English swearing.
Now I am trusting the author to at least know his own language so I won’t question the claims he makes about English and one could simply ignore everything about foreign languages. However, that still leaves you with a quite boring book. As mentioned a lot of it are just lists of the first appearances of various words in print (which is actually somewhat interesting) and very extensive lists of which dictionaries first printed fuck or wanker when (which really isn’t at least not in that much detail). The stories about how people reacted to the first fuck etc. in a newspaper, on TV or on a record again are quite intriguing but the author’s personal anecdotes about his experiences with swearing are mostly too drawn out (and full of self-important name-dropping).
DNF at 60% .
January 15, 2013
The cover makes this look like it's gonna be the light-hearted, bite-sized sort of non-fiction that I read when my brain can't take fiction and I just want to learn something without trying too hard. It's not. It's quite an academic work, with a lot of detail and a lot of footnotes -- I don't know what someone who actually does linguistics would think of it, but for me (a lowly literature postgrad student) it was kind of boring after a while. As far as I can tell it's well-researched, but it's not exactly light-hearted.
July 4, 2023
Couldn’t be arsed to finish it
Too long and boring, if the author wanted to write an autobiography he should’ve done it separately
Too long and boring, if the author wanted to write an autobiography he should’ve done it separately
Read
March 8, 2017I didn't finish this book because it was a) very long and b) there were incessant amounts of profanity (which I was ready for, just not the weight with which the history of everyday curses came). Nevertheless, it made me think about the words which today, we take for granted, but back then they were still evolving and changing and it strikes me to know that it's not some random teenage kid who invented a word which exploded over the internet because that's all that seems to be happening these days when it comes to new words! :P Anyway, if you like history and cursing, this is the book for you!
August 19, 2012
Haven't even gotten past the intro and I'm loving this book already. I mean even the intro title has a footnote!
Besides I really really like linguistic anthropology.
So far the only downside to this book is over saturation. I can't sit down and read it in one go as much as I would like to do so.
The language is clear, the writing funny and engaging but material does require occasional breaks.
I'd recommend it to anyone interested in how our primary mode of communication has evolved even the gutter part of it.
Besides I really really like linguistic anthropology.
So far the only downside to this book is over saturation. I can't sit down and read it in one go as much as I would like to do so.
The language is clear, the writing funny and engaging but material does require occasional breaks.
I'd recommend it to anyone interested in how our primary mode of communication has evolved even the gutter part of it.
February 26, 2015
Fuck, I fucking enjoyed this fucking book. As a fucking round up and general bastarding history of swearing it really was the shit.
June 24, 2020
You have to admire how the authors name and the title of the book have been relegated to the spine in order that the front cover be filled with swear words. Unfortunately the contents aren't as good as the cover. It's only alright. I did finish the book thinking that the author would be someone that I'd enjoy going for a drink with.
June 19, 2017
What the fuck..
This is an excellent introduction into linguistics and my interest in this has now been increased. I found some really interesting things contained in this book which is very well written, informative and very funny.
This is an excellent introduction into linguistics and my interest in this has now been increased. I found some really interesting things contained in this book which is very well written, informative and very funny.
January 3, 2022
Ok book about swearing across all languages but far too long
August 24, 2015
Linguist here, and btw that is the discrete (not "discreet") word for folks who study the bits that make up language, multi-lingual people are more correctly called polyglots. First sentence of the review and I'm correcting something from an early chapter. You can guess how this one is going to go.
This is riddled with errors, at times it seems like the author would do almost anything to stop facts getting in the way of yet another of his music-biz pals' anecdotes.
Many basic facts are wrong, anecdotes are given as supporting evidence for all manner of things, and the book drags itself along from one anecdote, through multiple digressions, to another anecdote and so on.
There is very little in the way of structure (yeah, there are chapters, but the chapters themselves are a bit all over the map, internally) and his segues are a little baffling.
If ever there was a book in dire need of a strict editor and some rigorous philological fact-checking, it's this one.
How can a book about the swearingest swears that were ever sworn be such a trial to get through?
Tl;dr: I wanted this to be a fun read, but it wasn't. It isn't accurate either.
This is riddled with errors, at times it seems like the author would do almost anything to stop facts getting in the way of yet another of his music-biz pals' anecdotes.
Many basic facts are wrong, anecdotes are given as supporting evidence for all manner of things, and the book drags itself along from one anecdote, through multiple digressions, to another anecdote and so on.
There is very little in the way of structure (yeah, there are chapters, but the chapters themselves are a bit all over the map, internally) and his segues are a little baffling.
If ever there was a book in dire need of a strict editor and some rigorous philological fact-checking, it's this one.
How can a book about the swearingest swears that were ever sworn be such a trial to get through?
Tl;dr: I wanted this to be a fun read, but it wasn't. It isn't accurate either.
February 18, 2010
Swearing is a universal phenomenon. The delivery, meaning, intent, and pitch maybe vary – some mouthing a silent “fiddlesticks”; others erupting with a string of expletives so incomprehensible it’s difficult to discern the meaning, though the intent will likely be clear – but we all do it to a greater or lesser extent.
This is the subject of Peter Silverton’s Filthy English. From the figurative communion wafers Spaniards hurl at each other, the Yugoslavian “march on your mother’s Chinese cunt”, and Yapese “You have no foreskin”, to the many flavours, colours, and textures of genitalia, Silverton investigates the ways people find to insult each other.
It’s an exhaustive piece of research that, as a textbook of linguistic and cultural curios works well. What it lacks is humour. It could have been an entertaining romp through the break from social niceties that swearing represents, but instead is more a repetitive tome of infinitesimal detail.
This is the subject of Peter Silverton’s Filthy English. From the figurative communion wafers Spaniards hurl at each other, the Yugoslavian “march on your mother’s Chinese cunt”, and Yapese “You have no foreskin”, to the many flavours, colours, and textures of genitalia, Silverton investigates the ways people find to insult each other.
It’s an exhaustive piece of research that, as a textbook of linguistic and cultural curios works well. What it lacks is humour. It could have been an entertaining romp through the break from social niceties that swearing represents, but instead is more a repetitive tome of infinitesimal detail.
August 24, 2014
Highly inaccurate. I didn't realize that until I got to the point where the author organized Polish swearwords hierarchically from the most to the least offensive- basing this organization on a conversation he had with one of his friends. Whoa. That's now how you make linguistic generalizations.
Also, I didn't like the style, which is too anecdotal for my taste. The digressions are so far-fetched that sometimes it's difficult to see the relationship between the digression and the topic it is supposed to be related to. Moreover, the book is often offensive, being based on prejudice and national stereotypes.
Although I have to admit that at some points it was funny, on the whole I didn't enjoy it. If you are interested in the topic, Encyclopedia of Swearing would give you a better insight (though admittedly it's not as entertaining).
Also, I didn't like the style, which is too anecdotal for my taste. The digressions are so far-fetched that sometimes it's difficult to see the relationship between the digression and the topic it is supposed to be related to. Moreover, the book is often offensive, being based on prejudice and national stereotypes.
Although I have to admit that at some points it was funny, on the whole I didn't enjoy it. If you are interested in the topic, Encyclopedia of Swearing would give you a better insight (though admittedly it's not as entertaining).
May 26, 2014
While rather interesting for quite some long passages, the never-ending lists of variations of swear words and the dates when certain words were publicised first made me skip through it at points. I feel that keeping the book shorter would've done it quite some good. As a speaker of German and Japanese, the continuing errors not only annoyed me, but also made me question the accuracy of information in general. Bad research and fact-checking meant I couldn't quite trust other facts the author claimed.
To cut it short, the book just felt extremely long and I'm happy I've made it through.
To cut it short, the book just felt extremely long and I'm happy I've made it through.
September 26, 2013
The parts about this book that actually talked about swearing were interesting - they covered etymology, why we swear, international curses, censorship and all sorts of expletive filled entries. I was frequently irritated, however, by the author's habit of digressing either to cover something totally irrelevant to the subject or to offer up his own autobiographical experiences in far too much detail. So the book lost a star for the inability of Silverton to stick to the fucking subject.
April 6, 2014
This turned out to be a different book from the one I expected, but an excellent one all the same. I was expecting more about the etymology and history do swearing, though that might have made quite a slim volume. But Silverton does a great job of examining differences in swearing across cultures, and has a really interesting discussion of the purposes of swearing, of why humans swear and why swearing is an important human function.
March 10, 2014
Excellent exploration of what swear words are, their history and how we interact and use them and how they vary (or not) between different cultures and languages.
Written with humour and personal experience, it might even make you think differently about how you swear...
**Warning: may contain strong language**
Written with humour and personal experience, it might even make you think differently about how you swear...
**Warning: may contain strong language**
February 8, 2016
Great idea, poorly executed. It's not easy to combine academic study with filth, and there's no shame in coming up short here, but I did find myself wondering if it would have been better to just publish a f****** spreadsheet of the words.
That said: the story of the phrase 'friends of Dorothy' and the US Navy was very entertaining.
That said: the story of the phrase 'friends of Dorothy' and the US Navy was very entertaining.
Want to read
February 9, 2013I haven't read it yet, but I am compelled to post this picture while waiting for my review ;-)
http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w...
http://i1079.photobucket.com/albums/w...
June 1, 2014
seemed entertaining and interesting at first, but the sheer number of (easily avoidable) errors in examples from the german language made me completely lose trust in the research quality. still useful if you want to improve the quality of your english cursing, i suppose.
December 30, 2016
Silverton looks at changing social mores and attitudes towards 'naughty' words in English. This was funny and fascinating. I don't think many people realise the origins of some of the seemingly innocent words we use today.
Read
August 7, 2011An hilarious, thoughtful and revealing diversion through the life and times of 'bad language'. Hilarious, thought-provoking and utterly human.
October 8, 2011
Fun despite the author's penchant for folk etymologies.
August 30, 2012
Interesting and entertaining. Reccomend!
January 5, 2014
First book of my 'book a week' project for 2014. Interesting, informative and unsurprisingly quite rude. By the end I was a
Title sick of swear words!
Title sick of swear words!
May 19, 2014
My god was I glad to finish this! Some very interesting facts, but all surrounded by waffle and boring anecdotes. One to avoid.
May 14, 2015
I read this to chuckle. I did chuckle. I didnt read it to learn how to swear in other languages, however I did enjoy some of their funny swears I learned
August 8, 2016
A good read for all those who like swearing and where the word came from
Displaying 1 - 27 of 27 reviews