Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever

This book starts off with a pretty hilarious story about Babe Ruth's parents, and a surprisingly explicit legal document that serves as both a record of an event, and an example of early profanity. There are interesting little stories like this throughout the book, and I was often surprised at the origins and history of some of these words. The book focuses on eleven specific words, as McWhorter discusses how each of them have evolved, and how their impact has changed over time.An interesting fact that McWhorter points out in the Introduction, is that most language seems to originate from the left side of the brain, while curse words are generated by the right side. McWhorter explains that in PET scans you can see the activity in these different sides of the brain, and only profanity seems to light up the right side of the brain. This really highlights how these words are different from normal language, not just socially, but subconsciously and biologically.I enjoyed reading this book, and learning about the history of parts of our language from a linguist that approaches these topics with a refreshing combination of humor and scientific rigor. Any time I can read something that allows me to laugh and learn at the same time, I feel like it was time well spent.

Thank you to Penguin Random House for the advanced readers copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.You can tell when authors are having a grand old time. John McWhorter is having as much fun writing about the linguistics and etymology of profane words in American English as Stephen Fry is having writing about mythology, and it shows. “Nine Nasty Words” is positively playful. Not sexy, not shocking (most of the time), just playful.In tracing how people speak certain words, you get a lot of insights into shifts in culture and into timeless human nature. No one delights in this like McWhorter, as devotees of his “Lexicon Valley” podcast already know.Where do profane words come from? How and why do they become profane? Why do they morph into acceptable use over time and go from salty to bland to ridiculous? Why does every language have them? McWhorter will cross into philosophy, sociology, psychology, history (of course), and many other social sciences to answer this question, peppering the text with generous citations from the history of written English, along with a dizzying number of references to more than a century of popular entertainment.In middle English, McWhorter points out, references to body parts and bodily functions were no more profane than references to housewares. When you could take a s____ in a corner of the stairwell, or had no option but to f____ in a room full of family members, these things were not shocking, nor were the terms for them. Post-Renaissance, and with the rise of religion and modesty, these words evolved into profanity with the advent of privacy and hygiene. This ended the long era when inviting God to damn someone to hell was breathtakingly horrible and not fit for innocent ears. F____ and s_____ rose to power.Broadly, McWhorter shows us, the worst kind of profanity in English evolved from being about religion, to being about the body, to being aimed at groups of people. Using the “N-word” (and McWhorter even traces the beginnings of how it became referred to as the “n-word”) will now excuse you from polite society in a tsunami of tweets. Black English is different in the way that it reclaims the “N-word” and has shaped it possibly into a different term altogether, and McWhorter lays it all out brilliantly in concise arguments that make perfect sense.The book ventures pretty far into the linguistic and grammatical weeds, so if “you’re not into that s__” you may want to give it a miss. Despite its subject matter, this is a scholarly book, with excellent footnotes and endnotes. For example, McWhorter draws a distinction between “I saw her a ___” and “I saw that s____” in the neutral dismissive reflexive in actual use, which delighted this reader to no end. Buy "Nine Nasty Words" for the language lover or grammar snob in your life, especially if they cuss like a sailor.

Last night Dr. McWhorter did an amazing interview on Bill Maher's show; this morning I read this wonderful book, and I can't recommend it highly enough! Delightfully smart and surprising and often quite funny. (And "earthy," as you can imagine!) Such a pleasure to read...

McWhorter's book is erudite; jovial,interesting,hilarious--a reminder that we can laugh, learn from a brilliant scholar--and read something that makes us feel hopeful. How is a book esoteric, and relevant to all of us? McWhorter gives us a history lesson; he uses eclectic references to explain why our grandma swearing is hilarious.

Book is great. but the package was left by the mailbox at the curb where anyone could walk off with it. Nothing I have ordered(and I have ordered plenty) was left at the street. This should never happen again!

As a devout listener of "Lexicon Valley," I could easily hear the author's words in my mind, even though I read the Kindle edition. Part of that was because a decent amount of the book had already been covered on the podcast in the past year, or as content directly linked to the book. He just loves this stuff, and it shows.I appreciated that he did not duck from the literal words themselves, and that he has what to me seems like an open mind of when things are ok (e.g., variations on the n-word in certain circumstances), and when current standards say no. A key thread through the book is how standards have changed, sometimes quickly, and how the words themselves have changed. On his podcast, he often traces the evolution of a word from its roots and through way stations over the centuries. He does that quite a bit here, too.A simple example that appears multiple times is how some terms that were at one point tagged to women or non-entities (think of that bundle of sticks) became associated with weakness in men and then gay men. Modest scholarship such as that adds greatly to understanding.If you liked the book and don't follow Lexicon Valley, try it!

It's not every day that one can say they have a favorite linguist, but McWhorter has long been mine. I don't know how he manages to be informative and entertaining at the same time, even with what some may consider the driest material. This book is controversial, but it's also necessary, especially in today's fractured society.I'd love to be able to give some examples, e.g., the names of some lords of the English countryside in the Middle Ages, but I'd be censored and possibly excoriated for doing so. Just read it yourself--you'll learn far more than you might expect, and laugh your (fill-in-the-blank) off.

A supremely thoughtful and objective and, at the same time, playful flyover of how rude words have evolved..Get it!

After seeing the author interviewed on Colbert and by Seth Myers, and knowing his previous work, I had high hopes for a witty romp through a smutty swamp. Unfortunately, apparently as a way to appease the easily offended (why would they be reading this book to start with?), McWhorter resorts to a sort of grating folksiness, and a textual tic—the frequent insertion of "well"—that's, well, pretty effing annoying. And on a production note, this is the cheapest- quality hardback I have ever seen. The page stock seems almost to be newsprint, and the dimensions are extraordinarily small. For the price paid, an all-around letdown.

John Mcwhorter is a stylist with an exquisite sense of humour and a highly competent linguist who knows how to adapt his writing to his public. His study of salty or salacious taboo words could almost be read as a parody of academic endeavors in etymology. His text is highly informative and funny at the same time, even if a non-native speaker may have to read some passages twice. Continental Europeans tend to refrain from obscenity less than they used to. There are no bleeps on four-letter words, but I wonder if educated speakers of French or German would not think twice before calling certain spades a spade in so-called polite society. Did the nickname „les goddams“ (or was it a late-medieval slur?) announce an Anglo-Saxon propensity for strong language ?

I really enjoyed seeing McWherter on Bill Maher's show!! His book is amusing too!!

McWhorter is great and this book is a lot of fun and very interesting.