[HN Gopher] Cuss: Map of profane words to a rating of sureness
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Cuss: Map of profane words to a rating of sureness
Author : tosh
Score : 52 points
Date : 2025-05-31 10:18 UTC (2 days ago)
(HTM) web link (github.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
| CSMastermind wrote:
| It's certainly an interesting data set, though it has no concept
| of severity. As far as I can tell, "doodoo" is the same as some
| racial slurs: we're 100% certain they're bad words.
| swah wrote:
| If I type the word 'doodoo' I'm pretty sure I'm not swearing...
| Most probably telling someone about baby sounds.
| mdaniel wrote:
| oh, it's about baby _something_ but that sentence didn 't end
| the way I thought it would
| kps wrote:
| Baby shark, shitshitshit.
|
| Baby shark, shitshitshit.
|
| Baby shark!
|
| https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/10/06/oklaho.
| ..
| Blackarea wrote:
| Could have been in a language agnostic format (eg. csv)
| weinzierl wrote:
| I think the value add here is being a software package. The
| lists exist elsewhere and the package authors supplied sources.
| If you really need a combined list it should be trivial to
| generate it from the code.
| blueflow wrote:
| Typical cuss filter UX:
|
| _types something in live chat_
|
| _some random word from the sentence gets censored out_
|
| "Why did this just got censored out?"
|
| _check urban disctionary_
|
| "Why?????"
|
| Bonus points if its regular ethnonyms that are classified as
| profanities, so people from that place are having big trouble to
| tell where they are from.
| donatj wrote:
| I have vivid memories of Digg back in the day censoring out
| absolutely baffling things in the middle of otherwise regular
| words.
| genewitch wrote:
| Go gently caress yourself
| DrillShopper wrote:
| That was Something Awful unless you were logged in
| sgerenser wrote:
| Wow, how embarrbutting
| PaulHoule wrote:
| Was really amused to see that a paper had English's most
| prominent profane word in it's abstract on arXiv last month for
| the first time:
|
| https://arxiv.org/search/?query=fuck&searchtype=all&source=h...
|
| though somebody did slip in a use in a comment earlier.
| donatj wrote:
| Something we have had to deal with in managing educational
| software with a writing aspect is trying to manage what is
| offensive to who, in what context and where is not universal at
| all.
|
| One of the most prime examples, at one point a number of terms
| related to homosexuality had made it onto the list at the request
| of a larger district. These are also terms that are being
| reclaimed, and it was... a difficult problem to try to satisfy
| everyone, and it did upset other districts. I believe their
| patterns were all but removed eventually.
|
| We have a fought over the list of definitions and every change
| provoked controversy. Our current solution is just that we mark
| items for teacher review but don't tell them why. We don't say
| they are offensive, we don't say what the problematic words are.
| We just say it might need review. That's worked pretty well so
| far.
|
| All this is to say, policing speech is a problem best avoided.
| morkalork wrote:
| I worked in completely different field and I had to give up on
| flagging any variations of "shit". Turns out there's working-
| class boomers will utter some form or another in every other
| sentence. Nothing harmful just like "my brother is full of
| horse shit", "my job is bullshit".
| bee_rider wrote:
| "Shit" is pretty good because it is crass but not offensive
| (in the sense that it doesn't target any particular group).
| And of course it describes a lot of what's happening
| nowadays.
| gherkinnn wrote:
| Shitty to limit the use of shit to working-class boomers.
| kps wrote:
| I'm post-boomer, but let me tell you, shit's still fucked.
| bee_rider wrote:
| Unfortunately, whether or not a term is really offensive is a
| combination of what it is, who said it, and when/where (at
| least in the common-sense definition). Unfortunately, because
| this is directly opposed to our (at least in the US, and in
| most countries rooted in liberalism) sense of fairness which
| says that rules should be applicable universally, across all
| people and in all contexts.
|
| Which is to say... policing speech is a problem best avoided!
| DrillShopper wrote:
| > Unfortunately, because this is directly opposed to our (at
| least in the US, and in most countries rooted in liberalism)
| sense of fairness which says that rules should be applicable
| universally, across all people and in all contexts.
|
| The US is not even internally consistent about this - the
| legal definition of obscenity in the US is deferential to
| local community standards.
| bee_rider wrote:
| There's internal inconsistency because different
| communities have different special issues that get us to
| violate our basic principles.
| weinzierl wrote:
| Good to know that _" This package is safe."_
|
| When it comes to security, the only thing that beats warm fuzzy
| words are shiny security seals.
| mdaniel wrote:
| I legit thought this said "... rating of _success_ " meaning how
| likely the project was to be successful on some metric based on
| the profane words therein. I recall there was a study(?) akin to
| that for the Linux kernel, as a frame of reference
| genewitch wrote:
| Was it something like FPC where the PC was per commit?
| smitelli wrote:
| Never realized the "chunky" in my chunky peanut butter was so
| profane. /s
| tgv wrote:
| Where does the rating come from? Do you understand what all those
| words mean? It looks like you copied someone's rather subjective
| opinion. Because e.g. "bollo" and "caliente" aren't inherently
| profane in Spanish. Or do people think the hot water tap is
| leering at them? "Oye, tia, que caliente qu'et-ta!"
| pimlottc wrote:
| "Sureness" is a not really a word, I had to read through to
| understand what they meant. "Certainty" or "confidence" would be
| clearer.
| articulatepang wrote:
| Sureness is most certainly a word! It has been used by writers
| of the stature of Emerson ("the law holds with equal sureness
| for all right action") and Edith Wharton (""The moment the
| reader loses faith in the author's sureness of foot the chasm
| of improbability gapes.")
|
| It used to mean "certainty", as when T. H. Howard writes,
| "Uncertainty about our religious condition is quite as
| unsatisfactory as any doubt about our most sacred domestic
| relationships. Sureness is vital to peace, and the truly
| sanctified soul will live in the region of certainty."
|
| But in more modern usage the word has a connotation slightly
| different from what the author of this library intends. Its
| meaning is closer to "assuredness": confidence matched with
| ability. For example, "Proust had an incredible sureness of
| touch in shedding this prophetic ray on his characters." (again
| from Edith Wharton).
| pimlottc wrote:
| Point taken. It's not really a common word in modern usage,
| and probably not really the word the author wants here.
| bitcurious wrote:
| Based on a list of (in part) profane words which includes:
|
| addict africa amateur american angry arab
| Aachen wrote:
| I assume this is meant as criticism, but to be fair to the
| list, it classifies 5 out of these 6 as 0, which apparently
| means {Use as a profanity = unlikely, Use in clean text =
| likely}, and the 6th one (addict) is a 'maybe' on both scales
| which seems fair to me: wouldn't a respectful source speak of
| addict _ion_ , addict _ive_ substances, people who are addict
| _ed_ , etc.?
|
| From just this short list and a handful of other words I looked
| at, they seem to have done a reasonable job of classifying
| them, even if I see other issues such as completeness and what
| even is the purpose
| jollyllama wrote:
| "Beaver" unlikely to be used in profanity, eh?
| Night_Thastus wrote:
| Pretty unlikely. I can't remember the last time I heard anyone
| use it aside from talking about the actual animal it refers to.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| It is a bit dated as slang in 2025.
| bsimpson wrote:
| I caught that too. Interesting set of examples. I can think of
| a profane use of beaver immediately, but not a unvalenced use
| of "asshat."
| brookst wrote:
| I think it was an intentional and good example to demonstrate
| that 0 means unlikely, not impossible.
| Aachen wrote:
| It seems to require specifying all spelling variants of a word
| https://github.com/words/cuss/blob/6bab3fef250481e34ba55bc40...
|
| And then fails to do that for words that are not uncommonly
| written with a space
| https://github.com/words/cuss/blob/6bab3fef250481e34ba55bc40...
|
| Making this a complete list will probably be a challenge when it
| needs to be a byte-for-byte match
| thuanao wrote:
| Somewhat related: What is with the rampant cursing nowadays? In
| the US people are openly saying f-word in professional settings,
| in public to strangers or acquaintances, in writing and video...
| seemingly everywhere even in calm normal conversations.
|
| I don't remember it being like this decades ago. Is it just me? I
| remember people used to curse only in private conversation, when
| angry, and never at the office in meetings and professional
| contexts.
| SamBam wrote:
| Yeah, there's been a pretty big generational shift, I think
| mostly from GenZ. I'd posit that texting/social media may be a
| reason.
|
| I first went to grad school ~20 years ago, and no one cursed in
| class, especially not the professors.
|
| I recently went back to school and got another masters, and
| nearly all the mid-20-year-olds drop f-bombs in regular
| classroom talk to the professor constantly, like they don't
| even hear that they're doing it. Some professors don't mind,
| and even respond in kind (though much more self-consciously),
| some are clearly displeased, but the students barely notice.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| Yes it's particularly prevalent in the under-30 crowd, and
| especially people under 25. I don't know about teens, not
| around them very much these days.
|
| Don't get me wrong, I used that word plenty when I was that
| age, but only among peers in informal settings. Never at work
| or when talking to a person in a respected position.
| bigstrat2003 wrote:
| It's not just you, and I would say that there seems to have
| been a general coarsening of society. The other day I saw
| someone with a bumper sticker saying "I pooped today", which I
| did find funny, but I reflected that it never would've been
| socially acceptable 30 years ago or so. People seem to have
| rejected the idea that some things are not acceptable to
| discuss or display openly. See for example "let your freak flag
| fly" and so on.
|
| There are pros and cons to it, I suppose. I don't think it's
| bad for gay people to be out of the closet, for example. But I
| also find stuff like the rampant swearing* or "I pooped today"
| to be a bit troubling as I get older and think "man I wouldn't
| want my kids to learn it's ok to talk like that".
|
| * not casting stones, I have a very strong swearing habit
| myself that I try to curb. It's hard.
| BrandoElFollito wrote:
| Maybe because this is how people communicate?
|
| I am French and when I speak English I use fuck when someone
| fucked up. I also say sex when people are, well, fucking.
|
| The f* _k, g**_ y, m***ly and others are childish.
| SamBam wrote:
| I'm confused as to the purpose of all the zeros. Since this is
| far, far from a complete list of all English words, what's the
| difference between a word not being on the list vs a word being a
| zero?
|
| I can kind of see "was this a word they considered and scored,
| vs. not considered?" when trying to assess whether the project is
| comprehensive, but from a programming standpoint, it just seems
| like it's going to have a lot of useless overhead, since by the
| time I'm looking up the word I don't care whether it's a zero or
| a miss.
|
| (I also find the scoring of "2" for many of the words to be
| weird, like "yank," "chug," "looser" etc. as they can all have
| perfectly normal meanings.)
| AriedK wrote:
| Helpful tool for car makers.
|
| Would have probably saved them from the Mitsibishi Pajero, Ford
| Pinto, Mazda Laputa
|
| Downside is, it doesn't analyze phonetics afaict. The hebrew
| Volkswagen Beetle (Hipushit) would have passed as fine.
| Fnoord wrote:
| The Dutch word 'kunt' (je kunt = you can) gets censored in WoW
| because of 'cunt'. That is, if you have mature language filter
| on. I have this on because I have no interest in raging kids in
| said game, but I do want to read simple, common Dutch words.
| Annoys me to this day. CS gave the obvious answer (WONTFIX, with
| obvious workaround disabling the mature language filter
| altogether). It could be solved easily by looking at context
| instead of simple blacklisting. I connect from a Dutch IPv4. I
| sometimes talk Dutch. The same would be true for the other
| endpoint.
| kps wrote:
| I am reminded of the late great Eudora, a Mac mail program. Late
| versions would flag 'offensive' terms in both outgoing and
| incoming messages. A hidden option setting would cause it to
| _read aloud_ all flagged text.
| carlos-menezes wrote:
| Nit: why is Portuguese named "European Portuguese"? If anything,
| the language spoken in Brazil should be called "American
| Portuguese".
| HelloMcFly wrote:
| I think in this case volume wins out in that over 90% of
| Portuguese speakers are Brazilian Portuguese speakers. If
| anything it may one day just become "Portuguese" and "European
| Portuguese".
| dmurray wrote:
| At that time, we will have niche dialects "American English"
| and "British English". "English" will be identified with the
| variety spoken in India. Please kindly do the needful good
| sir.
| carlos-menezes wrote:
| We might as well say European Spanish when referring to the
| language that originated in the Iberian Peninsula.
| BrandoElFollito wrote:
| These articles always remind me of some code for particle physics
| simulations. It was full of variables called anal_this and
| anal_that (because analysis).
|
| Someone put a comment "stop calling variables ANAL!!! This is
| physics not an orgy!!!!"
|
| I may have a copy on a disquette somewhere :)
| thih9 wrote:
| Do we know how exactly are these certainty ratings determined?
|
| Edit: seems like it's all arbitrary? E.g. in a PR[1] I saw random
| new words get added with no explanation of why a certain rating
| gets assigned.
|
| [1]: https://github.com/words/cuss/pull/43/files (nsfw too).
| BrandoElFollito wrote:
| I had a look at the French ones.
|
| 1/4 is normal everyday cussing
|
| 1/4 is cussing when the team is losing, but there are children
| around
|
| 1/4 are from the 17th century and I had a good laugh
|
| 1/4 are useful when driving
|
| 3 are actually bad (just an estimation :)).
|
| The thing with French is that the cussing is quickly funny.
| GuB-42 wrote:
| Looked at french words, most have a rating of 2 (mostly profane)
| even for words that are not profane at all (ex: envoyer => send),
| words that have a profane second meaning, but their non-profane
| meaning is also in common use (ex: morue => cod). Also "retard"
| just means "delay", I have never heard it used as profanity,
| maybe in Quebec? ("retard" in English would translate to
| "attarde" in French)
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