[HN Gopher] Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Effects of...
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       Swearing as a Response to Pain: Assessing Effects of Novel Swear
       Words
        
       Author : sega_sai
       Score  : 30 points
       Date   : 2025-06-29 12:14 UTC (2 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.frontiersin.org)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.frontiersin.org)
        
       | timewizard wrote:
       | Anecdotally I find swearing makes it worse. Now I just saw "ow!"
       | or "that hurt!" Which honestly feels like it synchronizes my
       | brain past the insult and I can move on much faster past it.
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | Similar: I say something amusing/funny, e.g. I hit my head on a
         | piece of metal and yelled "ah ya mother was a tin can you metal
         | bastard" which breaks your thought from the pain. Screaming
         | fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu... only keeps you focused.
        
       | codeulike wrote:
       | Twizpipe
        
       | slig wrote:
       | Anecdotally, I find swearing in German and Italian satisfying and
       | people around usually don't understand, so no issues there.
        
         | pif wrote:
         | I had been working at CERN for a bit less than a year, when my
         | Russo-Israelian coworker, who had never visited Italy, erupted
         | in a perfect "Porca puttana!" that made me question my manners
         | in the office.
        
         | fuzzy_biscuit wrote:
         | I swear in Italian and Russian. Great minds think alike!
        
       | MattPalmer1086 wrote:
       | At school my German teacher loved to teach us the longest swear
       | word in German (or so he claimed). He would illustrate it by
       | pretending he hit his thumb with a hammer, and then he would let
       | out this wonderful long stream of invective, but which is one
       | word in German. He would then translate it all for us.
       | 
       | No idea if it helps with hitting your thumb with a hammer, but
       | memorable teaching!
        
         | MisterTea wrote:
         | > longest swear word in German
         | 
         | Inquiring minds want to know...
        
           | MattPalmer1086 wrote:
           | I wish I could remember. Words in German can be long as they
           | are composed of other words. It was along the lines of
           | thunder and lightning and terrible storms blight you! But I
           | think there was a bit more to it than that.
           | 
           | EDIT; and the teacher may have made the entire thing up of
           | course! Loved his lessons.
        
             | cubefox wrote:
             | By the way, English also has compound nouns, only they are
             | sometimes written with spaces and sometimes without.
             | Sometimes even with dashes. E.g. compare "coalmine" and
             | "file name". Compound nouns can get arbitrarily long too,
             | e.g. "file name length limit history blog post
             | introduction".
        
               | SoftTalker wrote:
               | And they work as swears too.
               | 
               |  _Goddamnmotherfuckingsonofabitch_
               | 
               | etc.
        
               | cubefox wrote:
               | Though I believe that's technically not a compound noun.
               | (Fun fact: "compound noun" is a compound noun.)
        
               | sib wrote:
               | While English has compound nouns, they are different in
               | that they are not (generally) single words.
               | 
               | For example, the lovely and memorable
               | 
               | Donaudampfschiffahrtselektrizitatenhauptbetriebswerkbauun
               | terbeamtengesellschaft
               | 
               | would be translated into something like
               | 
               | "Association for Subordinate Officials of the Main
               | Maintenance Building of the Danube Steamboat Shipping
               | Company"
        
       | Finnucane wrote:
       | You'll sing a different tune when you're getting fouched in the
       | twizpipe.
        
       | mjanx123 wrote:
       | The origin of language
        
       | layer8 wrote:
       | (2020)
        
       | slowmovintarget wrote:
       | "Glenfarclas!" I frequently exclaim to the bewilderment of my
       | child.
        
         | IAmBroom wrote:
         | There's a lovely story of a dad who's wife said, "Lil Johhny
         | said a bad word today. Go talk to him." Or something to that
         | effect.
         | 
         | "Johnny, Momma tells me you said X. That's pretty bad, but at
         | least you didn't say the worst word..."
         | 
         | "What's that?" "Can't tell you!" <negotiations> "OK, but you
         | have to PROMISE you'll never say it in front of Momma. It's
         | <whispers> booglashek."
         | 
         | Next day, all his friends were over, calling each other
         | booglasheks.
        
           | smitelli wrote:
           | Percy Livermore: We must rid our speech of slang. Now,
           | besides "OK", I want you all to promise me that there are two
           | words that you will never use. One of these is "swell" and
           | the other one is "lousy".
           | 
           | Lucy Ricardo: OK, what are they?
           | 
           | Percy Livermore: [with emphasis] One of them is "swell" and
           | the other one is "lousy".
           | 
           | Fred Mertz: Well, give us the lousy one first.
        
         | EvanAnderson wrote:
         | I spelled around my daughter. This worked until, between 3 and
         | 4 y/o, she asked a preschool teacher what "F-U-C-K" spelled.
         | The teacher asked where she'd heard it and she said her father
         | spelled it a lot.
        
       | techdmn wrote:
       | Many years ago, my daughter (maybe six at the time), lost
       | something semi-important to her, I don't recall what. I think it
       | might have been her username / pictorial password card for her
       | school network account. Anyway, we were looking for it, and she
       | said "Dad, dad, I don't know where it is, I feel like I'm going
       | to say a bad word".
       | 
       | I, having just read an article like this, said "That's ok,
       | sometimes saying a bad word can help you process your emotions
       | and feel less stressed. Do you want to go down to the basement
       | where nobody can hear you, and say the bad word?"
       | 
       | "Yes". She goes down the stairs, I close the door, and she yells
       | at the top of her lungs: "I can't fucking find it!". I managed
       | not to laugh, she comes back up, "Do you feel better?" "Yes."
       | Great moments in parenting. :-) (We did eventually find whatever
       | it was.)
        
         | jacobgkau wrote:
         | To think, you could've taken that opportunity to point out to
         | her that saying the bad word didn't actually help her find it.
         | Or you could've told her immediately that you heard her through
         | the door because she yelled. Instead, you raised a casual
         | swearer who's unaware of her surroundings. I hope nobody ever
         | has to live in an apartment next to her.
        
       | throwaheyy wrote:
       | "Theres a fucking goat outside."
       | 
       | "No, it's just 'a goat'."
       | 
       | "No! It's a fucking goat!"
        
         | irrational wrote:
         | Personally I'm more into sheep, but I won't kink shame.
        
       | anoncow wrote:
       | There is also an impact of swear words on pleasure. Also on
       | strength and performance -
       | https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S14690...
        
       | adammarples wrote:
       | What the jiggins!
        
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