Spanish Translation Blog

Bad Words (Part II)

It is common knowledge that language changes over time, and we can easily see that it is not immune to the effects of globalization. Nowadays, the use of swear words has become more standardized: on TV, in movies, in sports, etc. These are areas that reflect the way people actually talk. There are certain channels and stations- as there are certain individuals- that prefer not to use them, as well as websites that filter out the “dirty” words.  I think the list of words we aren’t allowed to use will seem a bit ridiculous to us in a few years, as they’ve stopped being “bad” (like others that have survived this charge) and become more common. Of course, they will most likely be replaced by new ones. And with any term, it will still be hard or unpleasant to call certain things by their name… and so the euphemisms will go on.

I think kids will continue to search out those words to see what they mean or confirm what they know or think they know, just like we’ve all done at some time (although they probably won’t look in Webster’s, but just check the internet and then giggle about the words through text messages or over Messenger). They will continue to do this because it’s an intriguing subject, because words- all words- are necessary, and because learning about them are a part of growing up. And now that we don’t get our mouths washed out with soap, we continue using these words, perhaps adding a whole new set in a different language, even though we are now grown up and more “polite.” And professionally, we will continue trying to learn about bad words in another language however we can (because most of them aren’t in the dictionary), looking for their meaning and translation of bad words we need to put into our language.