I cannot be the only one who giggled all through the Shit chapter.

The etymologies are fun, and McWhorter's voice is just so affable, but I'm actually kind of sick of curse words with exhaustingly overloaded meaning. I just won't ever want to talk like that, so I will never learn to talk like that.

Most interesting etymology: "science" and "sh-t" are surprisingly closely connected, both deriving from a verb meaning something like "to cut".

I think McWhorter is so caught up in language that he loses track of the fact that some peole just like to know a few generic insults that they can call other people and that "racist" has become that thing, that all-purpose generic insult. It is a question whether it will last, though. ( )

Delightful. ( )

Good, not great. I love reading about words, foul words are interesting of course, but not really all that much more interesting than other common words, in the end. The chapter about the “n-word” was interesting, he uses the actual word of course. ( )

The history of these words and how their usage changed over time was interesting especially the distinction between merely vulgar and profane.. I also liked the different grammar roles (pronounce in many cases) these words and phases have filled. ( )