The first two are of Anglo- Saxon origin and date from c.1000 and c.1250, respectively. Piss, however, is of Norman French origin and dates from c.1290. Fuck is a well-known word for sexual intercourse, and cock and cunt are slang, if not profane, terms for the male and female organs involved in this activity. All three are of unknown origin, and date from c.1500 for fuck and c.1400 for cock and cunt. Unfortunately, we must also make an attempt at defining "useful purpose," even if it is impossible to come to a conclusion that will please everyone. A good question to ask here is: "What properties does a word with purpose have?" Most linguists would likely respond that a word does not have a purpose unless it has both a meaning and a grammatical place in a sentence, and some would probably want to include the use of the words as phatic and emotive expressions. How, though, do you ascertain when this purpose becomes a "useful purpose"? Can it be deemed useful merely by having a purpose at all? That question, fundamentally, presents the answer. One must consider the original purpose of language: to aid in transferring knowledge or ideas or even emotions from one person to another. Therefore, any word that assists in this transfer can be considered both useful and purposeful. It should be noted, however, that there are different degrees of usefulness. Our choice of words in communication indicates our preference of one word over another, revealing our belief that a certain word is more useful for communicating a certain idea than any other in our active vocabulary. With these terms defined, it is now possible to rephrase a question in a way that facilitates a clear and equally defined response. The new question would look something like: Do the words fart, piss, shit, fuck, cock and cunt serve to aid in the transfer of ideas or information between people speaking the English language? Chapter 2- Everyday Usage of Profanity Probably the best place to start any study of profane language is where it is spoken.
