Most parents try hard to protect their children from hearing swear words, and children are often punished or reprimanded when they use profane language. The federal government seeks to protect children from hearing swear words through censoring of language in TV shows (particularly during the "family hours").

The 18th and 19th centuries' embrace of linguistic delicacy and extreme avoidance of taboo bestowed great power on those words that broached taboo topics directly, freely revealing what middle-class society was trying so desperately to conceal. Under these conditions of repression, obscene words finally came fully into their own.

A psychologist on why swearing can be beneficial to your health In the video above, Catherine Caldwell-Harris explains why the eff those terms we all know, and most of us use, are not necessarily effing bad. Swearing is unlikely to make the desired impression on in-laws, but it could be good for your blood pressure.