I requested this from NetGalley shortly after reading and enjoying Holy Sh*t: A Brief History of Swearing, but never got around to it. Thanks to my local public library and ILL for getting to review this, even if it is a DNF.

The author tries for an every-man, relaxed narration style. It's fine, but I didn't really connect with it. I found it hard to power through past the first chapter or so; the author starts by spending a lot of time trying to define terms that have vague, overlapping, or interrelated definitions. It made the text repetitive while feeling circular, without providing any firm answers.

Certainly worth a try for anyone interested in the topic, although there are alternative titles to choose from-- which the author quotes heavily.

I enjoyed this because I agree with much of it. When I was teaching and I gave an assignment that allowed students to use song lyrics, we had a discussion about profanity. Most of us agreed that a word or two placed in the right spot, whether from NWA or Charlie Daniels, can be effective yet repeated just because an artist can takes away any impact and it becomes an attempt to shock or an attempt to gets sales by appealing to the more juvenile aspects of our enjoyment of profanity.

I am catching up on books because of an illness so am going off of what I remember and a few notes I made at the time. My apologies for the brevity.

History of profanity and slang. Interesting premise.