Linguist keeps it clean in discussing his book on profanity

For many people (or at least enough to generate a cliché), Mondays bring out bad attitudes … and thus bad words.

So we’re pleased to have found an interview with linguist John McWhorter about his new book, Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever.

Because it was done on NPR originally, you won’t find, either in the written version or the oral one (below), the actual nasty words spelled out or spoken.

You will, however, find an often-funny discussion about the general origins of profanity, why a certain one is so popular in English, and how McWhorter feels about these words depending on when you ask him. 

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