Editing Dysphemism (section)

== Taboo terms ==
[[Taboo]] terms are used as insults, epithets, and expletives because they damage the listener's face, which might destroy social harmony—especially if the speaker and listener are socially distant from each other. For this reason, terms of insult are socially taboo and dysphemistic. Breaking a social taboo can act as an emotional release, with the illocutionary act of expressing a feeling or attitude.<ref name="E & D" />

Bad or taboo words for many things far outnumber the "good" words. Hugh Rawson notices in his book ''Wicked Words'' that when looking at Roget's International Thesaurus, there are "89 synonyms for drunk, compared to 16 for sober, and 206 for bad person compared to 82 for good person. The synonyms for unchastity in the Thesaurus fill 140 lines, occupying exactly four times as much space as those for chastity. For unchaste woman, 34 synonyms are listed; for unchaste man, 24. No synonyms at all are given for chaste woman and chaste man."<ref name="Rawson 1989" />

References to bodily excretions are often used in dysphemisms. Many communities historically believed that bodily effluvia such as [[feces]], [[spittle]], [[blood]], nail-parings, and hair-clippings were cursed. Such revulsion is apparently learned: children and animals are not put off by bodily effluvia (unless they have a foul smell). In a study done at Monash and La Trobe Universities in [[Melbourne]], Australia, subjects rated bodily effluvia according to how revolting they found them. Feces, vomit, [[semen]] and menstrual blood were rated as most revolting while nail parings, breath, blood from a wound, hair clippings, and breast milk were rated as least revolting.<ref name="E & D" /> This continuum of the level of revulsion is apparent in certain dysphemism such as ''shitter'' for "toilet", ''to come'' for "to ejaculate", and ''puke hole'' for "tavern" or "toilet".<ref name="Slang & Euphemism">{{cite book|last=Spears|first=Richard A.|title=Slang and euphemism: a dictionary of oaths, curses, insults, ethnic slurs, sexual slang and metaphor, drug talk, college lingo, and related matters|year=2001|publisher=Signet|location=New York|isbn=978-0-451-20371-7|edition=3rd revised and abridged}}</ref>