Review: Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever

Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Hot damn!

31 July 2021

So cool. I appreciate how great McWhorter is at explaining shit. Which is a much more niche skill than many people realize. Well, maybe not now after all the parents have spent an involuntary year homeschooling. Seriously, he's great at making a case, taking you through the evidence, showing why other theories are crap. Plus dad jokes, which make everyone else seem so cool by comparison, even me. Opera camp!?! He slays.

(view spoiler)[I was going to include my favorite quote on swearing and became seriously annoyed that it appears everywhere missing a key word, such that it is obvious the same source is being widely republished without anyone reading it. Now I doubt that any of the quotes I found are correct in the absence of an actual book open in front of me. (hide spoiler)] A paraphrase from Inherit the Wind in which Lawrence and Lee wrote something like: There are damn few words that everybody understands, it would be a shame not to use all of them.

Library copy

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