“There’s a myth that Japanese doesn’t contain swear words,” says Mohr. “Not only do you have words for nearly anything in terms of sex and excrement, but the Japanese have a lot of insults related to losing face. So calling someone a fool – baka – is much worse in Japanese than in English. There are many ways to insult in Japanese so in a way you don’t have to swear in the way we do [in English] as much to get your point across.”

In sign language, in which it takes more time to add to a sentence manually, short cuts like changing the location of a sign can add vulgarity to or alter the meaning of a word.

“For example the nose is a location for many signs about pejorative things, like 'ugly', 'boring', 'snob', 'piss',” says Donna Jo Napoli, a professor of linguistics at Swarthmore College. “So making a sign at the nose is a way to add nastiness to it.” In another example, tapping your chin with your thumb twice while holding your hand with the middle-finger out is a sign for an offensive phrase involving someone’s mother since a similar gesture, with all five fingers straight out is the sign for “mother”.

More persuasive?

But recent research also shows there are several hidden benefits of swearing.

The most obvious advantage of swearing is to communicate effectively. By swearing, we not only communicate the meaning of a sentence, but also our emotional response to the meaning – our emotional reaction to something. It also allows us to express anger, disgust or pain, or indicate to someone that they need to back off, without having to resort to physical violence.