h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

From being anathemitized to becoming everyday parlance: swearing has come a long way since expressions like "God's blood" or "Blind me" et al were considered contentious. For the ghetto, bad-boy culture of the American inner cities, for example, profanity forms a fundametal building block of self-expression: no self-respecting home boy would miss the chance, for example, to drop "mo'fo" into a given sentence.

Accepted on the street, accepted in the boardroom (my managing director recently referred to a competitor's ad campaign as a "f**king load of old toss" in front of 2 senior clients and most of the board: he got a brief round of applause) and increasingly, it would seem, acceptable in front of young children. This researcher has witnessed young mothers berating toddlers in the street in language that would make a sailor blush.