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The Joys of Medieval Language · Armstrong & Getty One More Thing

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: I'm not saying that. I don't care if it's the podcast.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's one more thing. I'm strong and getty, one more thing.
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: So during the radio show, we're discussing obscenities swearing in
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: a really entertaining article at vox dot com, which you
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: can find at Armstrong Ageddy dot com under the hot
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  Speaker 1: links from March twenty first, Thursday.
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  Speaker 2: Twenty always making things easier, Jack.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: You're a word I shouldn't say in the podcast. But anyway,
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  Speaker 1: So this article quotes from all sorts of books about
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: swearing in obscenities in language and that sort of thing,
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  Speaker 1: and I just I found it really entertaining. There are
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  Speaker 1: aspects of it that are not cool, because this is
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  Speaker 1: like a hip, woke young woman, But some of the
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  Speaker 1: historical stuff I thought was great. Now I really wanted
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  Speaker 1: to read on the air. This one section about medieval well,
• 1:04
  Speaker 1: medieval language and how words that we don't say now
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  Speaker 1: were perfectly acceptable then because you had no privacy, so
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  Speaker 1: people had sex and pooped and whatever, and everybody is
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  Speaker 1: aware of it. It wasn't kept like secret and modest
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  Speaker 1: until the Victorian era.
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  Speaker 3: Actually really interesting because like my kids growing up on
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  Speaker 3: a farm, they've seen all kinds of beasts having sex, goats, pigs, dogs, cats,
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  Speaker 3: and yeah, I mean, it's just something that happens. But
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  Speaker 3: for people, we act like it doesn't even happen until
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  Speaker 3: you're a certain age, and then even then it's definitely
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  Speaker 3: behind closed doors and not talked about.
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  Speaker 2: It is kind of weird.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, it's interesting. Whether it's good or bad or
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  Speaker 1: I'm not sure. Yeah, I'm not sure either. Honestly, they're
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  Speaker 1: I definitely I prefer certain things you're kept private, just
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  Speaker 1: sure it's nobody else's business. But I can see why
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  Speaker 1: in medieval villages, you know, you'd be you'd walk by
• 2:05
  Speaker 1: your neighbor, you'd be taking a dump right in front
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  Speaker 1: of you. You'd say, hey, hell, how's it going.
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  Speaker 4: What a weird shift we've made, you know, thinking about
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  Speaker 4: life back then like that, And then now we're in
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  Speaker 4: this day and age where people share everything unnecessarily, but
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  Speaker 4: the things that are so primal and natural are like, oh, never,
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  Speaker 4: that doesn't happen.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you're right, right, right, And.
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  Speaker 3: I never I don't know why I'd never thought about
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  Speaker 3: this before. But if you're living in a one room house,
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  Speaker 3: which I got to believe a lot of them were,
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  Speaker 3: and you got a half dozen kids. Where are you
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  Speaker 3: going to procreate for the next kid without them seeing you?
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  Speaker 1: Well, you wouldn't. You wouldn't bother. Why would I don't understand.
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  Speaker 1: Why do you want me to not be seen? Right? No?
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  Speaker 1: No not? Why do you want more? Why would you
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  Speaker 1: be worried about your kids seeing you? And and uh
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  Speaker 1: your old lady forming the medieval beast with two bags?
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: Who cares? Anyway?
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  Speaker 2: You know, the smell horrible.
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  Speaker 3: I don't know how they ever got around to having
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  Speaker 3: kids when you smelled like that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, it's well, you know, I think any long term couple,
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  Speaker 1: even medium long term couple, says, all right, look, if
• 3:20
  Speaker 1: I'm ordering the garlic, you got to order the garlic,
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  Speaker 1: or neither one of us is ordering the garlic, for instance.
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  Speaker 1: So I think if you're both there stanky as hell,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's just it is what it is anyway, So.
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  Speaker 2: There's going to be loosi.
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  Speaker 3: I'm going to be Lausy exactly.
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  Speaker 1: Let's be laosy together. I love you so anyway. So
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  Speaker 1: a section of this is about the fact that pooping
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  Speaker 1: and sex words in particular were perfectly acceptable then, and
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  Speaker 1: so they were used in names of other things. And
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  Speaker 1: we're having a bit of a debate to be behind
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  Speaker 1: the scenes before we started the podcast about whether I
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  Speaker 1: should go ahead and read it out loud, you know,
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  Speaker 1: because I mean, because there's an F bomb in here,
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  Speaker 1: there's a C bomb in here.
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  Speaker 3: Go for it, Jack, that's the podcast. I'm all right
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  Speaker 3: being said on the podcast, but I'm not saying it.
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  Speaker 1: Oh great, Oh thanks nice? Do we have Hansen bleep?
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  Speaker 4: It makes me a bit of a c in the
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  Speaker 4: words of Jack. Since I'm the one on the show,
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  Speaker 4: I'm giving you the green light.
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  Speaker 2: To say it.
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  Speaker 1: Jack did accidentally sort of clumsily. Yes, there, we got one,
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  Speaker 1: all right, all right, all right, all right, everybody, let's
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  Speaker 1: settle down. Let's focus here. So Jack, you're all right
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  Speaker 1: as the co host with me reading this? Should we
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  Speaker 1: have Hanson bleep it?
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  Speaker 3: Uh? I don't know, but definitely obviously the podcast has
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  Speaker 3: to be labeled that has got foul language. So I
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  Speaker 3: don't surprise any of our listeners who would be bothered
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  Speaker 3: by this sort of talk.
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  Speaker 1: Well, right, and that's the thing. I just I don't
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  Speaker 1: want to hurt anybody's feelings or destroy their their perception
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  Speaker 1: of us.
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  Speaker 4: I think it's fair that because you're reading something, you're
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  Speaker 4: not just saying it and calling somebody right.
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  Speaker 1: No, And I think it's it's actually if you're a
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  Speaker 1: fan of language and you know, being a linguist or whatever,
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  Speaker 1: it's it's interesting. It's truly interesting.
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  Speaker 2: It's academic. It's not saying Kamala Harris is a.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, no, no, it's indeed, it is historical, Michael Right.
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  Speaker 1: So it's almost like you've got a time machine because
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  Speaker 1: you will know what our decision was by the time
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  Speaker 1: this podcast comes out, by whether it's bleeped or not. Anyway,
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  Speaker 1: So this gal Melissa Moore wrote a terrific book called
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  Speaker 1: Holy Well It's holy Shit with the Eye an Asterisk,
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  Speaker 1: A brief History of swearing, which I owe a copy
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  Speaker 1: of and is very interesting and entertaining. Melissa Moore notes
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  Speaker 1: that both London and Oxford boasted medieval streets. I'mnot gonna
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  Speaker 1: say the S word. I just can't you want me
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  Speaker 1: to say it? No, no, no, no.
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  Speaker 2: No, feel like I feel like you kind of want
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  Speaker 2: to say it. I use it all the time. It's
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  Speaker 2: not a big game.
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  Speaker 4: I am in the age and the group of people.
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  Speaker 4: This isn't the word's not a big deal, and it
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  Speaker 4: doesn't make everybody freaking.
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  Speaker 3: You're right, it makes a difference your age, and you're
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  Speaker 3: quite a bit younger than us, and so yeah, it's
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  Speaker 3: commonly thrown around, where when I was your age it
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  Speaker 3: was not commonly thrown around.
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  Speaker 1: On the other hand, the two of us might get
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  Speaker 1: yelled at and suspended or something. Your fate would be worse.
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  Speaker 1: So I don't want you to roll the dice, Katie. Okay,
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  Speaker 1: if some corporate person went crazy over this, right, this
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  Speaker 1: is all. This is all gambling in, no winning here,
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  Speaker 1: all right, I'm gonna use bunt. I'm sorry, I'm gonna
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  Speaker 1: use bunt.
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  Speaker 2: Oh you are one. We're not saying it, so, Melissa.
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  Speaker 1: More wrights by a medieval country pond, there would have
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  Speaker 1: been a shit row in their fishing god a wind
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  Speaker 1: fucker flying above are smart and bunt horror hugging the
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  Speaker 1: edges of the pond, and a pissa bed among the grass.
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  Speaker 1: Those are in today's unvivide terminology. Sadly, the birds a
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  Speaker 1: heron and a kestrel, and plants, water pepper, whorehound and dandelions.
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  Speaker 1: Which bird is the the windfucker? No, the bunt horre.
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  Speaker 1: Oh that's actually that's one of the plants.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, okay, that's a plant. Oh look it's a beautiful
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  Speaker 2: bunt hor Come to my garden and check out my
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  Speaker 2: bund it's in bloom.
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  Speaker 1: I'm sorry, are you coming on to me? Or do
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  Speaker 1: you have a green house?
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  Speaker 2: Are you angry? Are you angry at the plants?
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  Speaker 1: Would you like to see my bunt whore? I think so? Yes.
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  Speaker 2: The idea of a bird called a wind fucker is
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  Speaker 2: pretty funny.
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  Speaker 1: That's great.
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  Speaker 2: We need to bring that back.
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  Speaker 1: That's my favorite bird, whatever it is. Let's see. That
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  Speaker 1: would be a kestrel, which if you've ever seen kestrels fly,
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  Speaker 1: there's I think kind of like shore birds. They're but
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  Speaker 1: they're they they're super crazy, agile and they're flying and
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  Speaker 1: quick and and uh anyway, so yeah, I could see why.
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  Speaker 1: If if any bird is gonna be called a wind fucker,
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  Speaker 1: it'd be a castrel kestrel.
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  Speaker 2: Sorry, that is really that's good. That's a descriptive word.
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  Speaker 1: Well, necessarily descriptive. If you ask me, would a super
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  Speaker 1: cool bird or a kick ass flyer bird or something,
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  Speaker 1: you gotta call it a wind effort.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, that is funny.
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  Speaker 3: I had never thought about the whole intercourse and defecating
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  Speaker 3: in front of each other because you live in a
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  Speaker 3: one room house, the whole bunch of people. But clearly
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  Speaker 3: that would be true.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, absolutely the oaths of the day because they
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  Speaker 1: didn't call them like obscenities or squaring or cursing. They
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  Speaker 1: were called oaths. It was always invoking God's name or
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  Speaker 1: something like God's name. Like we mentioned zounds, which is
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  Speaker 1: a weird adaptation of Christ's wounds, was genuinely shocking. You
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  Speaker 1: just didn't say it unless you're like with your buddies
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  Speaker 1: and your several drinks in.
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  Speaker 3: So all the worst words were religious based, whereas a
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  Speaker 3: lot of our we still have religious based bad words,
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  Speaker 3: but most of our bad words are around sex and
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  Speaker 3: defecation and stuff like that or body parts part. Yes,
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  Speaker 3: that's interesting. I remember one of my biggest fear. I
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  Speaker 3: almost joined the Marine Corps, came very close to it,
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  Speaker 3: and my biggest concern was not all the different things
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  Speaker 3: would be tough about being a marine is I'd heard
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  Speaker 3: that from my uncle who was a marine that had
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  Speaker 3: they had a toilet out in the middle of the
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  Speaker 3: barracks and you had to just go sit on that
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  Speaker 3: thing in front of everybody. And I always thought that
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  Speaker 3: would just be horrific to have to do that. But
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  Speaker 3: obviously you needed to be able to do that out
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  Speaker 3: in the field, you know, in a battle or whatever.
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  Speaker 3: You can't be it's the first time in your life
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  Speaker 3: you've ever pooped in front of people. But it's funny that,
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  Speaker 3: like I was horrified by that, only a few hundred
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  Speaker 3: years removed from everybody doing it in front of everybody
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  Speaker 3: all the time.
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  Speaker 1: Right, they couldn't conceive of you being afraid of that.
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  Speaker 1: I had the same reaction. By the way, A good
• 10:49
  Speaker 1: buddy of mine was a marine, and he came back
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  Speaker 1: from boot camp describing that.
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  Speaker 3: I was like, oh, no, right, right right, climb a
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  Speaker 3: ladder wall or crawl on your belly through barbed wire
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  Speaker 3: or whatever. I'll figure that out. But poop in front
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  Speaker 3: of everyone. Not sure I can do that. It's amazing.
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  Speaker 3: It's amazing to hear you guys talk about this. I
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  Speaker 3: know someone that cannot go it, can't poop in unless
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  Speaker 3: well there's the twist.
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  Speaker 4: No, he can't do it in a public restroom, so
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  Speaker 4: he'll he'll go home.
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  Speaker 2: My brother's that way, My youngest brother's that way.
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: And we worked with a chapel leave names unnamed who
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  Speaker 1: Although we talked about it on the air, I would
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  Speaker 1: rather not for various reasons. He would not go at
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: all during work hours.
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  Speaker 3: If he ever really had to, he would drive home whoa,
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  Speaker 3: whereas I prefer to befoul the station bathroom and then
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  Speaker 3: go home to mom cleanla, often.
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  Speaker 1: In the sink.
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: Oh eazy, this is taking a bad turn sounds.
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  Speaker 1: Where do you get off saying that you bunt a
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  Speaker 1: wind at for.
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  Speaker 2: Bunt hor.
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  Speaker 3: Just so you know, I suggested the guys talk about
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  Speaker 3: my visit to a one eyed dentist, but.
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  Speaker 2: They insteadment with this, What was that? Let me redo
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  Speaker 2: this tanson.
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: Okay, no, it stands.
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  Speaker 2: The bus all right. Well, I guess that's it.