A vulgar affaire
Apologies to all readers of this post especially to Professor Ooi who may find this a very taboo discussion. Today’s discussion will feature on extremely vulgar words and its usage and meaning in different social communities and society. I was encouraged to write after watching this British TV serial The inbetweeners. Click on this link : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TYr9Vg9Uj0 You’ll be fasicinated by the number of vulgar words used in this comedy. If I’m not wrong, there were numerous instances of words such as “dickhead”, “twat”, ”wanker”, “fuck”. Speaking of fuck, I wish to highlight that the Brits are very fond of using this word in their everyday conversation amongst their peers . My constant interaction with the Brits while I was in France tells me so.
Here are some of the phrases that caught my attention:
“I fucked with a girl last night”
“Dickhead”
“You wanker “
“You twat”
“Balls “
“you’re Mental”
I remembered that one of my British friend claims that the F word is so beautiful because it can used as a noun , verb, adjective, intensifier, interjection, exclamation, and an adverb.
Definition of Fuck taken from the Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary:
Fuck (verb) : To have sex with someone
Fuck (noun) : an act of having sex /or a sexual partner
Fuck (exclamation): Shut the fuck up!/ Fuck off
Fuck(adjective) : This fucking pen doesn’t seem to work.
Fuck(adverb) : She is so fucking mental! (literally means crazy or deranged)
Dickhead (nouns) offensive ..refers to a stupid person.
Wanker (noun) UK : a very stupid person, usually refers to a man
Twat (noun) ;Female sex organ, vagina
Twat (noun) UK: A stupid person . may be referred to a man or a woman
Mental (adj) UK slang: crazy
Balls(noun) UK : utter nonsense
Merriam Webster dictionary:
Twat: vagina
Mental: 2 a (1) : of, relating to, or affected by a psychiatric disorder (2) : mentally disordered : MAD, CRAZY b : intended for the care or treatment of persons affected by psychiatric disorders
3 : of or relating to telepathic or mind-reading powers
Main Entry: wank•er
Pronunciation: \ˈwaŋ-kər\
Function: noun
Date: circa 1961
1 chiefly British usually vulgar : a person who masturbates
2 chiefly British usually vulgar : JERK, DOLT

Main Entry: dick•head
Pronunciation: \ˈdik-ˌhed\
Function: noun
Etymology: dick (penis) + head
Date: 1964
usually vulgar : a stupid or contemptible person

Main Entry: 1fuck
Pronunciation: \ˈfək\
Function: verb
Etymology: akin to Dutch fokken to breed (cattle), Swedish dial. fókka to copulate
Date: circa 1503
intransitive verb 1 usually obscene : COPULATE
2 usually vulgar : MESS 3 —used with with transitive verb 1 usually obscene : to engage in coitus with —sometimes used interjectionally with an object (as a personal or reflexive pronoun) to express anger, contempt, or disgust
2 usually vulgar : to deal with unfairly or harshly : CHEAT, SCREW
The entry for the word Balls cannot be found in the Merriam Webster Dictionary.

This gives a rough insight of how even swear words take on meaning in different social communities. In the British society, a stupid person may be called a twat and a crazy person might be labelled as mental in a British society and a psycho in the American context.. Also, there seems to be some commonness between certain swear words such as Fuck in both the American and British context.
Then what about in Singapore? I’m am pretty sure everyone has sweared once. Yet,what form of swearwords do most Singaporeans use? Do they take on the same meaning as our native English counterparts? Lets ignore Hokkien swear words here since the comparison is on English swear words. How would a Singaporean use the word fuck? I have decided not to discuss words like dickhead (very common insult in Australia too) simply because I have rarely heard any Singaporean using it.
So how is fuck used in our society then? The only way to do so is to google this word and observe how fuck is being used and which words does it collocate with!
Here is the definition of the word fuck in the Singaporean context thanks to http://www.singlishdictionary.com
fuck n. [Eng.] vulg. 1 In big fuck: a A ‘very important person’ (VIP), esp. a high-ranking guest or official, often regarded with derision. b A person who has a high opinion of himself, a conceited person. 2 In fuck care [< Eng. not to give (or care) a fuck]: not care in the slightest, not give a damn. Compare HECK CARE.
2 [1929 FREDERIC MANNING The Middle Parts of Fortune vol 1, ch 5, 87 ‘They don’t care a fuck ’ow us’ns live,’ said little Martlow bitterly. 1962 JEAN IRIS MURDOCH An Unofficial Rose, ch 6, 63 Not that I care a fuck.]
fuck v.i. [Eng.] vulg. Berate, rebuke, reprimand, scold.
2006 NEIL HUMPHREYS Final Notes from a Great Island 36 “He take any small thing and make it into a big thing. I tell you, any small thing, he want to make it into a big thing. So I fuck him, lah.” They were criticising their supervisor, I believe, but the dialogue could equally have detailed a gay romp they had enjoyed the previous night.
Phrase: fuck upside down v. phr. Reprimand or scold severely.
fuck spider int. [origin uncertain; poss. < Eng. spider (mil. slang) the dirt in a rifle barrel; or f. the practice of boys catching spiders and having them fight each other (Coxford Eng. Dict.)] vulg. 1 An exclamation expr. extreme frustration. 2 In go fuck spider: go away, get lost, leave me alone. Compare GO FLY KITE.
2006 NEIL HUMPHREYS Final Notes from a Great Island 133 .. National Servicemen are all fluent in bizarre Hokkien and Singlish phrases that mean nothing to anyone else. Approach a Singaporean woman and say “fuck spider” and she almost certainly will not clean your rifle. .. Singaporean men possess the ability to converse in an exclusive, members-only language. It is not Malay, it is not Singlish, it is not even Hokkien. It is Army Speak. If you do not know the language, you can go “fuck spider”.
fucked-up a. [< Eng. fuck up v. ruin, spoil, mess up; blunder, make a (serious) error; fail: see quots. 1968, 1971]
[1968 JOHN UPDIKE Couples, ch 4, 294 This fucks up our party, doesn’t it? 1971 EUGENE E LANDY The Underground Dictionary 84 Fuck up, v. 1. Make a gross error..]
vulg. 1 Of a person: incompetent, ineffective, useless. 2 Of things: broken, damaged, faulty, useless. See also COCK-UP a.
fuckshop n. [Eng. fuck + shop, poss. alt. of tuckshop] coarse mil. slang A brothel.
Some interesting observations: In our society, we actually say fuck spider(slang in Singapore English) and fuckshop. This is something very novel, in my opinion. We actually use fuck spider to tell someone to fuck off. Fuck is collocated with spider and shop in our society which has a meaning to it.
Another point to make is how in the Singaporean context, fuck actually takes the meaning of to scold. Eg: He was so annoying so I fucked him.
Also, fuck is primed with care to give fuck care...I don’t give a damn.
Yet another interesting point of observation is that in our society, the verb fuck does not take the form of a transitive verb as in the case of AmE and BrE. Similary, in Singapore, this verb is not associated with the meaning of having sex.
We will rarely hear people saying: I fucked with a girl last night. ( I had sex with a girl)
In addition: the word fuck as a noun seems to be very unique in our society. Someone who is arrogant or an important person is labelled as a fuck. Interesting indeed! Refer to the first definition.

Conclusion:
Lexical words , be it our normal English words or vulgar words differ in various social communities and societies. Each word reflects a different degree of rudeness. Some vulgar words may seem to bear some commonness across the globe ( such as fuck amongst the English speakers.) , yet from our data above, there are indeed subtle difference in the way this word is used. In our society, we have seen that the f word collocates with spider and shop to give a meaning to the form while such is not the case in the BrE and AmE context. In addition, how we define and perceive the F word to be varies slightly from our native English counterparts.
I really hope that this blog has been interesting even though it should be censored because of its inappropriate content. So the next time you go to Britain, you wouldn’t feel like an idiot should someone call you a dickhead, twat or a wanker. =).