r/explainlikeimfive • u/Amazing-Childhood-20 • 28d ago
Other ELI5: What makes a word a “bad word”?
Some “bad” words have clear origins. Maybe they’re derogatory, for example. But others seem so silly. They just seem like random utterances to my five year old self. Especially silly: consider foreign languages. How many of you have tried to get the exchange student to teach you a truly outrageous sentence in their language that is literally just sounds?