profanity

English

Alternative forms

• prophanity (hypercorrect, obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin profānitās. By surface analysis, profane +‎ -ity.

Pronunciation

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

Noun

profanity (countable and uncountable, plural profanities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.
   • 1910, John William Cousin, “Bunyan, John”, in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature:

     The overwhelming power of his imagination led him to contemplate acts of impiety and profanity, and to a vivid realisation of the dangers these involved.

2. (countable) Obscene, lewd or abusive language.

   He ran up and down the street screaming profanities like a madman.

   • 2013 June 14, Sam Leith, “Where the profound meets the profane”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 37:

     Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

Derived terms

• profanity delay

Translations

quality of being profane

• Albanian: lapërdhi (sq) f
• Bulgarian: богохулство (bg) n (bogohulstvo)
• Catalan: profanitat f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Finnish: rienaus (fi), hävyttömyys (fi)
• French: impiété (fr) f
• German: Profanität (de) f, Respektlosigkeit (de) f, Gotteslästerlichkeit f
• Greek: αθυροστομία (el) f (athyrostomía)
• Irish: naomhaithis f, mallachtach f
• Japanese: 冒瀆 (ja), 冒涜 (ja) (ぼうとく, bōtoku)
• Macedonian: бого́хулство n (bogóhulstvo)
• Persian: بی‌حرمتی (bi-hormati)
• Portuguese: profanidade (pt) f
• Russian: профана́ция (ru) f (profanácija), богоху́льство (ru) n (bogoxúlʹstvo) (blasphemy)
• Spanish: profanidad f
• Tagalog: tungayaw

obscene, lewd or abusive language

• Albanian: lapërdhi (sq) f
• Arabic: قَبَاحَة (qabāḥa)
• Bulgarian: ругатни (bg) f pl (rugatni)
• Chinese:

  Cantonese: 粗口 (cou¹ hau²)

  Mandarin: 粗口 (zh) (cūkǒu), 髒話／脏话 (zh) (zānghuà)

• Classical Nahuatl: ahcuallahtōlli
• Danish: please add this translation if you can
• Dutch: krachtterm (nl) m
• Finnish: kirosana (fi)
• French: insanité (fr) f, gros mot (fr) m, vulgarité (fr) f, grossièreté (fr) f
• German: Fluch (de) m, Obszönität (de) f, Schimpfwort (de) n
• Greek: αθυροστομία (el) f (athyrostomía)
• Hebrew: גסות f (gasút), ניבול פה (he) m
• Ido: juracho
• Indonesian: bahasa kasar (id), bahasa kotor, makian (id), umpatan (id), kata-kata kotor pl
• Japanese: 雑言 (ja) (ぞうごん, zōgon), 卑語 (ja) (ひご, higo)
• Javanese: pisuhan
• Korean: 욕설 (ko) (yokseol), 비어 (ko) (bieo), 잡언 (jabeon), 비속어 (ko) (bisogeo)
• Latin: turpiloquium m
• Macedonian: пцо́сти f pl (pcósti), пцо́вки f pl (pcóvki)
• Maori: kangakanga
• Ottoman Turkish: كفر (küfr)
• Polish: przekleństwo (pl) n, wulgaryzm (pl) m
• Portuguese: profanidade (pt) f
• Romanian: înjurătură (ro) f
• Russian: скверносло́вие (ru) n (skvernoslóvije), ру́гань (ru) f (rúganʹ), ма́терщина (ru) f (máterščina), мат (ru) m (mat), брань (ru) f (branʹ), ненормати́вная ле́ксика (ru) f (nenormatívnaja léksika)
• Serbo-Croatian:

  Cyrillic: псо̑вка f

  Roman: psȏvka (sh) f

• Spanish: lenguaje soez m
• Ukrainian: лихослі́в'я n (lyxoslívʺja), ненормати́вна ле́ксика f (nenormatývna léksyka)