What is a Swear Word™?

Question

_{In the spirit of the What is a Word™/Phrase™ series started by JLee, a special brand of Phrase™ and Word™ puzzles.
Template taken from Rubio.}

[A break from the Piece de Resistance series, another one of the series will be posted hopefully within one day.]

Well, this question does not ment to inspire your thinking, but rather an enticement to your recollections in the childhood, given the title is a FAQ, especially when you ask "Is *** a swear word?" to your parents. humor can be added if you want. Have fun :-)

If a word conforms to a special rule, I call it a Swear Word™.
Use the following examples below to find the rule.

Swear Words™	Not Swear Words™
pens	pencils
crap	excrement
swear	oath
hell	netherworld
bloody	sickly
seamen	sailors
bad	wicked
good	beneficial
gender	sex
ardour	lust
focus	fetus
love	passion
hungry	Hungary
pure	purity

Here is a csv version:

Swear Words™, Not Swear Words™
pens, pencils
crap, excrement
swear, oath
hell, netherworld
bloody, sickly
seamen, sailors
bad, wicked
good, beneficial
gender, sex
ardour, lust
focus, fetus
love, passion
hungry, Hungary
pure, purity

Well, remember to explain the title as well! Have fun!

Hints:

_{usefulness level 1}

The relation required has nothing to do with the meanings of the words

For those who consider the cr*p to vulgar, carp would also work, Have fun ;-) — Omega Krypton, Aug 06 '19 at 16:35
rot13(V pna'g uryc guvaxvat gung craf naq frnzra eryngr (ivn bar yrggre nqqvgvba be erzbiny) gb cravf naq frzra...) — Arnaud Mortier, Aug 06 '19 at 20:57
I'm sure that's one reason why those particular words were chosen :-). (But I bet it has nothing to do with the rule.) — Gareth McCaughan, Aug 07 '19 at 00:43
This comment is for hint request. pls upvote this comment if you need a hint. I will use this as a reference for when i should give a hint to you all. thanks! — Omega Krypton, Aug 07 '19 at 04:46

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Aug 09 '19 at 14:10

12

Not enough rep to comment, so I'll leave my comments here.

Is it a coincidence that:

All Swear Words™ can be written in cursive without lifting your pen, whereas all Not Swear Words™ (except gory) cannot be written this way? i.e. Not Swear Words™ contains letters such as "i, x, t, H", which all require a second stroke to complete? Like I said, this pattern holds for all words except for "gory".

answered Aug 09 '19 at 14:10

maltodextrin

136
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oops... my fault... nicely done! – Omega Krypton Aug 09 '19 at 14:57
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@OmegaKrypton if this is the correct answer, then perhaps a checkmark? If it is not, that would be worth knowing. – Ben Barden Aug 09 '19 at 15:19
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and the title is due to CURSE...ive – Omega Krypton Aug 09 '19 at 15:44
Ohh, I was thinking it was something along the lines of swear==promise --> "Cross my heart..." --> cross. – maltodextrin Aug 09 '19 at 15:59

What is a Swear Word™?

1 Answers1