Tuesday Word: cuss

[ellesieg.livejournal.com]

Despite having spent most of my life living in a small town in the south-eastern US, my diction is far from country. I blame it on my mother, a Pennsylvanian, and shyness. Even these two forces combined were not enough to fully insulate me from my surroundings, but I am not and never have been a Southern Baptist, and over time, the Deep South has just about lost its already tenuous grasp on my manner of speaking. I can still fake a convincing southern accent, but it no longer takes over when I'm angry. I stopped saying "dang" once I summoned the courage to switch to "damn." And when I started using the internet and realized that most people said "swear" and "curse," I stopped saying "cuss."

To cuss is to utter expletives (you may cuss at someone or cuss someone out), a cuss word is a swear word, and a cuss is a swear word or an annoying or annoyingly stubborn person -- someone who makes you want to cuss. Until today, I thought that my father's "lazy cuss" was simply a cleaner version of "lazy f***," with the cuss in question having no notable qualities aside from a strong aversion to work or a seeming inability to get out of bed at a decent hour. I also assumed that "cuss" was unique to the southeastern US, when actually its usage is much more widespread. It hails from England, was absorbed by some American dialect or other, and is currently in common use all over the United States, and, given its origin, perhaps outside of it as well, though I was unable to find confirmation of this.

According to the Online Etymology Dictionary, cuss the verb is an alteration of curse and was in use by the early 1800s. Cuss the noun, however, was in use by the late 1700s and while it may also come from "curse," it's equally possible that it is a shortening of "customer," which, as a slang term, and as used by Shakespeare, means "prostitute." Hmmph. Maybe I should be glad I skimped on this year's Father's Day present.

Comments

[kryptyd.livejournal.com]

I always thought cuss was a sort of "cute" word for curse, because curse sounded a bit, well, cursey. It wouldn't have surprised me since anytime I've ever seen "hell" being discussed as a curse on tv I've been amazed, so anything could well be a curse "over there" as far as I knew, even the word curse. But now I see it's a venerable old word and its origins are far from cute. How interesting.

I also don't have a strong accent from my place due to hanging around a lot with my grandmother who has airs and graces as I was growing up, who always corrected me any time she caught a hint of slang or a working class accent sneaking in. It still comes out when I'm angry though :)

[ellesieg.livejournal.com]

I do think of it as a childish word, best applied to the likes of dang and crap than "harder" words like fuck and shit. "Hell" being described as a curse word surprises me, too! Especially these days, when there seems to be a shift towards harder and harder curse words becoming acceptable/no longer being bleeped out in songs on the radio, television shows and the like.

One of the first rhymes I remember my mom teaching me was "You can't say ain't, ain't fell in the paint." Her hostility towards our adopting southern ways was definitely not one-sided though! She was a "damn yankee" back then, and probably still is in some circles.

[firtavain.livejournal.com]

I remember the word being used in a song in Jeeves & Wooster, a show set in 1930's England with Hugh Laurie as one of the main actors. It's called 'I lift up my finger and say tweet tweet'. :) It's on youtube somewhere too, if I remember correctly.

However, I didn't know that the word was that out of use. (I'm not a native English speaker) Makes me think of other words I know of but are extremely out of date.

[prettygoodword.livejournal.com]

I hear cuss as a verb still, without any sense of irony -- as a noun, it comes across as affectedly old-fashioned, usually only in the phrase "a stubborn cuss." It may be turning into a regionalism, though. (I live in the southwestern US.)

---L.

[ellesieg.livejournal.com]

That is how my dad uses the noun -- jokingly, with full awareness that he's using an out-of-date term. I've never heard the verb used like that either; the speaker has always seemed completely serious, no matter how long I spend looking at them with an eyebrow raised.