Nine Nasty Words

<b>A <i>New York Times</i> bestseller</b><br>&#160;<br><b>One of the preeminent linguists of our time examines the realms of language that are considered shocking and taboo in order to understand what imbues curse words with such power--and why we love them so much.</b><br><br>Profanity has always been a deliciously vibrant part of our lexicon an integral part of being human. In fact our ability to curse comes from a different part of the brain than other parts of speech--the urgency with which we say f&amp;*k! is instead related to the instinct that tells us to flee from danger.<br><br>Language evolves with time and so does what we consider profane or unspeakable. <i>Nine Nasty Words</i> is a rollicking examination of profanity explored from every angle: historical sociological political linguistic. In a particularly coarse moment when the public discourse is shaped in part by once-shocking words nothing could be timelier.