Why do people swear?

I think it is a habit people pick up on like anything else . When I was younger we were not allowed to curse but my father swore everytime he spoke . As I got older I picked up on this habit and now I swear also . To me it explains how I feel about something but it doesn't change the fact that it is a nasty habit . And I would be upset if my children swore . I hope they don't pick this habit up from me as I won't be able to say much if they do as they would be getting it from both my husband and I .

Because strong emotion calls for a strong expression of that emotion. That has been proven time and time again through the mounting steps of mankind. We are expressive creatures, we seek more and more verbal ways of expressing said emotion since society frowns upon physical expression. They're just words. In fact, centuries ago, a lot of them were the *only* words for certain things. Early English had one word for excrement, one word for a female dog, and one word for what two people who really love each other do. They only became curse words when certain oppressors wanted to impose their language. Words only have power and meaning if you let them. If you're offended, that's something you need to deal with, not the rest of the world.