Profanity
/prəˈfæn.ə.ti/noun
Speech or language that is disrespectful, vulgar, or irreverent, especially toward sacred things.
Did you know?In Latin, the root behind profanity, profanus, meant “outside the temple,” so the word began as a boundary between sacred space and ordinary life before it came to mean dirty speech.
Etymological Timeline
Proto-Indo-European
PIE
*dheh₁-
“to set, put, place”
Latin
Latin
fanum
“temple, shrine”
Latin
Latin
pro fanum
“in front of / outside the temple”
Late Latin
Latin
profanus
“not sacred, secular, irreverent”
Old French
Old French
profan
“irreverent, secular, impious”
Middle English
English
profanite
“irreverence or desecration”
Modern English
English
profanity
“vulgar or irreverent language”