My gran used to say there was nothing clever about swearing. She was wrong.

Forums: Language, Vocabulary, Intelligence, Swearing, Messy
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Were you annoyed as a kid, when your parents told you to clean your room, sent you to bed early and scolded you for cursing? There might be a reason for your behaviour.

Studies suggest, that it can be linked to an increase of your IQ.

Intelligent people use more curse words

You always hear, that people who swear have a "limited vocabulary". But if you think about it, those who don't use any swear words are the ones who limit their own vocabulary, because they intentionally use fewer words than others.

In fact, there is a study deconstructing that myth about curse words. The result showed that people who could name the most swear words within a minute also tend to score higher on an IQ test. The study concludes that a rich vocabulary of swear words is a sign of rhetorical strength rather than the attempt to hide verbal deficits.

Intelligent people are night owls

Like to stay up late? This also could be a sign for intelligence. Scientific research has linked night owls with higher IQ scores for quite some time now. President Obama, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Keith Richards and Elvis Presley are all famous for nocturnal activities. If you tend to go to sleep rather late, you're definitely in good company.

You swear a lot and stay awake late? Look, if you also tend to leave a bit of a mess behind, there's good news for you.

A study by the University of Minnesota suggests, that the messy desk of geniuses is actually linked to their intelligence. If you don't spend much time cleaning and organizing everything around you, your mind is obviously occupied with more important stuff.

The study went on to show that a messy enviroment led to a more creative workflow.

Psychological scientist Kathleen Vohs says: “Disorderly environments seem to inspire breaking free of tradition, which can produce fresh insights. Orderly environments, in contrast, encourage convention and playing it safe.”

This is a good day for all the swearing, messy night owls among you. Does any of this sound familiar?

http://www.businessinsider.de/intelligent-people-tend-to-be-messy-stay-awake-longer-and-swear-more-2016-8?IR=T&utm_content=bufferf9798&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

**** yes!

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Type: Discussion • Score: 0 • Views: 5,302 • Replies: 44

If swearing increases your IQ, I must be a f***ing genius.

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@contrex,

Peter Capaldi's Malcolm Tucker was the master

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I had a strict sort of childhood and teen age years but I learned to swear a bit at university and then came into full swearing bloom in my laboratory years. My boss was particularly good at it - intelligent and fairly eminent M.D. and later author of medical thrillers. Messy desk too.

I've gotten messier over time myself.

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@izzythepush,

Quote Izzy's article:

Quote:

Like to stay up late? This also could be a sign for intelligence. Scientific research has linked night owls with higher IQ scores for quite some time now. President Obama, Charles Darwin, Winston Churchill, Keith Richards and Elvis Presley are all famous for nocturnal activities.

Not saying they aren't intelligent, but musical performers work nights and their other late night activities largely consisted of seeing how many recreational drugs they can pour into their system before keeling over.

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Thumb up for the pusher.

My disaster area of shop and office is now justified.

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Saw a TV dramatization of British spy Guy Burgess years after he went to Russia and his place was shown as extremely messy. Don't know about his night life, but I imagine all that spying must have entailed some late night rendezvous.

1 Reply

@Blickers,

I managed to lose my lead in to this, re messy, but here's a relatively famous photo of Francis Bacon's studio. Opinions on his work vary, but I was often interested in the art of it, if not the subject at a given time.

http://www.mbartfoundation.com/sites/default/files/home_slides/FB-Carlos-Freire-2.jpg

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Serial killers are supposed to be very neat and tidy. The weirdo convicted of killing India Chipchase had polythene all over his computer, desk, chairs, furniture the lot.

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Bad language? Yes. Up all night? Yeah. Messy? That too.

I guess I'm a genius--or a foul-mouthed, sloppy, insomniac.

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This is turning into a feel good thread. There's quite a few messy foul mouthed A2Kers. Here's Brian Blessed going hammer and tongs.

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I think that often grans, mothers, etc tell youngsters "there's nothing clever about swearing" when said youngster is trying to be big and clever because they picked up words from older kids. I distinctly recall that on my first day at (UK) junior school (age 7 to 11) I heard an 11 year old tell another boy he was a "******". Well, I'd never heard that word before, and didn't have the first idea what it meant, but boy did it sound big and clever. When I got home I told my cousin Jackie who was visiting that she was one. She straight away told my mum, who told my dad when he got home, and there was one hell of a row. Later, when I was 11 myself, there was a big vogue among us boys of that age for the word "wank". From the way it was used by us, I later realised none of us actually knew what it meant. We knew it was rude, like "****". Some of the more worldly boys from the council estate nearby knew what that meant. Whatever it meant I had worked out by then it wouldn't go down well at home.

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A joke:
Father overhears his son (playing in the yard) call his friend a "bastard". Father tells boy never to use that awful word again. Boy says "Charles Dickens uses that word". Father says "Well, don't ******* play with him any more!"

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Before I was drafted I never in my life used a foul word. The experiences i had in the Army simply called for a wider range of expression than I had need of before.
But when used in place of normal prose they lose their flavor.

1 Reply

@Leadfoot,

Watch the Malcolm Tucker video. Devoid of profanities his brilliant prose loses its flavour. Swearing can enrich language immensely.

1 Reply

@izzythepush,

Oh yes, works both ways.

1 Reply

@Leadfoot,

Once when I picked my daughter up from school some snotty mother tried to tell me that she'd heard my daughter swearing. I apologised and told her I didn't know where the **** she got it from.

I've never had a problem with kids, secondary kids that is, swearing. There's far worse things they could do, **** never hurt anyone.

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@izzythepush,

I'm out at the grocery store shopping.

If I make it through this shopping spree without saying the F word I might win the lottery tomorrow. The odds are about the same.

1 Reply

@jcboy,

I just erased a good story by failing to click send. **** it.

1 Reply

@ossobucotemp,

While I still swear sometimes, especially to myself, I've improved on one thing - I quit smoking in the early eighties, after trying earlier in the later seventies, both times quitting cold. I had smoked 20 years, often reaching into the third pack, though also often letting them burn in the ashtray. Another reason the boss and I and others had messy desks.

On the Bacon photo, I was a little bit like him in my wilder painting days; I remarked on it recently, talking about how many pairs of jeans I had, at least a dozen, since they were an easy reach to wipe the brushes and I had to keep at least one good pair. I'm not the apron wearing sort. I do have two great aprons, but I keep them as souvenirs from my now defunct favorite Venice CA cafe, The Rose.

1 Reply

My gran used to say there was nothing clever about swearing. She was wrong.

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