Foul Language

{I know this is a kind of strange topic for a typical Mormon boy, but I thought it was interesting... bear with me!  A personal story, then some history.}

Matthew 15:11
11 Not that which goeth into the mouth ^adefileth a man; but that which cometh out of the ^bmouth, this defileth a man.

Have you ever stubbed your toe and just felt like yelling?  Or been so mad at a situation that you felt like swearing?  Can you think of aggravation that makes you want to throw/kick/punch something?  I figure everyone has felt that way before.  Emotional release through vocalization.
Once upon a time when I thought my situation merited a swear word, the reactionary part of my brain said I should give it a try.  The word which would have fit the situation floated in my brain, but I was having a hard time getting it to slide out the chute.  I physically couldn't form the words.  I wonder if having to make teeth-marks on a bar of soap as a young man influenced that reflex.  That was our family's punishment for letting words slip out that were unfit to be spoken.
Well, when I was like 7 (prior to the above experience), we traveled up the mountain one Sunday for a joint meeting with a few other congregations.  Back in those days, while the parents were conferencing in the chapel, the children had a joint Primary meeting.  I was sitting next to some kid I didn't know, and he whispered to me $-#-@-!, spelled out letter by letter.  I had no clue what he was on about.  I figured he wanted me to sound out the word he was getting at, so I gave a guess.  He shook his head, and spelled the letters again, even more emphatically.  Thanks to ambiguous vowels, I was wrong again.  Even more exasperated, he spelled the four-letter-word, and on my third try, I got it!  The boy smiled and giggled; I must've had a blank stare on my face.  I remember on the drive home asking my parents about this curiously spelled word, and what it meant.  The answer I got was a rather terse, agitated definition and instructions to never say the word again.  I was embarrassed for ever asking.
I've had friends who seemed to think well-placed expletives can add to humor, intensify movie scripts, or emphasize that you really believe what you are saying.
Well, I've done some cursory research on the matter (ha!  get it?).  Not the words themselves, but why they have any role in society.   What I've found is that there are expletives, swear words, curse words, and profanity.  They fall roughly into these bins:
expletives: A word or phrase used to fill out a sentence or a line of verse without adding to the sense (wasted breath, then, right?).
swear words: take an oath/vow
curse/cuss words: obscene expression usually of surprise or anger
profanity: blasphemous language
(also insulting, obscene, rude, vulgar, desecrating language)

There are lots of sermons/thought points like this blog entry about choosing your words wisely.

I'm sure there has been lots of discussion about substitute expletives and how the media handles it..
Mine have been  Sheesh.  Oh Man!  Shoot.   Holy Cow.
My brother-in-law says Oh Snap!
If I lived in the 1920s, I might say Horsefeathers!  or Applesauce!  
And in Britain, perhaps Blast!

Matthew 5:33-37

 33 ¶Again, ye have heard that it hath been said by them of old time, Thou shalt not ^aforswear thyself, but shalt ^bperform unto the Lord thine ^coaths:

 34 But I say unto you, ^aSwear not at all; neither by heaven; for it is God’s ^bthrone:

 35 Nor by the earth; for it is his ^afootstool: neither by Jerusalem; for it is the ^bcity of the great King.

 36 Neither shalt thou swear by thy head, because thou canst not make one hair white or black.

 37 But let your ^acommunication be, Yea, yea; Nay, nay: for whatsoever is more than these cometh ^bof evil.

I didn't really put two and two together before, but there is a whole segment of the population who swears on ______.  Like that kid growing up who swore on his grandmother's grave [that he was telling the truth].  I had no idea what his grandmother's grave had to do with anything, but one of the things I read pointed out that the practice of asserting a higher, nobler purpose for the effort (I'm imagining the Crusaders dedicating their efforts by imagining their grandmother's graves at stake), like to bring honor or protect.   This form of oath-taking seems to have been important in affirming piety in the olden times (as evidenced also in the Sermon on the Mount verses above).  Thomas H. B Graham in The Gentleman's Magazine/Volume 271,  August 1891, pp. 192-201, gives additional examples of this form as it relates to profanity, which is "thoughtless and irreverent use of sacred words," mostly used as breach of Third Commandment without being blasphemous.

Examples of the oaths used in Chaucer's day (1340-1400) will be found in "The Reeve's Tale," where we meet with the phrases, For Goddes banes (bones), For Cristes peyne, For Cristes sowle, By Goddes hart, By Goddes sale (soul), By Goddes dignité, God wot, and Pardé (par Dieu).

and later

Lovers of Shakespeare will scarcely need to be reminded how "full of strange oaths" are the pages of that author's plays. Here are some of them:—

•  'Slight, "Twelfth Night" ii. 5, God's light; 
• 'Slid, "Merry Wives," iii. 4, God's lid; 
• 'Odsheartlings, "Merry Wives," iii. 4, God's heart;
• 'Odslifehlings, "Twelfth Night," v. 1, God's life; 
• 'Odspitikins, "Cymbeline," iv. 2, God's pity; 
• 'Odsnownes, "Merry Wives," iv. 1, God's wounds;
• 'Odsbody, "1 Henry IV.' ii. 1, and 'Odsbodikin, or 'Odsbodkin, "Hamlet," ii. 2, God's body; 
• 'Odsme, "Merry Wives," i. 4, God smite me; like the expressions, "Strike me blind," and "Strike me dumb;" 
• Zounds, "1 Henry IV. I.," God's wounds; 
• By cock, "Hamlet," iv. 5, by God; 
• By cock and pye, "Merry Wives," i. 1, By God and the Pie. The Pie was the Ordinal, or Book of Church Offices, referred to in the Preface to the Book of Common Prayer. It is said to have derived its name from the pied appearance which the large black lettering gave to its pages. This oath probably suggested the association of bird's names in the sign of the old tavern, which gave their name to the "Cock and Pie Fields," Drury Lane.
•  By my halidom, "Two Gentlemen," iv. 2, By my holidom or holiness.

Then Mr. Graham gives a little attention to the Puritans.  Good old, reverent Puritans!

During the time of the Commonwealth, profane swearing was vigorously suppressed, together with play-acting and other popular amusements, which appeared worldly to the Puritan eye. We read in "Hansard's Parliamentary History,' that on June 28, 1650, a law was made that every person styling himself a duke, marquis, earl, viscount, or baron, who profanely cursed or swore, should forfeit thirty shillings, a baronet or knight twenty shillings, an esquire ten shillings, a gentleman six shillings and eight pence, and all inferior persons three shillings and four pence. Wives and widows were to pay penalties equivalent to what their husbands would have paid, and single women according to their father's rank.  

And for penalties for swearing in England,

"At last, in the nineteenth year of King George II., a statute was passed, which recites that "forasmuch as the horrid, impious, and execrable vices of profane cursing and swearing (so highly displeasing to Almighty God, and loathsome and offensive to every Christian), are become so frequent and notorious, that, unless speedily and effectually punished, (sic) they may justly provoke the Divine vengeance... after June 1, 1746, any person convicted before a magistrate, on the testimony of one witness, of profanely cursing and swearing, should forfeit a sum of money proportionate to his status in the social scale. For this purpose the British public were divided into three classes :—
(1) Day labourers, common soldiers, common sailors, and common seamen, who were to be fined one shilling for every oath.
(2) Other persons under the degree of a gentleman, who were to pay two shillings.
(3) Persons of or above the degree of a gentleman, who were to forfeit the sum of five shillings for each oath they uttered."

So to conclude this long post.  I'm all on-board with the arguments against cussing and profanity.  But what of the expletives that are merely thoughtless?  Is there really any harm in declaring Horsefeathers! or Blast!