Today's entry in the catalog of things to take our minds off of all the things takes us to a place we already visit quite a bit. One could say we're experts in the subject, but I've never seen it studied quite so deeply.
I'm talking about swearing.
And so is Jack Grieve, a foreign linguistics professor at Aston University in Birmingham, UK. Grieve examined nearly 9 million geocoded tweets to assess the relative frequency of different curse words in different parts of the U.S. Here's fuck, for example:
From a post at the swearing-focused blog (and you thought *we* were niche) Strong Language, here's a bit more detail.
Hell, damn and bitch are especially popular in the south and southeast. Douche is relatively common in northern states. Bastard is beloved in Maine and New Hampshire, and those states – together with a band across southern Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas – are the areas of particular motherfucker favour. Crap is more popular inland, fuck along the coasts. Fuckboy – a rising star* – is also mainly a coastal thing, so far.
The post has a bunch of maps showing the regional frequency of other terms, like damn, douche, asshole, and motherfucker. It's a really fucking nice way to distract yourself. Enjoy.
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