Like, in real life, execute doesn’t mean to start, it means to stop…

  • A_A@lemmy.world
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    18 hours ago

    You have to understand the impact of euphemism, hypocrisy and modesty to language.

    Example : at one point it was seen as obscene to talk about copulation, coit and fornication. So, for the houses where the king approved fornication, they simply created a modest acronym F.U.C.K. (short for : Fornication Under King’s Consent) that later became itself seen as (of course) obscene.
    Similarly at one point, long ago in history, it was seen as rude to tell a guard// servant// soldier to kill someone else and the euphemism chosen at the time was to say “execute” meaning “carry on” without saying what was to be carried on.
    This word “execution” is being increasingly seen with that later “capital punishment” meaning … this might be telling something of our preoccupations and/or obsessions.

    • spittingimage@lemmy.world
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      18 hours ago

      Example : at one point it was seen as obscene to talk about copulation, coit and fornication. So, for the houses where the king approved fornication, they simply created a modest acronym F.U.C.K. (short for : Fornication Under King’s Consent) that later became itself seen as (of course) obscene.

      I believe that theory has been debunked and ‘fuck’ is from low German, meaning ‘to strike’.

      • AmidFuror@fedia.io
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        17 hours ago

        Next you’ll tell me “kangaroo” isn’t an aboriginal word for “I don’t understand.”

      • A_A@lemmy.world
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        18 hours ago

        Maybe you are right about the origin of fuck. Yet, I do believe language tend to be modified over time in the way I (tried to) described above.