On the Use of ‘Dirty’ Words

Over the course of this year, the centenary of William F. Buckley’s birth, we will republish an article by him weekly. This week’s piece considers the utility of profanity and the proper application thereof.

I guess I was seven when I first heard the maxim that only people with a small vocabulary use “dirty” words. I am forty-seven and have just received a communication from a reader delivering that maxim as though he had invented it. The trouble with the cliche is a) it isn’t true; b) it doesn’t take into account the need to use the resources of language; and c) the kind of people who use it are almost always engaged in irredentist ventures calculated to make “dirty,” words and expressions that no longer are, and even some that never were.