Where do curse words originate?
English Folklore: curses Although invoking God’s power to curse is generally done by the clergy, in previous centuries some lay people who believed themselves deeply wronged would utter a ritualized curse, kneeling on their bare knees in some public place in the presence of witnesses. Records of a Hereford diocesan court describe how in 1598 one man cursed another on his knees in the churchyard, ‘praying unto God that a heavy vengeance and a heavy plague might light on him and all his cattle’, and in 1614 a woman cursed a man she believed had killed her husband, ‘and prayed to God that his house, his children and all he had were one wild fire’ (Thomas, 1971: 506-8). Psalm 109 was called ‘the cursing psalm’ for its vindictive words; it was said that if a dying man recited it while thinking of someone who had wronged him, the latter was doomed (Bottrell, 1873: 227-33). There was a widespread belief that when monastic estates were confiscated at the Reformation the monks laid the curse of
