Cursing with Style with Erika M. Weinert, The Werd Nerd
By Jen Grogan, Guild Administrator
Most editors of fiction (and probably at least a good portion of nonfiction editors, too) have had at least a few unusual expletives come across our desks. But if you start to feel like your latest style sheet would be bleeped on network television, you might need a style guide that covers more inventive swearing than Merriam-Webster and the Chicago Manual of Style are equipped to handle. You might need something like Cursing with Style: A Dicktionary of Expletives, available now, by Guild member Erika M. Weinert.
Content Warning: Since the subject matter is all about swear words and how to use them, this blog post contains significant amounts of adult language, as well as some slurs. We are discussing the words and their uses in a professional context, but if you don’t want to see words that would be censored on network television, consider skipping this blog post.
Q. What made you decide to be a connoisseur of swear words? Was it really coming up that much in your line and copyediting work, or have you always had an affinity for the saltier side of language?
I’ve always had an affinity for swear words, so writing this dicktionary wasn’t a complete surprise to anyone who knows me well. Two of my clients have foulmouthed characters in their novels, and while I know how to spell fuck, shit, and other well-known expletives, I had to make sure their variations were spelled correctly. I found myself perusing various sites and books for the correct spellings of specific compound curse words, and it was time consuming. I felt the need for one (mostly) all-inclusive resource of vulgarities, so I wrote one.
Q. There's been some discussion on social media that your book was inspired by Kia Thomas's A Very Sweary Dictionary, published in 2020, and that your book hews pretty close to theirs. Did you read Thomas's book before writing this one? What would you say are the major differences between them?
During my decade-long editing career, I've referred to a variety of resources for the proper use of expletives, and Kia Thomas's book is one of them—but my needs went beyond what any of those resources could give me. I needed something that provided a wider array of U.S. English curse words, and Kia's book is not specific to American English. This lack of a single solid resource for American English expletives is what led to Cursing with Style. I had already created a spreadsheet of commonly used expletives before I read Kia's book, and I decided to turn that spreadsheet into a book that I could solely reference moving forward—and then someone recommended making the book available to other editors. I understand how a correlation could be drawn between Kia's book and mine—they're both dictionaries of curse words. But the idea of writing a dictionary of expletives is not a new one. Consider, for instance, International Dictionary of Obscenities, A Pocket Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue, Roger's Profanisaurus, and How to Swear: An Illustrated Guide, each with its own unique take on the proper usage of curse words—just like my book, and just like Kia's.
Q. What do you think accounts for the popularity of “-ass” as an intensifier (big-ass, assload, cold-ass, etc.)?
This intensifier likely gained its popularity due to its correlation with size when someone says another has a big ass. Maybe after enough people used the word ass in this way, the phrase big ass and other phrases like it got shortened and began taking on new, broader meanings as adjectives.
Q. I know Merriam-Webster agrees with you, but I have to put in a word for “damnit” keeping its n. This is one of my weird personal bugbears that, professionally, I have let go, but personally I can’t ever seem to drop, probably because I read a lot of Star Trek novelizations as a preteen: when you’ve seen “Damnit, Jim!” a few dozen times, it never leaves you. Do you have any feeling about why “dammit” wins out?
Though dammit is the lazy person’s damnit, in my opinion—and social media is likely the culprit—on social media we often see phonetic spellings instead of proper spellings. I theorize that dammit won over damnit simply due to its ease of readability.
Q. Ahhh, that makes so much sense! What expletive do you personally use the most? Do you have a favorite? Not necessarily the one you use most, just one you like best?
The expletive I use the most is shit and its counterpart (for me) shitballs. I haven’t heard anyone else say, “Shitballs,” but it’s relevant because I use it, so it’s in my dicktionary. My favorite word would have to be fuck, because it’s the most versatile of all the expletives. My favorite curse word used on television is cunt, but only when Butcher from The Boys says it. There’s something about his character’s accent that packs a punch when he says that particular word.
Q. Were there any weird or creative swear words you found that turned out to be too uncommon to include in the book?
No, I even threw in the uncommon ones—the ones I hadn’t heard before. My friends were constantly messaging me with swear words I should add, so after some interesting conversations and much deliberation, ass goblin, cock goblin, and douche canoe were added.
Q. Which shows up most in your editing work (as in on the page/screen, not muttered while you’re working)?
I don’t even need to refer to the documents to answer this question. Fuck is the most-often-used expletive in my clients’ manuscripts, with shit coming in second.
Q. I was so happy to see “fuckening” in the book—I’m not sure, but it might be the first time I’ve seen it in actual print rather than just on social media! It feels as if social media, for all the societal ills that get blamed on it, has brought about a renaissance in swearing. Or maybe we’ve all just really been through it the last six (seven, eight, ten…) years or so. What do you think?
Oh, I agree. Social media has its pitfalls, but when it comes to swearing, people tend to get quite creative. I like the term the fuckening, and I give kudos to whoever came up with it. I have done some research to find out who that might have been, but to no avail.
Q. Was it tempting to get into etymological rabbit holes on a lot of these terms? I went on a research tangent when I hit “fuckin’ A,” for instance, and realized I had no idea where it came from. (To spare anyone else, its first use in print was apparently Norman Mailer’s 1948 The Naked and the Dead, but it was more recently popularized by Mike Judge’s 1999 Office Space, which explains why I think of it as very early 2000s.)
Oh, it was very tempting. There are a few origin-related remarks in my dicktionary, but I didn’t want to get too carried away.
Q. Does anyone really use “thundercunt” outside the really fun kinds of adult coloring books?
No, I don’t think anyone actually uses that word to bash another person. It’s kind of a mouthful, so saying cunt is a lot easier.
Q. Given that a lot of expletives are derogatory to some degree (“cocksucker,” for instance, carries implications of homophobia or misogyny), how did you decide where to draw the line as far as which words you suggested avoiding?
I mainly suggest avoiding using words that carry a specific derogatory message, such as slut, whore, and fucktard. I didn’t feel the need to suggest avoiding cocksucker, because it can be likened to asshole, whereas slut and whore do not have multiple meanings. Neither does fucktard.
Q. Were there any surprises in putting the book together?
Text message evidence, provided by the author, that her mom is not thrilled about this book.
The only surprises were in the publishing process itself. I’m not intimately familiar with it, because my job is editing, not formatting, KDP, keywords, publishing, etc. I already considered myself an empathic editor, but I think now that I’ve experienced the entire cycle of writing, having my work edited, and going through the publishing process, I will likely be an even more empathetic editor.
Q. What’s it like launching a book where I’m guessing you’ll have to have an “adult language” warning for every bookstore visit, reading, and other publicity event?
I don’t think my book will be in any storefront windows. That’s pretty much the only difference between my book and, say, an erotic romance novel. I don’t edit them, so I wouldn’t really know, but I assume disclaimers are needed for those as well. Editors tend to avoid redundancy, so the only disclaimer in my book is on the copyright page, because the subtitle says it all.
Q. Be real with us: is your mom really going to hate this book?
Though there are no names mentioned in the screenshot at right, per my mother’s request, I assure you this is a conversation between the two of us. She absolutely does not approve of my book, but she did approve mention of herself in it (and she approved this screenshot). She also corrected the mention of my dad in a specific entry, which is why what you see below is different from what you’ll read in the book—my dad was not an atheist, according to my mother.
Many thanks to Erika for taking time out of her busy schedule to speak with us! You can find Cursing With Style: A Dicktionary of Expletives on Amazon.
Erika M. Weinert is a copy and line editor who lives in the Pacific Northwest (PNW) and is an active member of the Northwest Editors Guild—a regional, industry-specific association of editors. She mentors fledgling editors through the Guild and on her own. When she’s not providing remote editing services to her clients and mentoring, Erika can be found at home with her family. She has a wonderful husband who is thoughtful, sensitive, and a great father to their daughter, whom they brought into the world the same year they were married—2008. Their daughter is a typical teen, but she’s also selfless, empathetic, and more self-aware than her mother was at that age. Erika treasures her family—including their two cats—and her career above all else.
