Why do we have words that we “aren’t supposed to say”? What decides what makes a swear word a bad word?
It can’t be meaning, because “poop” is fine and
“shit” is not. Or “sex” or “ruin” is fine, but “fuck” is not.
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Swear words are legitimate words just like any other word. Over time certain words are seen as vulgar due to how they are used. Language evolves, things we say today may or may not been seen as highly offensive to people a few hundred years ago and likewise the other way around.
Also what is offensive depends a lot of the social environment. One country or community may take far more offence to some words over others.
Ultimately swear words exist the same reason any other words exist; to enable better communication. Sometimes there isn’t a way to say something _better_ than with a swear word, for example “for fucks sake” is a very clear way of communicating displeasure at something.
Sure you could word it many different ways but fuck really is the best word to use. Switching it out for some other word just doesn’t communicate the same thing; such as when someone might say “oh for godness sake!” to convey the same displeasure it just sounds (to me at least) less succinct and genuine in their displeasure. Of course this is also a cultural/social/geographic thing.
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