Fuck ! Shit ! Piss ! Twat ! I know, I know... Terrible.

I barely make fifteen or twenty minutes during the working day before I have to reach for one of these, either alone, or in some toxic permutation. Don't worry, I rarely say them out loud; under my breath usually, or flashed as ticker tape across whatever thought pattern is prevailing. I know it's best not to at all, but some days, you know...a trigger gets pulled...the red button pressed...and before you know it... the shock troops are over the parapet.

Swear words (general taboo words in fact), fascinate Steven Pinker, a cutting edge linguistics expert, I found out in today's 'Observer'. They are "...a window on to the domains of life that arouse the strongest emotions: bodily secretions, powerful deities, death, disease, hated people or groups and depraved sexual acts".

He's right; they are doorways to understanding our inability to spontaneously articulate a mood, or a frustration, or exasperation, clearly and plainly.

Verbal intensifiers with such power as these need sparing use and preferably only when alone, and absolutely, out of earshot of whoever the butt it is. Otherwise it's an armrace.