As there are so many taboos for what we swallow down, how about what we spit out? The 17)F-bomb was respected and seldom used. But today, Americans are dropping F-bombs (also known as “using the F word”) with reckless abandon. Men, women, and children alike 18)unleash the power of the F-bomb at will. Certain concepts or phrases are taboo on an international level. In general, references to death, bodily 19)effluvia, or sex are considered taboo, as well as 20)blasphemy.
讲了这么多“吞下去”的禁忌，那“吐出来”的禁忌又是怎样的呢？在过去，对英文的“四字骂词”，大家都敬而远之，鲜少使用。但是如今的美国人却无所忌讳，无论是男是女，老老少少，都随口而出，将其作为一种宣泄的方式。然而，有些词语的禁忌是具有全球性的。一般来说，与死亡、人体臭气、性爱和亵渎神明这些含义有关的话语都是禁忌。
Man-Ping Chu states that “Two verbal taboos are probably universal. The first of these are words that deal with 21)excretion and sex. [...] Second, in both Western and Asian cultures the fear of death carries over into fear of the words having to do with death.”
朱蔓萍（美国德州农工大学双语教育研究所博士）认为，“有两种语言忌讳是全球普遍存在的。第一种是那些与人体排泄物和性有关的词语……；第二种是与死有关的词语，无论是在西方还是东方的文化中，人们对死亡的恐惧造成了对与死相关的词语的恐惧。”
Certain words are also considered taboo merely because they sound like a taboo word. For example, to many Chinese, giving a fan as a gift is a taboo because the Chinese word for “fan” sounds very like the word for “separation,” which is associated with death. In American society, we avoid “circumscribe, excavate (associated with “evacuate”), excrescence (associated with “excrement”), masticate, menstruation, privet, rapier, rumpus, sects, titter, vile (associated with “bile”). Even the word “vowel”, which could refer to the word “bowel”. “Roaches” started to oust American “cockroaches” in the eighteen twenties; “haystacks” began to replace “haycocks”.
而有些词之所以成为忌讳，是与它们的发音有关。例如，对于许多中国人来说，把扇子作为礼物是一种忌讳，那是因为“扇”与“散”的发音相近，而“散”有死亡方面的不好含义。在美国，由于发音的关系，人们避免使用以下这些词：“circumscribe（“限定”，与意为“阴蒂”的“circumcise”发音相近），excavate（“挖掘”，与意为“排泄”的“evacuate”发音相近），excrescence (“瘤”，与意为“排泄物”的“excrement”发音相近)，masticate（“咀嚼”，与意为“手淫”的“masturbate”发音相近）, menstruation（“月经”，这本身就为禁忌的话题），privet（“女贞”，与意为“厕所”的“privy”发音相近），rapier（“剑”，与意为“强奸”的“rape”发音相近），rumpus（“喧闹”，与意为“大便”的“rump”发音相近），sects（“教派”，与意为“性”的“sex”发音相近），titter（“窃笑”，与意为“乳头”的“tit”发音相近），vile (“可耻的”，与意为“胆汁”的“bile”发音相近)。甚至还避免使用“vowel”这个词，就因为它与“bowel（肠）”的发音相近。除此之外，在1820年，美国人开始用“roaches”代替“cockroaches（蟑螂）”，而“haystacks”也开始代替“haycocks”（编者注：“haycock”中“cock”在俚语中用来表示“男性生殖器”，所以避讳使用），都是与它们的发音有关。
So as a response to all of these topics, polite society developed the “22)euphemism.”Euphemistic phrasing can be used to politely refer to any taboo topic. We have “restroom” to describe the room where no one really rests, and “passed away”, “departed”, or “was gathered to his fathers” to substitute for “died”. People who engage in sexual activity are “sleeping together,” though they are certainly doing more than just sleeping. But nowadays, our society has become progressively more tolerant toward a taboo as people continually violate it. What a person decides about what one is permitted to say is still a personal decision, but hopefully we have 23)shed some light on the subject and given you a chance to think about your words before you open your mouth.
为了避免使用这些忌讳的词语，上流社会的人开始使用“委婉语”。想要文明有礼地谈及某些禁忌话题时，委婉语便能派上用场。因此我们有了“restroom”（“洗手间”）一说，尽管那里并不是真正让人休息的房间，还有“passed away”，“departed”和“was gathered to his fathers”这样的表达，用来代替“died”（“死”）。对于人们发生的性行为则用“sleeping together”来表达，虽然人们做的不仅仅是睡觉而已。但是今时今日，人们已对禁忌抱有更为宽容的态度了。所以至于什么能够说，什么不能够说，则见人见智。话虽如此，还是希望上文能给你一些启发，让你在开口前三思一下。
