Profanity and Intelligence

So the main reason I am starting this topic is because I am honestly curious about your thoughts on this. I recently, a few hours ago, got into a conversation (more of an argument) with my school's head principle over this because he overheard me saying the F word while talking to a friend.
He claims that only unintelligent people use profanity and that profanity, no matter how it is used, is always negative.
Now I claim that usage of profanity has nothing to do with intelligence.
According to him Intelligence is when you apply learned knowledge or skills.
Conveniently for him he completely ignored my bringing up of my friend's dad who uses profanity and happens to be a brain surgeon as well as my uncle who is a college professor who uses profanity and teaches courses like Continuous Functions, Advanced Calculus, and Analysis [Complex / Real].

So my general opinion is that profanity has no direct link to intelligence, profanity itself is neither negative or positive instead is neutral and dependent on context.
Also the reason I actually argued with my head principle is because I really dislike him. He is a complete d-bag.

That last sentence. But anyway the origins of most profanity stem from sexual slang. This slang has become a part of many people's vocabulary. It adds let's say "character" to a sentence. From what I have witnessed less educated people (in this case rednecks) use profanity in larger amounts than the more educated people I know. I also see age playing a factor. Teens swear a lot more than adults older than 45. Now the birthplace and upbringing also play a factor. A person who grew up in a "inner city" household may have picked up more profanity at an earlier age than someone who grew up in say a religious farmhouse. But good ******* question.

« Last edited by KingofCorn on May 30th 2014 »

im telling you that supervisor is a hypocrite and probably uses profanity every day

the american school system is terrible, absolutely horrible

intelligence =/= profanity

I think frequent use of profanity does more or less have a baring of how mature you come across...

But to measure intelligence of the use of profanity? Get ******, mate.

Profanity =/= intelligence, though it may signify how mature you are (though even that is arguable), and maturity also =/= intelligence. How mature you act probably has some impact on how intelligent others perceive you to be, but it has no real bearing on it.

Pick up Trainspotting and you'll find some multisyllabic words among the thick Scots in some of the vignettes. On the other hand, one friend of mine who swears like a sailor and actually works on a fishing boat claims that he was the first to teach me how to swear. Your guess is as good as mine.

Nah...