--- title: Improvement Era description: Monthly periodical of the Mormon church, 1897 onward. This library holds the issues of November 1897 to December 1930. authors: - George D. Kirby collections: - periodicals tags: - magazine - improvement-era periodical: Improvement Era volume: 34 number: 1 published: 1930-11 publisher: Young Men’s Mutual Improvement Associations publisher_place: Salt Lake City language: en type: magazine reference: "George D. Kirby, “Profanity,” *Improvement Era* 34, no. 1 (November 1930): 64–64." source: url: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3401unse transcription: Transcribed from the Internet Archive scan of each issue (the item for each issue is named in the issue's own source); unnumbered advertising leaves are omitted, printed page numbers are kept as page markers. identifier: improvementera3401unse start_page: 64 end_page: 64 rights: status: public-domain basis: US publication 1930 or earlier (published 1930-11) source: https://archive.org/details/improvementera3401unse publication_year: 1930 note: The Internet Archive item metadata carries a blanket "© Copyright by Intellectual Reserve, Inc." notice. The library owner judged it inapplicable because this issue was published in 1930, before 1931; a scan-level notice does not restore copyright. --- # Profanity 64 The Improvement Era for November, 1930 Profanity By GEORGE D. KIRBY LET us look on the other side of "durn." Let us look at it from the linguist's view, who, studying the derivation of lan- guage laughs at us over our horror and sanctity for certain words. The word "durn" stands for the stronger word, "damn," and that changing back into the olden Greek is the English for "judged or be judged." And wouldn't wc come nearer swearing if we said "be judged" than the other? It is the same when we mention the sacred word "God." This word comes from the Saxon "Gott" and Index to Advertisers Company Page American Asphalt Roof Corp. 58 Ashton- Jenkins Company 61 Beneficial Life Insurance Com- pany Back Cover Bennett Glass 8 Paint Co.— 54 Blue Blaze Coal Company — 48 Brigham Young University.. 50 Columbian Optical Company.. 51 Continental Oil Company 60 Deseret Foods Corporation ... . 55 Deseret News Press 49 Elder Bros. Electric Company.. 5 1 Electric Light ft Refrigeration.. 63 First Securities Corporation — Inside Front Cover Henager's Business College .._ 44 Independent Coal fc> Coke Co... 59 Ketterer £5 Perschon Company... 48 Knight Fuel Company 46 Kewanee Boiler Company 47 Landes & Company 60 The Master Library 52 Mt. States Implement Company Inside Back Cover National Academy of Music ... 47 Portland Cement Association 59 Quish School of Beauty Culture 49 Regal Cleaning & Dyeing 53 Royal Baking Company 55 Royal Gelatin Dessert. 5 7 Salt Lake Cabinet & Fixture Co. 47 Salt Lake Hardware Company 45 Salt Lake Knitting Store 45 Salt Lake Pressed Brick Co 2 Salt Lake School of Beauty Culture 53 Sego Milk Company 57 Speakers Library . 48 Standard Oil Company 'of Cal- ifornia 52 Taylor, Joseph William 45 Utah Coal Producers Associa- tion 5 8 Utah Gas & Coke Company 5 6 Utah High School of Beauty Culture . 48 Utah Home Fire Insurance Co. 5 1 that, going back, means the ab- stract word "good." To really make the word profane we must get back to the combination of words it was first given in, mustn't we? Well, swearing is an ugly habit, although it isn't at all a late acquisition. Why isn't it a late acquisition? Well, here linguistic science steps in and says that the majority of man- kind, if not all, is inclined to use stronger words than our mixture of a Saxon and Latin language provides for us when angry, frightened or struggling with strong feelings, and this is why we break into expletives. Because in most languages, there is a dearth of words strong enough, man either uses the names that his wor- ship ' holds as great or he coins words. But I am not excusing swearing. There are oaths that I shudder over, not only that the person has named the Deity but also because of the bitter hatred, the murderous spirit charging black under the words. It is the heart hatred that is black. It is not alone the using the name of Deity that he himself would con- demn, but also the evil underlying that combination of letters in any language in which his name may be used. ^G^sVsi* Tested For a Century By DR. GEORGE H. BRIMHALL A FTER one hundred years the '**■ Church stands before the world as an organization effected under the personal direction and inspiration of Him whose name it bears. It is not an outgrowth of man- made institutions, it is a revela- tion from God. In its growth it has been attended by Divine inter- position for its protection and con- stant inspiration for its progress. Its leadership has been that of Di- vine authority and its membership has been reached and held together by the individual testimony of the truth of its doctrines and the ef- ficacy of its ordinances. It has survived persecution, outlived os- tracism, pushed prejudice into the background and won a standing of admiration in places where it was once looked upon with con- tempt. Its advancement in the face of obstacles has arrested the attention of the most thoughtful of the age. The efficacy of its community efforts and the char- acter of its membership have placed it in the foreground for favorable consideration as an institution worthy to be perpetuated under the law of the survival of the fittest. In humility it lays claim to being the stone "cut out without hands," the city "set upon a hill," the mountain of the Lord's house, the Zion of the Latter-days, the custodian and dispensation of the Gospel that is "never to be taken from the earth nor given to an- other people." In the fulfilment of its mission — "the salvation of souls"- — the Church seeks the absorption of good from all sources, it welcomes the adoption of its methods by others, but it recognizes that the sharing of its authority is beyond human prerogative. Reserving to itself that which makes it distinctive among men and officially associated with the Creator, the Church will continue to extend its arm of interest to the dead, the living, and the un- born. The Gospel-conquest by our missionaries 'will be carried to the ends of the earth. At the call of the honest in heart, the borders of Zion will be enlarged on the invitation of outside pro- gressive peoples, and her institu- tions will furnish a sought-after leadership for the world in its march toward the Millennium. In its hundred years of history- making, the Church has given un- mistakable evidence of possessing not only the germs of increase but also the power of automatic and authoritative elimination; in it there is no place for the accumula- tion of iniquity, nor is there any line of leniency to which the un- repentant and evil doer can cling. Happily there are no prophetic pronouncements of woes against this people as a whole, even hu- man predictions proclaiming their downfall are heard no more. Col- lectively the Church has been liv- ing and will continue to live the laws upon which blessings only are predicated. In it and through it and by it, are conditions leading to immortality and eternal life, the final objective of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.