grassangel 's review for:

Nine Nasty Words: English in the Gutter: Then, Now, and Forever by John McWhorter

4.0

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Less etymology of swear words and more explanation of how they're used in (American) English and how that use has evolved over time, with a slight emphasis on where they fit in grammatically. As such it's much more linguistics (science and sociology) than linguistics (history) which may be disappointing to some, but is no less interesting, especially with the little swearing as parts of speech matrix (formal, informal, first-person, third-person, etc) presented towards the end. There are a few things like this little matrix as well as the coded 'fuck' message that probably works better in print than in audio, but is still entertaining spoken aloud.

Some of the examples of usage referred to are baffling to a non-American millennial, there being a lot of references to musical theatre and sitcoms, but still serve both their primary purpose (showing documented usage of the word) and secondary purpose (showing McWhorter's personality and nerdiness) well.

Something like 3.7 stars because the tack the book takes is interesting (aka not history) and the author/narrator is personable and entertaining.