curseing middle earth!

[HerenIstarion]

Small piece of comment on Kalimac's post (one I generally agree with)

'dratted' is used by hobbits in general (at that, referring to Gandalf):

If only that dratted wizard will leave young Frodo alone, perhaps he’ll settle down and grow some hobbit-sense

and by Sam to refer to Gollum:

where's that dratted creature

There is also word 'wretched' used by Faramir, but I have a notion that must bear rather descriptive, than insulting, purpose.

In general, apart from hobbits, who are modern in all senses, including their use of obscene language, other people of free will, as I have an inclination to believe, tend to swear in a descriptive way (if they restrain from 'cursing' in a way Kalimac explained above), to stress on those aspects of personality of a person sworn at, that that person him/herself is more or less ashamed of or keenly aware of as of his/her drawback, or, equally, as the his/her dearest cf. Saeros taunting Turin at the feast:

If the Men of Hithlum are so wild and fell, of what sort are the women of that land? Do they run like deer clad only in their hair

All three principles involved - certainly, in the case, Truin really looked wild being back from hunt and maybe felt it at the feast among all those cooly looking and fashionable elves, and he really feared that, maybe, his mother and sister (his dearest) were in such a state of poverty that may have been if not naked, than clad in kind of inappropriate clothing

Treebeard's 'cursing' is descriptive to the highest extent – he simply lists all that the orks actually are, impression of cursing comes from the emotion he adds onto his words

What I'm trying to drive at is, in short: simply rude and not associated with the pattern of personality sworn at cursing is orks' want, eruhini swear A. descriptively, stressing on aspects which are considered negative, but which are there to be described B. cunningly, making it more hurting, yet, again stressing on aspects which there are. (like, calling ascetic man glutton may hurt less since he knows he is not one, but calling it person who likes getting his dinner in a 'proper way' certainly will hurt, since there is a grape of truth in the insult)

The situation in the Hobbit is not much different, though there are more 'animal' kind of cursing as well: Thorin calls Bilbo 'descendant of rats', though one may speculate the use of the word is inspired by Bilbo's furry feet. Thorin curses in a 'cursing' way too:

By the beard of Durin! I wish I had Gandalf here! Curse him for his choice of you! May his beard wither!

BTW, note dwarves' particular addiction to their beards – the swearing starts with calling as a witness Durin's beard, and particular curse lain on Gandalf is the wish for his beard to wither. The other way round will be (words of blessing) 'may your beard grow long'. Elves seem in the know of the fact, since they mock dwarves stressing on their beards (same pattern again – take something mostly dear/the thing person sworn/mocked at is mostly keen of)

And, indeed, same pattern is used when dwarves discuss Bilbo as 'fat fellow' and looking 'like a grocer'.

One another point: 'cursing' cursing occurs when person is enraged, 'cunning' cursing (intended to hurt) in cool mind.

Or, to draw it to an end (for I've already written half a page on a thing I intended to dedicate couple of sentences to), and going back to the first topic, there was no need for good people of ME for their language to be colourful, since it is already deep. To put it straight there is no need for obscenity if there is an inclination to hurt person, for clever wording will suit one better. One dumb (like ork) is limited in his expressing his feelings by certain set of foul words