Accessibility Tools

  • Content scaling 100%
  • Font size 100%
  • Line height 100%
  • Letter spacing 100%
Print this page

Blankety-blank

Amanda Laugesen on swearing and the art of the euphemism
The ABR Podcast 02 December 2020

Blankety-blank

Amanda Laugesen on swearing and the art of the euphemism
The ABR Podcast 02 December 2020

Amanda Laugesen, historian and lexicographer, is director of the Australian National Dictionary Centre at the ANU. In her latest book, the evocatively titled Rooted, Amanda considers the bountiful history of bad language in Australia. Her column in the December issue of ABR is devoted to the quaint old euphemism. Amanda talks about the inventive ways in which writers and editors have tried to placate the censor while also celebrating profanity. 


The ABR Podcast features a range of literary highlights, such as reviews, poetry, fiction, interviews, and commentary.

Subscribe via iTunesGoogle, or Spotify, or your favourite podcast app.

Music credit: 'Moonrise' and 'Negentropy' by Chad Crouch is licensed under a Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 International License.