When I was 7, I found out that the middle finger was bad. So I started walking around with all my fingers up except my middle finger. I thought that it meant the reverse of the middle finger. When my hand started getting tired, I quit, and that was the end of it, except I would do it for about 2 seconds until I realized that I was being weird.

OUTCAST

My father is in the Army and I have lived over-seas in Europe my whole life. So insted of using English cursewords they would say it in German or Dutch so I wouldn't understand it. They told me never to repete them because they would curse me becuase I was young. Well when I was about 10 I thought I was old enough to figure out what these words ment, so I went up to these German guys and said, "Shizerkompfs" wich, well, means "S***heads" in German, they just looked at me and my mom yelled at me right there. I learned my lesson.

Atni-Chinchilla

When i was about 7 years old, i was bored of saying that sonmeone was "thick" as an insult. So i thought id come up with another that rhymed.. and i came up with "prick" so i used to call all the other children in my street "prick". I was ok because they didnt know what it meant until i was watchin a programme with my mum and a woman called a man a prick. I jumped up in anger that she had stolen my word! My mum told me that she hoped that i hadnt made it up and demanded my definition. I just said it was when someone got a needle and pricked someone. I thought i was quite quick in getting out of trouble :P

Jna (UK, 16)

A friend of mine in Kindergarten once intimated the "fact" that "Bethlehem" was a swear word. She had me going there for a few seconds!

Walter

when i was like 3 i learned how to read my first book.... that book happened to be a sex book, and i thought it was like all my other books. my mother encouraged me to use the words that i had been reading and one time at dinner ( my mom had guests over) she asked me to say the words i had read in my books...so out of my mouth comes the dirtiest words ie; c***, Cu*, P***s, V****a, D***o....so on and so forth lol i didnt get in trouble but my mom found my special book...hehehe lol

amy nay

i used tobelive "swear words" were "square words". A common mis hearing. But... id always picture a tetris style game ( green falling blocks, blue rim, black background) whenever i heard a "Square word"

Nahtiak

when i was really little i was with my cousin and grandmother and we were going to fuddruckers. we got there and i must have said fuddruckers because my older cousin said what did u say? i repeated it and she said oh i thot you said something else. i said wut did u think i said? she got embarrased and said f*** and i said thats not a bad word! she said yes it is and so i asked my grandmother who hadnt heard our conversation. she said yes thats a bad word dont say it and i said but my mommy says it all the time!

em

When I was younger (first grade I think) I came home from school one day and randomly asked my mother "Mommy, is 'duh' a swear?" All I remember is her replying "Yes, dear" and me running off to pray for God's forgiveness for all the times I had said duh. I also urged all my friends to do the same in school the next day. Then, about a week later, during lunch, we asked an older boy something, to which he replied "No duh". Needless to say, we avoided that boy for the rest of the year.

Alex

when i was about 3 years old my mom said motherf****r, and i didn't know at the time that it was a bad word, and one day i said it to these guys and my mom rushed out and said "why did you say that word", and I said "because you said it mommy", and she said never to say cuss words.

misty

When I was in the 2nd grade I was in religious ed. with my mum teaching, and someone had written "F--- God" on the board, and it looked like my mother's handwriting. So I said "What's ---- mean?" She got a really, really angry look and told me to ask her after class. I still thought it was a religious word and was quite perplexed. In the car on the way home she told me it meant "sex in an angry way." After seeing my first rated R movie, I didn't understand all the talk about "'sex in an angry way' you" but I got the main idea after hearing some playground talk.

A year later, I stuck up my pinkie and some girl told me that it was a dirty gesture because she thought it was my middle finger and refused to be my friend. For years after that I thought sticking just your pinkie up was really, really bad.

Anon

When I was 6 I was so impressed with myself knowing cuss words, so I bragged to my 5 year old cousing "I know the F word and you don't!" He said "There IS no F word!" I told him what it was and he was like "F**K is not a bad word!" I called him "stupid" so he went running inside to tell his mom that I said the "S" word and ask if there was an "F" word. I was so embarrased that I hid in the closet for 2 hours. Lol.

Idaho City Girl

When I was about three, my parents and grandparents took me to a restaurant. One of the rules my mother had was that no one was ever allowed to say curse words around me. But you can't stop people from saying things when they're angry or upset.

So, we're in this restaurant, and I spill a big glass of water. Then, in the loudest voice I could manage, I yelled the most vile stream of curses I could think of.

"DADGUMMIT LORDY ME I SWEAR!"

We still laugh about this today. I'm 38.

Gary