four-letter word:

A swear word of sexual or scatological nature. Examples: arse ; cock , crap , cunt , fart , fuck , piss , quim , shit , turd , twat . The excretory words, crap , shit and turd are sometimes referred to as the base trio .

Quotes:

(1) Alan Richter. The Language of Sexuality (1987): ' Fuck is one of a group of well-known four letter words, all Anglo-Saxon, or Old English, in origin, that are uncomplicated, easy to pronounce, and monosyllabic .'

(2) Gay slogan: ' Homosexuality is not a four-letter word .'

(3) Brick Pollit (Paul Newman) to his father Big Daddy (Burl Ives) in Cat on a Hot Tin Roof (1958): ' You don't know what love is. To you, it's just another four-letter word .'

(4) Anonymous: ' Love is a phwoarrr letter word .'

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