There's nothing like a good curse to stretch your lungs on a morning, is there? The odd expletive can be a satisfying release from stress and swearing is even known to relieve pain on occasion, but effing and blinding in public is still frowned upon by many people. Thankfully, those who need a f***ing fix but don't want to cause offense have plenty of fake swear words to choose from amongst the veritable cornucopia of fictional curses offered up in science fiction and fantasy books, movies and television shows. Many writers are faced with censorship when it comes to profanity in their work, especially on national television. So, rather than fighting for the right to include three a-holes and a s***-kicker every week, it becomes easier to simply just make up analogue words that mean more or less the same thing. Many of those words end up coming off as overly fake and are forgotten in the annals of (fictional) history, but every now and then we come across a filthy gem of a word that becomes part of our own vocabulary...and perhaps the world would be a more interesting place if everybody else started adopting those words as well. The following is a list of 22 made-up profanities that deserve to enter the popular lexicon at large:
22. Frak (Battlestar Galactica)
Let's start with an obvious one. Frak was popularised on the reimagined Battlestar Galactica, being a much-favoured part of Kara Thrace's (aka Starbuck) vocabulary and an obvious replacement for the common real word f**k. The word was coined by Glen Larson for the original 1978 Galactica series, spelled "frack", but it didn't take off until the reboot did, and has since made frequent appearances on shows like The Big Bang Theory and 30 Rock.
