This 2004 essay about "Deadwood" has popped up again, owing to a chapter in Steven Pinker's new book (2), and the recent Emmy awards show.

The takeaway is that wars are a reliable source of linguistic innovation.

Every age swears differently from the last one -- it's as if we have to up the ante every generation or so.

The words those "Deadwood" characters would actually have used had religious overtones rather than sexual or scatalogical ones.

I miss Deadwood.

PNSFW.