different between oath vs profanity

English

Etymology

From Middle English ooth, oth, ath, from Old English ?þ (“oath”), from Proto-Germanic *aiþaz (“oath”), from Proto-Indo-European *h?óytos (“oath”). Cognate with Scots aith, athe (“oath”), North Frisian ith, iss (“oath”), West Frisian eed (“oath”), Dutch eed (“oath”), German Eid (“oath”), Swedish ed (“oath”), Icelandic eið (“oath”), Latin ?tor (“use, employ, avail”), Old Irish óeth (“oath”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /????/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?o??/
• Rhymes: -???

Noun

oath (plural oaths)

1. A solemn pledge or promise that invokes a deity, a ruler, or another entity (not necessarily present) to attest the truth of a statement or sincerity of one's desire to fulfill a contract or promise.
   • 2007, George Simmons Roth, Battle in Outer Space (?ISBN):

     But all of us took an oath to do our duty when we joined the Space Force, and I fully expect everyone to willingly keep their word. But you took no oath, and have no obligation.

   • 2011, Mark Leyne, "The Tetherballs of Bougainville: A Novel

     There are […] brought all the way from Bougainville to present their birth certificates and testify in this courtroom, under oath, as to their given names.

2. A statement or promise which is strengthened (affirmed) by such a pledge.

3. A light, irreverent or insulting appeal to a deity or other entity.
4. A curse, a curse word.
   • 1981, Bernard Asbell, The Senate Nobody Knows:

     The farther from the Senator's office, the darker and older the furniture, the freer fly four-letter oaths, the higher the heaps of unfiled and unattended papers culminating in a frenzy of pulp in the press section […]

Synonyms

• pledge, vow, avowal

Derived terms

Related terms

• bloody oath (Australian slang)
• fucking oath (Australian slang)

Translations

Verb

oath (third-person singular simple present oaths, present participle oathing, simple past and past participle oathed)

1. (archaic) To pledge.

Translations

Further reading

• oath on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

Anagrams

• HATO, Thao, taho

English

Alternative forms

• prophanity (hypercorrect, obsolete)

Etymology

profane +? -ity, from Latin profanitas.

Noun

profanity (countable and uncountable, plural profanities)

1. (uncountable) The quality of being profane; quality of irreverence, of treating sacred things with contempt.
   • 1910, John William Cousin, "Bunyan, John" in A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature.

     The overwhelming power of his imagination led him to contemplate acts of impiety and profanity, and to a vivid realisation of the dangers these involved.

2. (countable) Obscene, lewd or abusive language.

Translations