system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
ELI5: What differentiates a "cuss word" from a normal word?

In simpler terms, what determines/determined words like "damn" and "sh*t" to be bad words? 

Thanks :)
gpt
Well, in some sense, words are defined by what meaning people ascribe to them.  So, a word is a cuss word or otherwise vulgar because people ascribe to it a meaning or connotation of vulgarity.  Bad words are bad because people believe them to be bad / insulting.

But if we dig a little deeper, cuss words tend to have one of three basic origins - sexual, scatological, or blasphemous.  The first category includes your F-word, the second one contains s**t and related, and the last one has your hell and your damn and so forth.

Why these particular origins?  Because that's what was considered "unclean" or taboo, especially from a historical setting.  Those topics, even today, aren't exactly the paragon discussion topics for polite society, and to associate an action or a person with something unclean is to, in effect, call the other person unclean or otherwise insult them.