"Swearing—forbidden and taboo language—is absolutely universal. Linguists have yet to discover a geographic region, country, or culture in which it does not exist. Swearing, or cursing, is universal because it conveys potent emotions that are otherwise inexpressible through day-to-day language: curse words convey pain, hatred, revulsion, disapproval, insult, frustration, shock, excitement, offense, and even camaraderie. Swearwords are as much a part of our psyches as are the emotions that they represent"

Of course words can change and lose meaning over time.....

"recent examples of this process are George Carlin's infamous "seven dirty words": shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits. The seven infamous exclamations raised eyebrows and outrage when they were first broadcast by comedian George Carlin in his 1973 monologue, which aired uncensored on the Pacifica radio station WBAI-FM in New York City. The broadcast was so offensive at the time, it eventually lead to a Supreme Court case ruling which established that the seven dirty words Carlin mentioned should be limited to late-night hours only."

Although some of these words have lost their offensiveness over time, even becoming the province of pre-adolecents and smutty sexual innuendo, it does not mean that they can't still be considered as "coarse" or "vulgar" and the stuff of tabloid titilation!

quotes from USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences