每日一词学英语(76): expletive

英国Keele大学的研究人员发现，诅咒有助于减少痛苦（From BBC, 13 July 2009: Swearing 'helps to reduce pain'）。

64名志愿者分为两组把手泡在冰水里。On average, the students could tolerate the pain for nearly two minutes when swearing compared with only one minute and 15 seconds when they refrained from using expletives.

“using expletives”和“swearing”意思一样。“expletive”是：A profane, vulgar term, notably a curse or obscene oath (Wiktionary)。它另有“语助词；感叹词”之意，如：It is snowing中的“It”；I'll give you a bloody good hiding中的“bloody”。

If they want to use this pain-lessening effect to their advantage they need to do less casual swearing. 专家提醒，如果想让诅咒更好地发挥镇痛效果，平时要少用。