Offensiveness The word is considered obscene but is common in many informal and familiar situations. It is unclear whether the word has always been considered vulgar or, if not, when it first came to be used to describe often in an extremely angry, hostile or belligerent manner unpleasant circumstances or people in an intentionally offensive way, such as in the term motherfucker , one of its more common usages in some parts of the English-speaking world. Some English-speaking countries censor it on television and radio. Andrea Millwood Hargrave's study of the attitudes of the British public found that fuck was considered the third-most severe profanity and its derivative motherfucker second. Cunt was considered the most severe. Journalists were advised to refrain from censoring the word but use it sparingly and only when its inclusion was essential to the story.