vow

The old hermit, up in the mountains, took a vow of silence.

Swearing doesn't just mean what we now understand by "dirty words". It is entwined, in social and linguistic history, with the other sort of swearing: vows and oaths. Consider for a moment the origins of almost any word we have for bad language – "profanity", "curses", "oaths" and "swearing" itself.

There are also waxen vows, that represent other parts of the body mixed with them; but of these there are few in comparison of the number of the Priapi.