禁忌是個早已存在界各民族的文化現象，最初由於無知、迷信或為了維護社會秩序等因素，人們會禁止說某些用品或進入某些地方。如今雖然社會較「文明」，迷信的程度銳減，但一些宗教與政信仰、社會價值觀、文化傳統及社會風俗，仍和禁忌密不可分。 言禁忌是社會禁忌的重要元素之一，它原是種社交工具，說對話會得到眾人的認同，反之，說錯話不僅惹人厭、得罪人，並有可能遭來橫禍，因此這便形成了某些語言的禁忌。不過仍有些人會出口成「髒」：有些人藉此發洩不滿，有的人想挑戰禁忌，或是特定族群間使用「行話」，以拉進距離。 歸納法話系國家反映在生活上的忌諱語，大致可分為： 1.宗教禁忌語 2.種族歧視語 3.性別忌諱語 4.性與生理功能的禁忌語 5.身心障礙的禁忌語 6.動物詛咒語 禁忌語其實也間接帶動了委婉語的產生、使用與發展，大項如下： 1.金錢方面的委婉語 2.死亡方面的委婉語 3.身部部位之委婉語 4.反字 事實上，無論用禁忌語或委婉語，都突顯了人的判斷力及價值觀，除了語言學家外，對心理學家、社會學家及人類學家來說，也都是十分值得研究的課題。

Taboos are a distinctive cultural phenomenon for every race in the world. Due to superstitions or social orders, people are prohibited to say certain words or to something. Even our society is more ‘civilized’ now, taboos have been rooted in people’s religious and political belief, social value system and cultural customs. Language taboo is one of the social taboos, misuse of which would hurt others and sometimes leave one under embarrassing situation. However, some people still ‘challenge’ these taboos in order to express their discontentment or to draw their distance within a community by speaking the “jargon.” These French taboos words can be categorized as follows: (1) Religion blasphemy, (2) Racial discrimination, (3) Gender taboos, (4) Sex and biological foul language, (5) Taboos toward body-and-mind handicapped, (6) Curse by using the name of animals. On the other hand, the use of taboo words prompts indirectly that of euphemism. They are about: (1) Money, (2) Death, (3) Body, (4) Reverse words. In fact, the uses of taboo words and euphemism reflect human beings’ value system, both of which are worthy subjects not only for linguists, but also for psychologists, sociologists and anthropologists to do further studies.