[vacri]

It's unprofessional, but not unhelpful or unarticulated. A close friend of mine and her mother are both linguists, both professionals (one a speech pathologist, one an editor), both highly articulate and highly educated. They both swear a lot, except in professional settings. They love words, and the speech path in particular loves shakespeare, poetry, and constantly has a book in her hand (these days, more an e-book).

Swearing is only unarticulate if you saturate your speech with it.

As for the unprofessional part, that's got its edge-cases as well. I used to work in support for an agricultural telemetry company, and the primary clients were farmers. They'd call up with a problem, and usually they'd swear as part of their normal speech. I found that if I wasn't responding in kind, it would sometimes make the client self-conscious and make the trouble-shooting harder. So, torn between being professional and being pragmatic, my solution was to swear one 'step' less than the client. If they said 'shit', I didn't swear at all. If they were saying 'fuck', I would go as far as 'shit'. If they were saying 'cunt', I'd go to 'fuck'. It worked quite well, and removed a barrier to building that rapport need to work support efficiently.

[douche]

There is a certain art to truly inventive swearing. Farming seems to be an exceptionally fertile ground for salty phrasing, colorfully descriptive word-images, obscene suggestions, and disturbing juxtapositions. I think all of my favorites I learned tinkering on broken-down tractors - although the Quebecois loggers and truck drivers added a certain Catholo-Gallic leavening.

[spdionis]

Ask italians and russinans. Their swears are awesome!