Who swears more: Maryland or Virginia residents?

WASHINGTON – What the @#*! did you just say?!

A study from Marchex, a Seattle-based mobile marketing company, finds that when it comes to cursing, those who live in Maryland are right up there with the best — or worst — of them.

The home of “Charm City” ranked second behind Ohio for states where residents are the most likely to curse during consumer-to-business transactions. Virginia, on the other hand, is among the top five states where residents are least likely to swear during these phone conversations.

Last year, a different survey found D.C. was the worst among major markets when it comes to employees using foul language at work.

For the Marchex study, researchers examined more than 600,000 phone calls from consumers to businesses in the past 12 months and scanned for curse words. They then linked how frequent the words were used with each of the 50 states.

Somewhat strangely, Maryland also was among the top five “most courteous” states, according to Marchex, which means Marylanders say “please” and “thank you” more than most.

See more from the study here.

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