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Dennis Meredith
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The Curse Word Challenge
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This is a real challenge! At least I found it so, editing a book about 13-yr-old British boys and wanting to keep the language fairly clean, yet sound realistic and not contrived.When the one boy is disgusted that things don't turn out, or wasted effort, his expression is "Vain pain!"
Charlie Brown always said, "Oh, rats." "Rattlesnakes" would work, too. Or "Nightmare!"
If you like icky, "Spiderguts!"
I'm admittedly stealing this idea from
, but "Fewmets!" makes a great substitute for "Shit!" It's an archaic word used by hunters to refer to game animal droppings, although in fantasy circles it also specifically refers to dragon poop.
Probably not useful but funny: In French, "Corn Flakes(tm)" is flacon de mais (pronounced Flay-coh du may - accent on the "coh"). Said with some seething anger it does sound quite nasty.
In Quebec, we adapted words of religious origins to turn them into really strong swear words. Examples are:
- Hostie! (as in piece of round flat bread used for communion): used to reinforce another swear word or insult. (examples: Hostie de tabarnak! or Hostie de cave!)
- Tabarnak (deformation of word 'tabernacle'). Denotes sudden anger, fury or frustration. Also used to reinforce other words (Tabarnak de cave! meaning 'you bloody idiot!)
- Calisse! (Chalice). Used to denote frustration about something that went wrong. (example: you just had a fender bender and you are looking at the damage).
- Sacrament! (from 'sacrements', meaning religious last rites). Another word to denote frustration.
- Ciboire! (Ciborium, religious vessel). Often used the way the F-bomb would be. Can be used in conjunction with other swear words.
- Calvaire! (means 'calvary'). Often used when one gets discouraged by some outcome.
- Criss! (deformation of 'Christ'). Used either to express frustration or to reinforce another swear word, or to emphasize the strength of a feeling or gesture.
All these fine alternate words can be combined together in various ways to form really strong statements. Example: 'Mon hostie de calvaire de tabarnak! J'va t'en crisser une calisse!' (meaning: you f...… a..hole! I will beat you to a pulp!). Hint: if you are in Quebec and you just rear-ended another car and the driver of that car comes out and says that to you, then leave...quickly! For a good example of education in Quebec swear words, go view the movie 'Bon Cop, Bad Cop'.
- Hostie! (as in piece of round flat bread used for communion): used to reinforce another swear word or insult. (examples: Hostie de tabarnak! or Hostie de cave!)
- Tabarnak (deformation of word 'tabernacle'). Denotes sudden anger, fury or frustration. Also used to reinforce other words (Tabarnak de cave! meaning 'you bloody idiot!)
- Calisse! (Chalice). Used to denote frustration about something that went wrong. (example: you just had a fender bender and you are looking at the damage).
- Sacrament! (from 'sacrements', meaning religious last rites). Another word to denote frustration.
- Ciboire! (Ciborium, religious vessel). Often used the way the F-bomb would be. Can be used in conjunction with other swear words.
- Calvaire! (means 'calvary'). Often used when one gets discouraged by some outcome.
- Criss! (deformation of 'Christ'). Used either to express frustration or to reinforce another swear word, or to emphasize the strength of a feeling or gesture.
All these fine alternate words can be combined together in various ways to form really strong statements. Example: 'Mon hostie de calvaire de tabarnak! J'va t'en crisser une calisse!' (meaning: you f...… a..hole! I will beat you to a pulp!). Hint: if you are in Quebec and you just rear-ended another car and the driver of that car comes out and says that to you, then leave...quickly! For a good example of education in Quebec swear words, go view the movie 'Bon Cop, Bad Cop'.
Fricassee!
Pork chop!
Chopstick!