[GMMAC]

[GMMAC]

PING!

[SevenofNine]

WTF exactly LOLOLOL!

[Billthedrill]

That explains why eyebrows are seldom raised when words like "tabernacle" — or its phonetic form "tabarnak" — are uttered by French-speakers on English broadcasts.

That's gonna be a little tough on that choir from Utah...

[dfwgator]

In English Canada it is among the baddest of the bad words, a wash-your-mouth-out-with-soap, four-letter epithet considered unsuitable for polite company, never mind broadcast.

Oh Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuddgge! Only I didn't say "Fudge." I said THE word, the big one, the queen-mother of dirty words, the "F-dash-dash-dash" word!

[Constitution Day]

Merde alors!

[Cicero]

Merde alors!

[HEY4QDEMS]

I like the Irish TV shows, they use "Feck" and "Fup" and it is never censored out.

[WestVirginiaRebel]

French people are weird. And they smell bad.

[Rembrandt_fan]

In his book of essays, 'Lives of the Cell', largely dealing with biology, the author, Lewis Thomas, devotes an essay to the origins of the English f-word--without once, by the way, employing the word itself.

Thomas traces it back to its Indo-European roots, discovering that its sexual connotations are, historically speaking, fairly recent. The one commonality in its usage, over thousands of years, is its vile undertones. It is a literal curse word, filled with venom and spite and ill-feelings towards another. It is harsh on the tongue, hurts the ears, and speaks poorly of the one using it.

When I got out of the Service, I worked hard to clean up my language. 'Pass the effing potatoes' just doesn't go over well in good company. After my children were born, I worked even harder. I slip up every now and then, but I've worked hardest of all to eliminate the f-word entirely from my vocabulary. Besides, I can't call myself a Christian if I talk like a barfly.

[Michael Bluth]

Mon DIeu!

I read things like this, and I think "Va Te Faire Foudre!"

[ReignOfError]

Way back when I took high school French, the teacher told us that the French were adopting English swear words because Anglo-Saxon expletives are so much more blunt and forceful than their French equivalents. No doubt, "S--t!" can cut through the background chatter in a way that "Merde!" never could.

[headsonpikes]

Back in 1970, I worked with some French-Canadian guys in the bush outside Pine Point, NWT.

"Tabernak!" has a damning force that must be heard to be believed. I think it's the 'ba-da-bing' pattern. ;^)

[Dont Mention the War]

[rellimpank]

--my command of Frog is almost zero--what am I missing about "tabernacle"--??

[DTA]

[x]

"No, it doesn't mean anything," said ethnographer Jean-Pierre Pichette, who's written on the subject and compiled a dictionary of French-Canadian swear words and expressions.

But surely it does mean something to people who are bilingual.

When you're fourteen and sitting in language class, "merde" or "mierda" or "Scheiße" are just funny sounding words. If you keep up with the language you studied and come across such a word as an adult, you know what it means and roughly what its impact on native speakers is.

[Sender]

What? The? Phoque?

[mkjessup]

The talking parrot had been warned by it's owner to cease the obscene curses that it's previous owner had taught it, to which the irreverent bird would respond "Hell yes!" or "ahhhh sh*t!", finally the owner, a respectable church lady could take no more, and took the parrot, opened the freezer and put him inside to think over his wayward speech.

Inside the darkened freezer, the parrot is rustling his feathers trying to stay warm, his eyes adjust to the darkness and he sees a frozen Butterball turkey, to which he says, "BAWK! What in Hell did YOU say, *F--K*?!?"

Yeah I know it's old but it's still funny. :)

[decal]

How about "semprini"?

(obscure Python reference)

[Darnright]

Eh? The people in Quebec are obsessed with baby seals? Who would have thought?