I don’t recall ever hearing a strong word from my father, though I’m sure he must have uttered the occasional “Darn!” or “Doggone it!”
My mother, on the other hand, was prone to get quite rowdy, with “Oh, fudge!” and “Oh, sugar!” When pushed to the limit, she sometimes cut loose with “Heck, heck, heck!”
When she’d really lose it and come out with “Damn it!”, my father would try to remind her to restrain herself, saying, “Now Inez…” (for that was her name).
I guess this kind of thing is hereditary, because I often use strong phrasing, like “Dang it!” or even “Blast it all to heck!” I’m sure I got that from my mother. I always tried to avoid that kind of language in front of the kids, though.
For years, my mother would say “Sugar honey ice tea!” when something was going wrong. It only dawned on me recently what you end up with if you only use the first letter of each… She has since given up and is more direct and forceful, when the occasion arises.
Understating can be very powerful when used judiciously. I was at a minister’s house for dinner. After dinner, the minister, I, and a good friend of his, a computer genius, were sitting in the den discussing the computer, eating brownies and ice cream, or something like that. The computer guy drops some off his fork to the carpet, looks with dismay, and says, in a tone like someone just died, “Oh, no.” I’d have given him an Academy Award.
Tony
Seems we are all quite creative in disguising our anger, frustrations and fears behind words that seem to be benign, but have a totally different meaning when taken in context. How do you feel about the thought that no matter how innocent or masked the substitute word(s) is that it could still be considered a curse word if its true intent is to, well, curse?
For example:
fluter_d’s moter would say:
Sugar honey ice tea!
Even though each of the words taken individually have no significant meaning, all told they truely are an expression of cursing. Does this person really think they are getting out of the “curse” paradigm by doing this?
How about you, do you mask your curse words for this reason? If you do, why?
My dad would say “Jesus H. Christ !”. I guess he didn’t think he was using THE Jesus’ name as a curse, but instead this other guy named Jesus H. Christ.
In Tunisia, some still send you “to Tataouine”. Used to be the Foreign Legion disciplinary (ball and chain) camp, which makes it understandable.
I bet that’s where George Lucas got the planet name from.
My wife and I have always made it a point to not cuss in front of the kids. We both figured it’s a bad habit to develop as it reflects ill on the cusser (as does gossiping). I have to admit, every now and again, I’ll hear of someone’s behavior that’s so outrageous and repulsive to me, that a polite remark seems evasive and irrelevant. Then, calling someone by an anatomical reference of the alimentary class seems the only appropriate response.
As a rule, at our house, we opt for comedy: exagerated facial expressions, eyes rolling back in the head, with sound effects like the shuddering exhalation of breath, ala Simpsons, or comicbook style snarls and roars. It diffuses/defuses bad moods at the same time.
Oh! And how could I forget??? When my mom would get really to the end of her rope with us, she’s say, with total sincerity (and vehemence), “God, grant me patience!” I like to use that one now and then.
Tony
My Grandfather could put more feeling into the words “jumpin’ sweet stink” than any amount of expletives. If you got in his way you could expect to hear “Get from under mi maulin’ splutherin’ feet”
EAT MY GOAL