Quebec French profanity

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The literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre.

Quebec French uses a number of the same types of foul language as in standard French, dealing with sex and excrement (such as merde, "shit", which is sometimes pronounced marde in Quebec French, rather as the Scots say "shite"). However, these are usually rather mild, and stronger profanity is expressed using words from Catholic religion and liturgy. This usage of religion for profanity is also present in Acadian French, mostly spoken in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.

Contents

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History

The sacres originated in the early 19th century in a time when the social control exerted by the Catholic clergy was increasingly a source of frustration. One of the oldest sacres is sacrament, which can be thought of as a Quebec French "goddamn it". It was in use as far back as the 1830s as far as is known. The word "sacrer" in its current meaning is believed to come from the expression Ne dites pas ça, c'est sacré ("Don't say that, it is sacred/holy"). Eventually, sacrer started to refer to the thing francophone Quebecois were not supposed to say. This is more than probably related to the 4th commandment: "Thou shalt not take the name of the LORD thy God in vain", by citing terms and objects related to the church, people were attempting to express their exasperation toward religion by often breaking this commandment.

As a result of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the influence of the Catholic Church in Quebec has declined. This has had no effect, however, on the use of sacres, which is as widespread as ever.

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List of common sacres

These sacre are given in a phonetic spelling to indicate the differences in pronunciation from the original word, several of which, notably the deletion of final consonants and change of Template:IPA to Template:IPA before Template:IPA are typical of slangish Quebec French (also called Joual).

Sometimes saint ("holy", "saint"), contre ("against") or maudit ("damned") is added to the above-mentioned words for more effect.

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Mild forms

Most terms in sacre have modified, milder euphemistic forms (see minced oath). Such forms are not usually considered nearly as rude as the original, with the exception of simonak.

  • tabarnak or tabarnac: tabarnouche, tabarslaque, simonac, simoniac, tabarouette, tobor, tabarnache, barnak, tabarnane, tabarnic, tabeurn
  • chriss: cristie, crime
  • sacrifice or sacrament: sacramouille, sacrebleu, sacre-à-bleu
  • ciboire: cibolle, cibollaque, ciboule, ciboulette (also the French word for chive)
  • câlisse: câline, câlif
  • hostie: cristie, titi, sti, estifie
  • calvaire: calvâsse, calvinse
  • maudit: maudine, mautadite, mautadine, mosus (moses) even though the meaning is different

Tabarnak and ciboire are sometimes melded into taboire (also taboâre or taboêre), ironically regarded as only a mild curse.

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Use

A very strong way to express anger or frustration is to use the words tabarnak, sacrament, and câlice (in any order). Depending on the context and the tone of the phrases, it might make everybody quiet, but some people use those words to add rhythm to sentences.

Usually, more than one of these words is used in an expression. The words are simply connected with de (of), without any restrictions. Long strings of invective can be concatenated in this way, and the resulting expression doesn't have to have any concrete meaning; for example, Mon osti de saint-sacrament de câlisse de crisse! Non-religious terms may also be strung together in this way, as in mon crisse de char est fucké ("my damn car is broken/fucked up"). An example of this can be heard in the movie The Matrix Reloaded, uttered by The Merovingian, with curse words more typical of European French: "Nom de Dieu de putain de bordel de merde de saloperie de connard d'enculé de ta mère". The rough translation would be: "Name of God of whore of shit whorehouse of filth of cunt (British English meaning of cunt) of buttfucked of your mother".

French-speaking visitors to Quebec should note that although these usages may seem comical to those who are used to other kinds of profanity, they are strong curse words and should only be used in a very familiar atmosphere or when one actually means to offend or insult.

Interestingly, the word fucké (with meanings varying from "crazy, disturbed" to "broken down") is much milder than "fuck" is in English, and is routinely used in, for instance, TV sitcom dialog. The same goes for shit (which in Quebec French is used only as an interjection expressing dismay, never as the noun for excrement). Even English-language dialog containing these words can appear on Quebec French-language television without bleeping: for example, when punks rioted in Montreal because a concert by the band The Exploited had been canceled, TV news reporters solemnly read out a few lyrics and song titles from their album Fuck the System. However, the same is not true of Quebec's English-language television stations, which follow the same guidelines as do other stations in Canada.

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Non-swearing uses

A slang term with the preposition en means "a lot of": d'la bouffe en tabarnak (or en crisse, etc.) means "a lot of food".

Sacres are often used as verbs too. For example, câlisser une volée means to beat up. There are constructions like décrisser which means to leave or to destroy, using the dé prefix, which is about separation. Others include, s'en câlicer or s'en crisser ("not give a fuck"), déconcrisser. Some are even found as adverbs: crissement meaning very or fucking as in this is fucking sweet.

These expressions are found less commonly in literature, but rappers and other singers often use crisse and câlisse as a rhyme. More traditional singers also use these words, for example Plume Latraverse.

One fine example of the use of sacres as different word classes is a dialogue by Les Cyniques called Le cours de sacres. The phrase "Jules, étant irrité, a expulsé violamment Jaques qui était en colère" (Jules, who was irritated, violently expulsed Jaques who was angry) becomes "Le sacrament qui était en calvaire a calissé dehors l'ostie en tabarnac".

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Sacres outside Quebec French

This use of liturgical profanity is not unique to Quebec French. A few other dialects in the world also feature this kind of profanity, for instance Austro-Bavarian. La hostia is an expletive expression in some Spanish dialects. In Catalan, hòstia is used and is frequently abbreviated to osti.

Sheila Fischman's translation of La Guerre, Yes Sir! ("War, you bet!", 1968) by Roch Carrier leaves many sacres in the original Quebec French, since they have no real equivalent in English. She gives a brief explanation and history of these terms in her introduction, including a few not listed here.

Irish Catholics of old employed a similar practice, whereby 'ejaculations' were used to express frustration without cursing or profaning (taking the Lord's name in vain). This typically involved the recitation of a rhyming couplet, where a shocked person might say 'Jesus who, for love of me/Died on the Cross at Calvary' instead of 'Jesus!' Amusingly, this is often abbreviated simply to 'Jesus-hoo-fer-luv-a-me', an expression still heard among elderly Irish people.

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