One of my professors once told a mostly bilingual classroom that, if they were ever confused about what their primary language was, they should ask someone to hit them on the toe with a hammer, and whatever language they cursed in at that moment was their true native tongue - which had me all confused, because I sometimes swear in Dutch at such times, a language I can barely speak. Perhaps the fact that my father often swears in Dutch had something to do with it.
My own love of creative swearing goes back to reading Tintin comics (more and more, I'm realizing how many of my traits can be traced back to that series), in which Captain Haddock swears constantly, without actually uttering a single bad word in 23 volumes (although I've always had trouble with the direction the English translation took it).
I know insults are conceptually different from swears, but one of my favourite creative insults is "oyster buttock" (again, sounds better in French - "fesse d'huître"), because... well, you can't get much more inextistant than that.
I remember I was still learning English when I heard my first "fuck you" (given that I lived in NYC at the time, I'm surprised it took me over a year to come across it). I asked my father what it meant and, even though French and Dutch curses were by no means taboo in our household (see above), he was all vague and evasive about it, and merely said it was rude - so, of course, I had to try it out for myself. It's unfortunate that I tried it out on my mother - but then again, I had no idea it was that rude.
Sorry, your post seems to have set me into "anecdote mode"...
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timeasmymeasure
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Date: 2007-04-25 04:28 am (UTC)One of my professors once told a mostly bilingual classroom that, if they were ever confused about what their primary language was, they should ask someone to hit them on the toe with a hammer, and whatever language they cursed in at that moment was their true native tongue - which had me all confused, because I sometimes swear in Dutch at such times, a language I can barely speak. Perhaps the fact that my father often swears in Dutch had something to do with it.
My own love of creative swearing goes back to reading Tintin comics (more and more, I'm realizing how many of my traits can be traced back to that series), in which Captain Haddock swears constantly, without actually uttering a single bad word in 23 volumes (although I've always had trouble with the direction the English translation took it).
I know insults are conceptually different from swears, but one of my favourite creative insults is "oyster buttock" (again, sounds better in French - "fesse d'huître"), because... well, you can't get much more inextistant than that.
I remember I was still learning English when I heard my first "fuck you" (given that I lived in NYC at the time, I'm surprised it took me over a year to come across it). I asked my father what it meant and, even though French and Dutch curses were by no means taboo in our household (see above), he was all vague and evasive about it, and merely said it was rude - so, of course, I had to try it out for myself. It's unfortunate that I tried it out on my mother - but then again, I had no idea it was that rude.
Sorry, your post seems to have set me into "anecdote mode"...