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Author Topic: Swear Word Alternatives  (Read 1493 times)

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Re: Swear Word Alternatives
« on: June 01, 2019, 06:01:07 am »
"Gadzooks" and "bashi bazooks" are rather archaic, especially in American English but they both refer to Turkish irregular troops that followed at the edges of the Sultan's armies.  The Bashi Bazooks were the scourings of slums, prisons, insane asylums etc... and were with the army for plunder.

The whole chapter in English of frightening children with the Fall of Constantinople, the wars in the Balkans, and the bloodthirsty hordes of the Ottomans is but a memory now in English.  Tolkien's Orcs being part of the last memories.  The last few related words are like finding dusty archeological relics.

Sugar and Fudge are both known in the US, there are a whole class of words you use to take the place of a swear word because they sound like the four letter swear word you were about to say.  Especially if you are around children.  So the idea of an adult accidentally hurting themselves and screaming "SSsssshhhhhhhh...", and then spotting a child close by and changing the exclamation to "Shhhhhhhhhh..... sugar!" is pretty well known.
« Last Edit: June 01, 2019, 12:25:21 pm by NealC »
The end isn't "nigh".  We are already in it, knee-high!
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