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Sacrer

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

Quebecois French uses a number of the same types of foul language as in standard French, dealing with sex and excrement (such as merde, "shit" - in Quebecois usually pronounced marde). However, those are usually rather mild, and stronger emotions are expressed using sacre.

Here is a list of commonly used words, with their original meanings. Usually, when written, nonstandard spellings are used to represent the forceful pronunciation. The standard spellings are given in parentheses.

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

Usually, more than one of these words is used in an expression. The words are simply connected with de, 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 crisse de câlisse! Non-religious terms may also be strung together in this way, as in mon criss de char est fucké (my damn car is broken/fucked up).

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.

Interestingly, the word fucké 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 Quebecois 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 any other stations in Canada or the United States.

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

Most terms in sacre have modified, milder euphemistic forms:

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 sacre is sacrament which can be thought of as a Quebecois "goddamn it". It was in use as far back as the 1830s as far as we know. The word sacrer in its current meaning is believed to come from the expression Ne dit pas ça, c'est sacré. (Don't say that, it is sacred). Eventually, sacrer began to refer to the thing francophone Quebecers were not supposed to do.

As a result of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, Quebec has gone from being one of the most religious societies to one of the least. This has had no effect, however, on the use of sacre, which is as widespread as ever.





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