Sacrebleu
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- This article refers to the French phrase. For the album by Dimitri from Paris, see Sacrebleu (album).
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Sacrebleu is an old French profanity, meant as a cry of surprise or anger.
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[edit] Usage
In French, sacrebleu or sacredieu is always written as one word without accent, the 'e' in the middle being pronounced like a faint and short 'eu' (ə). In English, the phrase is often written with two words: sacre bleu.
It is often considered in the English-speaking world as a quintessential French phrase[citation needed], even if it is not used in France, Belgium or Switzerland anymore. Written as two words ('sacre bleu!'), it was popularized by Agatha Christie's fictional Belgian detective Hercule Poirot.
Sacrebleu is also used many times in American cartoons that depict French characters. Such examples include Disney movies like The Aristocats, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, and Atlantis: The Lost Empire. In the comic book, Blackhawk, the phrase is Andre the Frenchman's favorite oath.
[edit] Origin
The phrase originated from the swear words "sacré bleu", a Marian oath, referring to the color (i.e., "sacred blue") associated with Mary, mother of Jesus.[1] Support for this view comes from the fact that the ancient Yazidi religion in Northern Iraq [2] rules that blue clothing may not be worn by its adherents - presumably because it is sacred.
Other sources[3] propose it coming from old blasphemous curses relating to God, used from the late Middle-Age (some are attested as early as the 12th century) to the 14th (at the latest), with many variants: morbleu or mordieu, corbleu, palsambleu, jarnidieu, tudieu, respectively standing for mort [de] Dieu (God's death), corps [de] Dieu (God's body), par le sang [de] Dieu (by God's blood, the two latters possibly referring to the Eucharistic bread and wine), je renie Dieu (I deny God), tue Dieu (kill God)... Those curses may be compared to the archaic English [God']sdeath, sblood, struth or zounds (God's wounds). They were considered so offensive that Dieu was sublimated into the similar sounding neutral syllable bleu. The verb sacrer has several meanings, including to crown, to anoint, to name someone [champion, best actor, etc], and in the past, rarely in France but more common in French Canada, of swear, curse. Therefore, sacrebleu could be in modern French je sacre par Dieu and in English I curse by God.
Other interpretations might be that the royals of France were beheaded- the royals had blue blood (sang bleu).[citation needed]
[edit] References
- ^ Johnson, Kevin Orlin (1994). Why do Catholics do that?. Ballantine Books. ISBN 0-345-39726-6. Chapter 32
- ^ http://www.nadir.org/nadir/initiativ/kurdi-almani-kassel/kultur/yeziden/yezidism.htm Virgin Mary
- ^ Tassie, J. S (1961).” The Use of Sacrilege in the Speech of French Canada”, American Speech, 36.1
[edit] External sources
- Dictionnaire étymologique, éditions France Loisirs Librairie Larousse 1971
