morbleu!
English translation: in God's name
| 20:58 Jun 13, 2010 |
| French to English translations [PRO] History / 13th century interjection | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
| ||||||
|  Selected response from: Bourth (X) Local time: 20:23 | ||||||
Grading comment
| |||||||
| Summary of answers provided | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 +5 | godzounds! |
| ||
| 4 +1 | in God's name |
| ||
| 5 | Godzooks! |
| ||
| 3 +1 | Lord Sake |
| ||
| 4 | The Devil! |
| ||
| 3 -1 | id |
|
| Discussion entries: 8 | |
|---|---|
Answers
8 mins confidence: 
peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1Lord Sake Explanation: According to "Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable"... Blue murder. To scream or shout blue murder. Indicative of terror and alarm rather than real danger. It appears to be a play on the French expression "morbleu". "Morbleu" is an obsolete curse. "Mor" is derived from "mort", death. The expression "morbleu" literally means "blue death". The word "blue" ("bleu") is used as a substitute for the word "God" ("dieu") in some French-language curses. For example, the expression "sacr� bleu", which remains in common use, literally means "sacred blue". It is more accurately rendered as "God damn". I have never understood the connection between the colour blue ("bleu") and the sanctity of God (e.g., "sacr� bleu" in place of "sacr� dieu"). Perhaps it is no more complicated than the fact that "bleu" rhymes with "dieu". In English, we find that the word "Heck" replaces "Hell" in curses and "Land sakes" replaces "Lord sakes" or "For the sake of the Lord". Reference: http://www.answerbag.com/q_view/54788 |
| |
| Login to enter a peer comment (or grade) | ||
2 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): -1
peer agreement (net): -1id Explanation: just to told you what i know, the blue is the color of the noble and the king, we said that he s got blue blood, means he is from noble family. So maybe the link between blue and god is there, the king was choose by god in old meaning. Hope you can understand what i said. Florent |
| |
| Login to enter a peer comment (or grade) | ||
14 hrs confidence: peer agreement (net): +1
peer agreement (net): +1in God's name Explanation: Further to my Discussion entry above and further research and reflection: The article on juron et blasphème here : http://revistas.ucm.es/fll/11399368/articulos/THEL0303220171... seems to suggest, from what I read briefly, that early texts did not record bad language, even if it was spoken. There is reference in La Chanson de Roland, for example, to a Saracen "badmouthing" (saying mauvais mots in respect of Charlemagne, "the right hand of God"), for which the divine punishment was death (in battle), but the words themselves are not written down. Quite possibly people DID use morbleu or zounds before they were first recorded, only no one was game to put it on record ... Also, if we assume the Protestant way started to come into effect only after the death of Henry VIII in 1547, the euphemism "Zounds" may have been felt necessary only around then. Maybe previously they were perfectly happy to say "God's wounds" without fear of lightning bolts. I mean, we only say "Shhhhh-ugar!" or "Mmmmm-ince!" because we are thinking of the words we might otherwise say. So "Zounds" must have been a substitute for something that had been or could be said. Go for "Get me my charger, in God's name!" (which, assuming the speaker is on the side of God, would not be insult or blasphemy, merely an invocation to act for the good of the Almighty). |
| ||
Grading comment
| |||
Notes to answerer
| |||
| Login to enter a peer comment (or grade) | |||
1 day 1 hr confidence:
Godzooks! Explanation: Much more common than "godzounds." |
| ||
Notes to answerer
| |||
| Login to enter a peer comment (or grade) | |||
1 hr confidence: peer agreement (net): +5
peer agreement (net): +5godzounds! Explanation: Came to mind... Both sitter and artist were unhappy long before it was finished. Pearson Wright said he would have needed at least 12 sittings, but was refused any more time. Lucian Freud had a similar problem with his Jubilee portrait of the Queen. At the end of the first sitting the prince inspected the work and exclaimed "godzooks" or "godzounds", the artist was too alarmed to remember which. http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/jul/25/monarchy.arts ...'Why, you old cuckold, blind cuckold, can't you very well see? These are three milking-cows, my mother sent O me.' 'Heyday! Godzounds! Milking-cows with bridles and saddles on! the like was never known!'... ...They are three roasting-spits, my mother sent to me.' 'Heyday! Godzounds! Roasting spits with scabbards on! the like was never known!' [hm - chiild's ballad? There's a trad. Irish song that sounds like this story] http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Child's_Ballads/274 -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 12 hrs (2010-06-14 09:16:45 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- thought I'd added these further refs. already, but anyway, here are some earlier terms: by my soul so God help me for God's bones (though that may only be 14th C - Chaucer) "The Vision of William concerning Pers the Plouhmon," written by Langland in the reign of Edward III., and commonly called "Piers Plowman," shows us that the English of that period thought it necessary to interlard their statements with copious expletives: I have no peny, quod Pers, poletes to bugg (pullets to buy}, And I sigg (say), bi my soule, I have no salt bacon, Ne no cokeneyes (fowles), bi Crist colopes to maken. Passus VI. And Glutton confesses [Passus V.]: That I have trespassed with my tonge, I can noughte tell how oft, Sworen Goddes soule, and so God me help, and Halidom, There no need ne was, nyne hundreth tymes. http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Some_English_Expletives -------------------------------------------------- Note added at 1 day1 hr (2010-06-14 22:38:49 GMT) -------------------------------------------------- maybe "God help me", then |
| ||
Notes to answerer
| |||
