after all this hubbub with the new jesus movie i kinda wondered… what would a popular curse or exclamation pre-jesus have been? i’m pretty sure he didnt stub his toe and scream “oh ME!”
His Mother is said to have called to the Lad, after he left the door open, “Jesus! Were ya born in a barn?”
He also taught phrases which might have followed a toe stub. “Our Father who art in Heaven!” springs to mind.
Hmmmmmmm your thread title mentions ancient cuss words. I didn’t think you meant >2000 years old ancient.
Anyway didn’t people a century or two ago say “What the deuce”?
My my, such talk !!!
I hope the moderators don’t warn me for using such vulgar language.
In case you’re ever in ancient Rome and someone pisses you off, here’s a list of insults you can use against them.
http://www.orbilat.com/Latin/Vocabulary/Latin-Forbidden.html
The Latin language has swear words for every occasion, from the extremely mild to the jaw-dropping.
The “oh, I just stubbed my toe” swear word would probably be eheu, which is pretty much the Latin equivalent of “yikes”.
Invocations of the gods were pretty mild. Mehercle (by Hercules!), mecastor (by Catsor!, usually spoken by women), or edepol (by Pollux!, usually spoken by men) are the equivalent of “my goodness”, or “oh my gosh”.
As you go up the offensibility meter, Latin insults becomes extremely similar to many of our own. Referring to people by various sexually associated anatomical regions. Podex means “asshole”. Mentula and cunnus refer to male and female genitalia, respectively (though not respectably by any means).
Love for Greek culture aside, Romans generally had a low tolerance for male homosexuality, and their most extreme insults were accusations leveled against men for actual or even suspected homosexual activity. There was some shame attached to having oral sex performed upon you by another man (in which case they would call you an irrumator, but the man performing the act upon another was called the fellator, which was just about the most insulting epithet in the entire language.
How about “Daddy damn it!”
“Oh for the love of Pops!”
“Jesus H. Me!”