# Is "consarnit!" still current anywhere in the United States?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 2, 2012, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643 "2012-05-02T14:41:50Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 2

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**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643/21 "2014-04-29T00:57:05Z")

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He said 'The sheriff is near!"

– Olson Johnson

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**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 1:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643/22 "2014-04-29T01:51:02Z")

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> [@Jackmannii](#):
>
> They do allow “Jiminy Cricket!”, but only if you’re over the age of 21 and no womenfolks are within earshot.

This was more popular in days of yore, before Disney started sending out cease-and-desist notices to everyone who said that. (Or, alternatively, you could elect to pay royalties.)

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**Author:** ![Civil\_Guy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/d78d45/32.png) [@Civil\_Guy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Civil_Guy)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643/23 "2014-04-29T02:18:13Z")

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Hoooly mackeral!

Some situations just don’t lend themselves to real profanity. Or cursing, even.

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**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 3:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643/24 "2014-04-29T03:08:39Z")

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Once, when I was on a USCG cutter doing a fisheries inspection on a Russian trawler, I managed to spread the word around some shipmates that “Yob t’voyu maht!” was Russian for “Have a nice day!”

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**Author:** ![aldiboronti](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9fc348/32.png) [@aldiboronti](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/aldiboronti)\
**Post date:** [April 29, 2014, 5:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/is-consarnit-still-current-anywhere-in-the-united-states/620643/25 "2014-04-29T05:09:25Z")

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To answer Jerry Seinfeld above _consarn_ is a dialectical form of the verb _concern_, which in the imperative mood can mean “confound!”.

From OED

> [@](#):
>
> concern, v.
> 
> 1. In the imperative = ‘Confound!’ cf. concerned adj. 3. dial.In G. F. Jackson Shropshire Word-bk., Gloss. of Leicester, Cheshire, etc.
> 
> 1803 J. Davis Trav. U.S.A. x. 384 Concern it, Dinah, says I, why if you was to eat all the good things what would there be left for me?  
> 1832 J. P. Kennedy Swallow Barn II. xvii. 222 ‘Consarn his pictur!’ said Jeff.  
> 1844 ‘J. Slick’ High Life N.Y. I. 107 Somehow that tarnal Count, consarn him, put me all out on my natural reckoning.  
> a1852 F. M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) i. 8 He only said, says he, ‘Consarn it.’  
> 1877 E. Peacock Gloss. Words Manley & Corringham, Lincs., Consarn you, an objurgation equivalent to ‘confound you’.

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