I can’t be the only person who swears in different languages depending on how upset I am, can I?
Mine tend to go:
1 - Carnac
3 - German and/or Russian w/a horrendous accent & pronunciation
5 - Arabic
7 - Italian
10 - Spanish
It’s only when we hit 11 on the scale that I switch to English. The other languages offer only a limited selection of curses remembered, mainly due to my advancing age and massive alcohol consumption over the years.
So, a few questions. What languages do you curse in? Are you a native speaker of that language? How did you acquire your knowledge of such inappropriate speech, young man? “Don’t let your grandma here you say that!” “Why? She’s the one who taught it to me!”
I know some swears in Yiddish (likely via MAD), Spanish (picked up from various places) and German (likewise) but don’t recall using anything other than English.
I use a couple of German swear words that I picked up from Raiders of the Lost Ark. And the occasional French one picked up one summer long ago. But if I’m really mad, English is the only way to go.
English and Yiddish, probably equally. The sad part is that 75% of the Yiddish I know is swearing although it was the everyday language of all 4 grandparents growing up.
I’m sorry to have to inform you that it is not an Orcish word, nor Black Speech, nor anything of the kind. It’s a real-world British interjection “used to express disbelief or ridicule”. The OED says it’s a Cockney pronunciation of “go on”.
