Words in "The Week" - Wiegle, Booty and Spoils

From the March 18 issue of The Week magazine -

Wiegle: The name of a young bald eagle that recovered from crashing through the windshield of a semi truck travelling over 60 mph. A portmanteau of "window eagle".

Booty: A connotation for "a portion of the body often shaken in time to music, rather than the spoils of war" according to the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Spoils: A euphemistic synonym for the word "booty" as used in the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops' new translation of the Bible.

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Also of note - A book with 200 blank pages became a best-seller in Great Britain based solely upon the book's title. The title: What Every Man Thinks About Apart From Sex

Minced Movie Oaths - M***** F****** Snakes on a M***** F****** Plane

While working in the kitchen the other day, I heard my son and husband laughing loudly and reciting a line together along with whatever it was they were watching on the television. My curiosity was aroused so I asked what all the fuss was about. They responded in unison,
"I have had it with these monkey-fighting snakes on this Monday to Friday plane."

I soon learned that they were watching the movie Snakes on a Plane on FX and the line that they were reciting was the dubbed version of a profanity-laced exclamation uttered by Samuel Jackson's character in the theatrical version of the movie.

Here is the television version:


Apparently I don't watch enough television. I got such a kick out of the dubbed line that I googled it and there are numerous sites and blogs that discuss the line; one in particular that labeled it, "the worst overdubbed profanity replacement in TV history."

To give you an idea of how popular this line is, when I went to google the phrase "monkey-fighting snakes", I only got as far as "monkey fig..." before google's autocomplete suggested "monkey fighting snakes". And clicking on "monkey fighting snakes" returns approximately 27,300,000 hits.

Wow.

So I figured what the heck, I may as well google "Monday to Friday plane" to see what that returns too. I made it as far as "Monday to..." before the autocomplete suggested "Monday to Friday plane". While not as impressive as "monkey fighting snakes", "Monday to Friday plane" did return 5,910,000 hits.

The reason I bring up a topic that has already been written about so many times is that (regardless of the opinion of the majority) I do not think this was a poor job of profanity replacement at all - quite the opposite, actually.

If you ask me, it takes a certain amount of linguistic talent to come up with minced oaths that can be dubbed so synchronously while still making some sense semantically. (After all, there are snakes that fight monkeys and there are planes that only fly Mondays through Fridays.)

Baldness Euphemisms

According to WordNet, a euphemism is "an inoffensive or indirect expression that is substituted for one that is considered offensive or too harsh."

Having grown up with a father who is classified as bald, I am familiar with the politically correct euphemisms 'follicularly challenged' and 'acquired uncombable hair'. I just, however, came across a euphemism for baldness that I had never heard before and is perfect for my dear dad.

In last week's episode of the television show Psych, Shawn's new girlfriend, upon meeting his balding father, says:

"You're not bald, you're just taller than your hair."

This euphemism is perfect for my dad because he is tall (6'4") and, though he may have a lack of hair on his head, he certainly has never been short on the qualities that make him a wonderful, sensitive, and caring father.

Minced Oaths

Following my recent post about the euphemism crimanetly, I have heard about many additional expressions/exclamations of irritation from friends and readers. Upon looking up some of these expressions, I learned something new - there is a special category of euphemisms called "minced oaths" which is applied to exclamations.

According to a site called The Phrase Finder, "Minced oaths are a sub-group of euphemisms used to avoid swearing when expressing surprise or annoyance. They are usually, although not exclusively, religious in nature and date from the days when it wasn't acceptable to use the name of God, Jesus or other religious notables in everyday speech. To mince your words, or mince matters, means to choose words so as not to offend anyone."

Wikipedia notes that a minced oath is also sometimes called a pseudo-profanity or an expletive-deletive.

Here are some examples:

Begorrah = By God

Bejabbers = By Jesus

Blimey = Blind me

Blinking heck = Bloody Hell

By George = By God

By golly = By God's body

By gosh = By God

Cheese and Crackers = Jesus Christ

Cor blimey/Gorblimey = God blind me

Crikey/Cripes = Christ

Crivvens = Christ defend us

Dagnabbit/Dangnabbit/Dagnammit = God damn it

Dang/Darn = Damn

Drat = God rot it

Flaming/Flipping heck = Fucking Hell

For crying out loud = For Christ's sake

For Pete's sake = For St. Peter's sake

For the love of Mike = For St. Michael's sake

Freaking/Flipping = fucking

Gadzooks = God's hooks

Good garden party = Good God

Holy spit = Holy shit

Jason Crisp/Jiminy Cricket/Judas Priest = Jesus Christ

Jebus/Jeez/Jehosaphat = Jesus

Jumping Jehosaphat = Jumping Jesus

Land sakes = For the Lord's sake

Lawks a mercy = Lord have mercy

Odds-bodkins = God's sweet body

Sacré bleu = Sang de Dieu (God's blood)

Sam Hill = Hell

Shoot/Shucks = shit

Strewth = God's Truth

Suffering succotash = Suffering Saviour

Tarnation = Damnation

What in Sam Hill? = What in damn Hell?

Zounds = God's wounds

The Phrase Finder site also points out that even though new euphemisms appear on a regular basis, new minced oaths are quite rare and this may be because, "restrictions on swearing out loud when surprised or annoyed have slackened somewhat."

Interesting observation...if you ask me, restrictions hardly exist at all anymore and expletives are more the norm than the exception.

Linguistics Cartoon Favorites - Euphemisms