Good grief! an expression of dismay often used by Charlie Brown in Charles Schulz's Peanuts comic strip is a minced form of God's grief! referring to Jesus Christ's suffering on the cross. An elaborated form of the minced oath is Good grief and gravy!Oh for goodness' sake is another fudged blasphemy
Morbleu = par la mort de Dieu« Puisque vous y donnez, dans ces vices du temps,
Morbleu! vous n'êtes pas pour être de mes gens. »
Le Misanthrope, Molière
Acte I, scène I
blimey and crikey are strictly BE. In fact so BE, North Americans use them to make fun of Brits or try to "sound British." (especially blimey)Blimey! (to express surprise? = mince alors!)
I hear that a lot, is it 'polite' enough?
I also hear 'crikey' a lot, though I've never been quite sure what it means![]()
(a good opportunity to know exactly what it means
)
As for 'damn', I also wonder if it's on the safe side...
edit to Paul: quelle transmission de pensée!![]()
In the United States, "far out" hasn't been used since the 70s and it really wasn't a substitute for the "f-word." It meant more "amazing!" "unbelievable!"Substitute for s**t - sugarplum fairy !!!!(Probably only used today by those 65+) I've even heard, "sugarplum fairy, won't you dance with me?").
Substitute for f**k - far out (often said faaar out) - this one is heard regularly in my workplace, including being used by moi-même![]()
This highlights the fact that America seems to be far more sensitive about religious matters than Britain. In Britain a teacher putting a child in detention for using the f-word would be quite likely to say 'Damn! Putting you in detention means I have to stay behind too!' (But no British person would say 'dang' or 'darn' except when attempting an impersonation of Fred Flintstone)'Damn' is not good to use, its the kind of word you get detention for using in school, try 'dang' or 'darn' instead
poppycock is quite cute--but about 100 years old! I don't think anyone still alive would say it without trying to make a joke about it.How delightful!! a whole panel of the less offensive words in english! what about "poppycok" for"you're talking shit" or the irish "feck off" for the cheerful "f.ck off"? in french I say "nom d'une mouche" for "nom de dieu" or "étron" instead of the other excremential word...
They're also used in Ireland.that's a pile of shit-->that's a bunch of baloney/hogwash/bunk
Since the original question from pieanne wasWold "holy shit" work here?
...I don't think so!What would be the "polite" word used instead of "shit!"?