Sacres Outside Quebec French
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The use of liturgical profanity is not unique to Quebec French. In Italian, although to a lesser extent, some analogue words are in use: in particular "ostia" (host) and (more so in the past) "sacramento" are relatively common expressions in the North/East, which are lighter (and a little less common) than the typical blasphemies in use in Italy like "porco Dio" (pig god) and "porca Madonna" (see: Italian profanity). Also the process of modifying the terms in euphemistic equivalents is in use in Italy: for example "ostia" is commonly modified in "osteria". The word "sacramento" has also produced the verb "sacramentare", which colloquially means to use blasphemy.
A few other dialects in the world also feature this kind of profanity, for instance the expression Kruzifix noch einmal in Austro-Bavarian or Krucifix in Czech. La hostia is an expletive expression in some Spanish dialects. In Catalan, hòstia is used and is frequently abbreviated to osti. Spanish also uses me cago en ... ("I shit on...") followed by "God", "the blessed chalice", "the Virgin" and other terms, religious or not. It can be shortened to just "¡La virgen!" or "¡Copón bendito!" ("Blessed chalice!"). Romanian, the profanity anafura mă-tii! ("Your mother's host!") is sometimes used along with Easter, Christ, Cross, Commemoration ("parastas"), sacred oil lamp ('tu-i candela 'mă-sii), God, Church etc. .
Sheila Fischman's translation of La Guerre, Yes Sir! (published under that title in both French and English, but meaning roughly "War, you bet!") by Roch Carrier leaves many sacres in the original Quebec French, since they have no real equivalent in English. She gives a brief explanation and history of these terms in her introduction, including a few not listed here.
Irish Catholics of old employed a similar practice, whereby 'ejaculations' were used to express frustration without cursing or profaning (taking the Lord's name in vain). This typically involved the recitation of a rhyming couplet, where a shocked person might say 'Jesus who, for love of me/Died on the Cross at Calvary' instead of 'Jesus!' This is often abbreviated simply to 'Jesus-hoo-fer-luv-a-me', an expression still heard among elderly Irish people. Also: 'Jesus, Mary and Joseph!'
Read more about this topic: Quebec French Profanity
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