''Sacrebleu'' or ''sacre bleu'' is a

French French may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France ** French people, a nation and ethnic group ** French cuisine, cooking traditions and practices Arts and media * The French (band), ...

expression used as a cry of surprise, irritation or displeasure. It is a

minced oath A minced oath is a euphemistic expression formed by deliberately misspelling, mispronouncing, or replacing a part of a profane, blasphemous, or taboo word or phrase to reduce the original term's objectionable characteristics. An example is "gosh ...

form of ''sacré Dieu'' (holy God), which is considered profane by some religions due to one of the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments (), or the Decalogue (from Latin , from Ancient Greek , ), are religious and ethical directives, structured as a covenant document, that, according to the Hebrew Bible, were given by YHWH to Moses. The text of the Ten ...

in the

Bible The Bible is a collection of religious texts that are central to Christianity and Judaism, and esteemed in other Abrahamic religions such as Islam. The Bible is an anthology (a compilation of texts of a variety of forms) originally writt ...

, which reads " Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain."

Usage

The expression today is not used in France. In the

English-speaking world The English-speaking world comprises the 88 countries and territories in which English language, English is an official, administrative, or cultural language. In the early 2000s, between one and two billion people spoke English, making it the ...

, it is well known, perhaps from

Agatha Christie Dame Agatha Mary Clarissa Christie, Lady Mallowan, (; 15 September 1890 – 12 January 1976) was an English people, English author known for her 66 detective novels and 14 short story collections, particularly those revolving ...

's books about the fictional Belgian detective

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by the English writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is Christie's most famous and longest-running character, appearing in 33 novels, two plays (''Black Coffee (play), Black Coffee'' and '' ...

, and the Disney movies ''

The Aristocats ''The Aristocats'' is a 1970 American Animated film, animated comedy film produced by Walt Disney Productions and distributed by Buena Vista Distribution. It is directed by Wolfgang Reitherman and written by Ken Anderson (animator), Ken Ander ...

'', ''

The Rescuers ''The Rescuers'' is a 1977 American Animated film, animated adventure film, adventure comedy-drama film produced by Walt Disney Productions and released by Buena Vista Distribution. Bob Newhart and Eva Gabor respectively star as Bernard and B ...

'', ''

The Little Mermaid "The Little Mermaid" (), sometimes translated in English as "The Little Sea Maid", is a fairy tale written by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen. Originally published in 1837 as part of a collection of fairy tales for children, the story foll ...

'' and ''

Beauty and the Beast "Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by the French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in (''The Young American and Marine Tales''). Villeneuve's lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and publish ...

'' which feature French characters that use the expression. The expression is used in the 1993 song " Black No. 1 (Little Miss Scare-All)" by the gothic metal band

Type O Negative Type O Negative was an American gothic/doom metal band formed in Brooklyn, New York City in 1989 by Peter Steele (bass, lead vocals), Kenny Hickey (guitar, co-lead vocals), Josh Silver (keyboards, backing vocals), and Sal Abruscato (drums ...

Origin

The phrase originated from the words ''sacré Dieu''. At varying points in history this was considered to be taking God's name in vain, which is forbidden in the

. It was then changed to ''bleu'' (blue) which rhymes with ''Dieu''. Other sources propose it coming from old blasphemous curses relating to God,Tassie, J. S (1961). ”The Use of Sacrilege in the Speech of French Canada”, ''American Speech'', 36.1 used from the late Middle-Age (some are attested as early as the 11th century) to the 14th (at the latest), with many variants: ''morbleu'' or ''mordieu'', ''corbleu'', ''palsambleu'', ''jarnidieu'', ''tudieu'', respectively standing for ''mort eDieu'' (God's death), ''corps eDieu'' (God's body), ''par le sang eDieu'' (by God's blood, the two latter possibly referring to the Eucharistic bread and wine), ''je renie Dieu'' (I deny God), ''tue Dieu'' (kill God) ... Those curses may be compared to the archaic English od''sdeath'', ''sblood'', ''struth'' or ''zounds'' (God's wounds). They were considered so offensive that ''Dieu'' was sublimated into the similar-sounding neutral syllable ''bleu''. The verb ''sacrer'' has several meanings, including to crown, to anoint, to name someone hampion, best actor, etc. and in the past, rarely in France but more common in French Canada, of swear, curse. Therefore, ''sacrebleu'' could be in modern French ''Je jure par Dieu'' and in English ''I curse by God'', or the more common ''I swear to God''.

References

{{Reflist Euphemisms French words and phrases Religion in France