''Sacrebleu'' or ''sacre bleu'' is a French profanity 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 the profane ''sacré dieu'', "''holy God''", which is, by some religions, considered a profanity, due to one of the

Ten Commandments The Ten Commandments ( Biblical Hebrew עשרת הדברים \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדְּבָרִים, ''aséret ha-dvarím'', lit. The Decalogue, The Ten Words, cf. Mishnaic Hebrew עשרת הדיברות \ עֲשֶׂרֶת הַדִּבְ ...

in the

Bible The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts o ...

, which reads "

Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" () (KJV; also "You shall not make wrongful use of the name of the Lord your God" (NRSV) and variants) is the second or third (depending on numbering) of God's Ten Commandments to man in th ...

Usage

The expression today is not used in France. In the English-speaking world, it is well known, perhaps from

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

's books about the fictional

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct language ...

detective

Hercule Poirot Hercule Poirot (, ) is a fictional Belgian detective created by British writer Agatha Christie. Poirot is one of Christie's most famous and long-running characters, appearing in 33 novels, two plays ('' Black Coffee'' and '' Alibi''), and more ...

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 Offensive may refer to: * Offensive, the former name of the Dutch political party Socialist Alternative * Offensive (military), an attack * Offensive language ** Fighting words or insulting language, words that by their very utterance inflict inj ...

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 profanity French words and phrases Religion in France