Tuesday, March 22, 2005

Yosemite Sam called me a "Rat Eater"! That's total felgercarb!

A few months ago I tried looking for a comprehensive list of "fake" swear-words. You know, like friggin' or consarnit, etc. I Googled in earnest, but couldn't hit paydirt until, hooray! Sarcasmo found the motherlode!

List of fictional curse words. It still doesn't have or consarnit or any of the declensions of the verb "frig", but we're getting close... By the way, who knew Scooby and Shaggy were "cursing" when they said Zoinks?!

PS. Explanation of the title of this post for those in too big a hurry to RTFA (read the friggin' article):

rassin-frassin - from Hanna-Barbera's Jetsons & Flintstones a derogatory adjective of some kind. Possible corruption of the German curse "Ratzen-Fressen" or "Rat Eating/Eater." Also uttered by Yosemite Sam in Warner Bros cartoons.

felgercarb - from Battlestar Galactica (or feldercarb, feldergarb or felgergarb) usage context appears to be similar to "bullshit" / also a term for garbage and/or mechanical sludge in more polite usage

In related fictional lingo, Twists, Slugs and Roscoes: A Glossary of Hardboiled Slang is helpful in deciphering what those private eyes and gangsters meant when they said stuff like, "You dumb mug, get your mitts off the marbles before I stuff that mud-pipe down your mush--and tell your moll to hand over the mazuma."

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