“CURSES! FOILED AGAIN!”
This
was one of the favorite expletives used by Dick Dastardly, a cartoon antagonist created in
1968 by Hanna-Barbera, based on English actor Terry Thomas.
▼https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKJolS9Atg
▼https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXKJolS9Atg
We
never find out specifically what misfortunes D. D. is wishing upon his enemies,
but the kind of curse we’re talking about today is the “invocation of a supernatural power to inflict harm or punishment on
someone or something” kind of curse, not offensive words or phrases kind.
We know those.
English
is a rich language, with many ways to describe things, actions, and feelings,
some words adding subtle differences to the overall meaning. Words are the
tools of writers. It’s our job to put together words to amuse, teach, scare,
entice, and entrance readers and put them in places, situations, and times they
know well and those they have never experienced.
Yay
Words! Unfortunately, sometime we use the same ones over and over.
Somewhere
I read an article by an author commenting on the use of swear words. He said
that, in English, about the worst thing you can wish on a person is to go have
a sexual experience. He compared that to Jewish curses, which he felt embodied
a true sense of inflicting harm.
YIDDISH CURSES
Taking
that to heart, I did a little research on Yiddish curses, and I have to agree
with anonymous.
Anglo-Saxon curses
often deal with body parts, Catholic curses go for blasphemy, and the Middle
and Far East insulting ancestors. According to Marnie Winston-Macauley, “the
Yiddish curse has a baroque splendor in its intricate ability to prophesize. The most spectacular lull
the victim with a positive opening,
which then turns into a juicy, literate, malediction that no mere obscene word
could possibly convey. According to the Yiddish proverb “A curse is not a telegram: it doesn’t arrive so fast.”
Like Jewish caviar,
the Jewish curse must be savored. So, writers who don’t like using
swear words in their novels or who perhaps want to enrich the quality of
savoring ill will, you should take heed of the following examples
● May what I wish on him come true (most, even half, even just 10%).
● May he should drink too much castor oil.
● May someone throw salt in your eyes and pepper in your
nose.
● May you turn into a blintz and be eaten by your cat.
● May you run to the toilet every three minutes or every three
months.
● May you crap blood and pus.
● May you grow a wooden tongue.
● May your mouth be in your rear.
● May your head fall off.
● May your intestines be
turned into a telephone cord.
● May God should visit upon you the best of the Ten Plagues.
● May venereal disease
should consume your body.
● May all your teeth fall out except the one to give you a toothache.
● May leeches should drink you dry.
● May I live him long
enough to bury him.
● May a wheel run over
your skull.
●May your tapeworm develop
constipation while trolley cars run through your intestine as thieves camp out
in your belly and steal your guts one by one.
● May you grow like an onion with your heard in the ground.
● May you live to a hundred and twenty years with a wooden head and glass eyes.
● May you live to a hundred and twenty years with a wooden head and glass eyes.
● May you enjoy a good time with plenty of good Vodka – and may your
blood turn to
● May you be transformed into a chandelier, to hang by day and to burn by
night.
●May you swallow an umbrella and may it open
inside you.
● May you get passage out of the old village safely, and when you
settle, may you fall into the outhouse just as a regiment of Ukrainians is
finishing a prune stew and twelve barrels of beer.
And
last, but not least, my favorite.
● May you have a thousand mother-in-laws.
Well,
some of those curses are pretty graphic, and they definitely have the
impact of some serious ill will. Can any other culture match that? I took a look at some others. I believe the Irish are second in the running. They have many of the same ideas of ill will and misfortune, but they tend to lack the
dramatic flourish of the Yiddish curses. I was a little disappointed.
I do like this one, though, probably because of the cartoon that went with it.
● May the gates of Paradise never open to you.
I’m
sure every culture and religion in the world has its own version of “curses” to
wish misfortune on others, just as they all have their “blessings”.
Curses are not as easy to find on the internet as you might think. When you Google most of them, you get plain old curse words or definitions of malediction, ill will, curse, or whatever word you used to indicate willing someone bad luck.
Curses are not as easy to find on the internet as you might think. When you Google most of them, you get plain old curse words or definitions of malediction, ill will, curse, or whatever word you used to indicate willing someone bad luck.
It’s
true you can add “May you…” to many of them and get a curse, just as many folk
sayings can be turned into curses by adding the correct words to put the saying
into the proper format.
Writers can spice things up a little by using one or two creative curses in a novel instead of everyday swear words. For those writers who are uncomfortable using too many swear words, try putting a few of them in other languages if it's logical for your story, and one character can insult another with
legitimate words that not many people know.
Just sayin’.□
Author R. Ann
Siracusa
Converting oxygen to carbon dioxide for more than three quarters of a century
Travel to Foreign Lands for Romance and IntrigueConverting oxygen to carbon dioxide for more than three quarters of a century
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Sources:
https://ireland-calling.com/wisdom-may-the-cat/
http://www.gaelicmatters.com/irish-curses.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dick_Dastardly
http://yiddishradioproject.org/exhibits/stutchkoff/curses.php3
https://www.kveller.com/these-yiddish-curses-are-pretty-epic/
https://thoughtcatalog.com/nico-lang/2013/10/61-hilarious-yiddish-insults-you-need-to-know/
https://forward.com/schmooze/358803/why-dont-people-use-yiddish-curses-properly-in-english/
http://www.aish.com/j/fs/Yiddish_Curses_for_the_New_Millennium.html
https://www.irishtimes.com/life-and-style/abroad/54-irish-curses-you-won-t-have-learned-in-school-1.3011527
http://www.gaelicmatters.com/irish-curses.html
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/swears-cursing-irish-gaeilge
https://www.irishcentral.com/roots/top-ten-strange-and-weird-irish-curses-when-you-really-want-to-hex-your-enemy-171586881-237766231
https://erinsromance.wordpress.com/tag/irish-curses/
https://lovindublin.com/feature/best-irish-curse-words
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_of_Scotland
http://www.bbc.co.uk/cumbria/features/2003/07/restoration/the_curse.shtml
https://www.skyhorsepublishing.com/9781620871904/the-little-book-of-curses-and-maledictions-for-everyday-use/
https://www.clanthompson.org/reiver%20curse.html
https://scotlandwelcomesyou.com/scottish-sayings/
http://clipart-library.com/
http://www.yiddishwit.com/List.html and http://www.yiddishwit.com/gallery
http://kehillatisrael.net/docs/yiddish/yiddish_pr.htm
Sounds like a fun way to vent a little steam. Thanks for all of the ammunition (0;
ReplyDeleteGrreat blog
ReplyDelete