Friday, January 6, 2012

Swear words that aren't

I need a break from editing, so I'm going to talk about one of my favorite things to write: swear words that aren't (singular-swear word that ain't). Here after referred to as SWTAs.  
A SWTA is an alternative to swearing.  For example, "Drat" or "Sugar".  While I was developing my characters, I decided that they each needed their own SWTA.  So I did some research. I had no idea that looking for synonyms for swear words was so much fun.  It's almost as fun randomly picking names out of the phone book, or looking for first names that mean "Stupid" (there aren't any, in case you were wondering).  Anyway, my favorite SWTAs are as follows, in no particular order.
  • Holy Buckets
  • Flapdoodle
  • Blinken (I actually use this one)
  • Malarkey
  • Balderdash
  • Shazbot
  • Carp (as in the fish)
  • Shitake mushrooms
  • Shin bucket
  • Crummidy crumb crumb
  • Sugarfoot
  • Skamble
  • Bushwa
  • Fumadiddle
I enjoyed finding SWTAs so much that I actually created a character who "collected" them.
What are your favorite SWTAs?  Do you have any I can add to my list?

5 comments:

  1. LOL! Lily, you crack me up!

    My dear, mild-mannered mother-in-law who was well-loved by everyone had one SWTA: Jiminy Cricket. I thought that was hilarious. Someone as cutely sweet as she was, I would think, would have something tamer like "nuts" or "dang" instead.

    I don't really have any SWTAs; I go for hardcore myself. ;)

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  2. Others I've heard used by real people: horsefeathers, horse hockey, cheese and rice.

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  3. Fooey, fiddle, fiddlesticks, shoot, jeez-o- pete, cryminently, gol-durn, ding blasted, crikey, horse puckey, bull-oney, sugar, daggon.

    That's just what I could think of in a couple minutes. I guess I know a lot of these, though I never heard of skambles or blinken, or cheese and rice.

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  4. And the Daniels' favorite one. STINK! It must be said in all caps and with an exclamation point.

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