Swearing is Sacred in MTL

Warning: this post contains vulgar words in two languages.

You can tell a lot about a culture’s repressed obsessions by their dirty words.

In American English, cuss words derive from body parts, bodily functions, and sex.

In Québecois French, swearing comes from the Catholic Church.

These religious swears, called sacres, are considered very vulgar. I don’t know then how people get through a mass without either laughing up their sleeves or clutching their pearls to death, but the rapidly declining church-going population seems unswayed by this populist use of purportedly sacred language.

The filthiest thing you can say here is tabarnak, which literally translates as ”tabernacle.” It’s the French-Canadian equivalent of “fuck,” though being a province with dual linguistic heritage, ”fuck” is also a naughty word here but considered much, much less rude—on a par with ”goddammit.” You can say your day was ”fucké” in mixed company without shocking anyone (well, mixed company with a sense of humor). Reportedly you can say fucké on QC TV without being bleeped.

There are a host of other Catholicism-related swear words, including ”host,” or esti. Calisse (chalice) comes in noun, verb, and adjectival forms for your blasphemous cussing pleasure, with criss or crissment, ciboire (the box thingy where communion wafers are stored) or baptême thrown in for emphasis. I see francophones on the local Reddit having fun stacking up as many sacres as they can when describing their frustrations with local politics, rents, or infrastructure.

If you want to add a U.S.ian touch, you can add de marde (of shit) to any of the sacres for emphasis, or as a modifier for anything you don’t like: calisse de marde, char de marde, internet de marde.

There are other types of vulgar expressions in Québecois too, but the sacres are a distinctive glimpse into Québec’s cultural history and its fraught relationship with the Catholic Church. Though the province is becoming increasingly secular, often in controversial ways, I think it’s unlikely the sacres will disappear. They are colorful and creative and very satisfying to say.