Jules Verne Forum

<jvf@Gilead.org.il>

JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec 19961997199819992000200120022003200420052006200720082009

Re: Parbleu! ... morbleu, tudieu et al.

From: iba <iba~at~ibarustic.com>
Date: Tue, 18 Nov 2003 07:29:55 +0100
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>

Jean-Pierre,

Merci beaucoup!

Richard

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jean-Pierre Boutin" <boutin~at~versailles.inra.fr>
To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: Parbleu! ... morbleu, tudieu et al.


> Ventrebleu (one word!) = ventre (de) Dieu. In all these expressions
> "bleu" is an euphemism for "dieu". It was a sin to include God in
> blasphemous expressions. There is also a very pleasant and dated
> expression : "ventre-saint-gris", "saint gris" being a non existing
> saint (attributed to Henry IV). Information from "Le Robert",
> probably the best dictionary of French language.
> Jean-Pierre
>
> >Jean-Pierre,
> >
> >Thank you very much for a lot of interesting information concerning some
> >French epithets. Anyway, do you know why the collocation "ventre bleu"
was
> >used? I cannot catch it, as I can see nothing special at a blue belly...
> >(excuse me if my question sounds stupid, but I am interested in foreign
> >languages and their origins).
> >
> >Bye, Richard
> >
> >
> >
> >----- Original Message -----
> >From: "Jean-Pierre Boutin" <boutin~at~versailles.inra.fr>
> >To: "Jules Verne Forum" <jvf~at~Gilead.org.il>
> >Sent: Friday, November 14, 2003 9:29 AM
> >Subject: Re: Parbleu! ... morbleu, tudieu et al.
> >
> >
> >> Parbleu, pardieu and, more recent, pardi are corruptions of "Par
> >> Dieu!". Other profanities are "morbleu" (= mort Dieu), "tudieu" (=
> >> tue Dieu) or "palsanbleu" (= par le sang de Dieu) and "ventre bleu".
> >> Most of these profanities of 17th century are dated except "pardi"
> >> which is always in use. My opinion is that they were also dated in
> >> the time of JV who used them, as present time writers, for comical
> >> purpose. The same is right for "sapristi" (= sacristie) which
> >> approach the famous "tabernacle" of our friend of Quebec.
> >> Jean-Pierre
> >>
> >> >In working over "Around the Moon" I found that all of the slight
> >profanity
> >> >such as "Mille dieux!", "Parbleu!" etc. are translated by the
English
> >> >translators with the ubiquitous "By Jove", or "Oh!", or "You don't
say".
> >> >This is presumably to accomodate the Victorian morals of the time. My
> >> >question is: what is the prevalence of such profanity in Verne? is it
> >> >confined to the french and humorous characters (Ardan, Passepartout)?
is
> >> >there a temporal distributiion, later books vs. earlier books? and
does
> >this
> >> >just represent the difference between English stuffiness and gallic
joie
> >de
> > > >vivre?
> > > >
> > > >nwolcott2~at~post.harvard.edu Friar Wolcott, Gutenberg Abbey, Sherwood
> >Forrest
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
>
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------
> Jean-Pierre Boutin <boutin~at~versailles.inra.fr>
> Lab. de Biologie des Semences (Seed Biology Lab.), INRA
> F-78026 Versailles cedex, France
> Tel 33 (0)1 30 83 33 39 Fax 33 (0)1 30 83 30 96
> -------------------------------------------------------
>
Received on Tue 18 Nov 2003 - 08:35:32 IST

JV.Gilead.org.il
Copyright © Zvi Har’El
$Date: 2009/02/01 22:36:11 $$