Yesterday evening I was watching "The Lost City," a movie in which Sandra Bullock is a sapiosexual author of bodice-rippers who has been kidnapped by a monomaniacal billionaire. In the scene where she is crawling through a cave of stalagtites under an erupting volcano (!) wearing a sequined bodysuit, she falls and exclaims "Cheese and rice."
That was her second use of the phrase in the movie, and in our house subtitles are always on, so there was no mistaking the wording. I had to pull out my phone and look it up. It is a euphemism or a "minced oath" for "Jesus Christ."
Euphemism [Greek "eu" = good + "pheme" = voice] I understood, but then I had to figure out why it would be a "minced" oath. Minced [Middle English from Proto-Germanic minniz = "less"] means "finely chopped," with a corollary meaning of "weakened or extenuated."
You learn something every day.
The movie, BTW, is thoroughly good fun if you don't take it too seriously. And if you don't get upset seeing Brad Pitt getting his brains literally blown out by the evil minions of the wicked Daniel Radcliffe. Perhaps best watched with some recreational beverage or cannabis gummies on board.
Who cares about another way of saying 'cheezits thrice'. I just learned what 'sapiosexual' means. Kin-keeee!
ReplyDeleteThat is also the same as Cockney rhyming slang.
ReplyDeleteReminds me of cockney rhyming slang. E.g., "rats and mice" = dice.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was teaching in Idaho, my Mormon students used to say "Cheesy Cripes!" and "Oh my heck!"
ReplyDeleteBeing a pastor, I don't like to hear cursing at all. But at least for me, there is a hierarchy of curse words. At the top is taking God's name in vain (G-D and/or using "Jesus Christ" as a slang, filler, swearing, etc. ), the f-bomb, and now the utterly repugnant c-word.
ReplyDeleteI don't know how many movies I have seen that completely needlessly insert some of the worst curse words. (BTW, it seems that "Jesus Christ" doesn't hardly even make the list of bad words any longer--possibly due to overuse.)
We all know that some films are such that there is going to be cursing. "Saving Private Ryan," to ensure a greater degree of realism, had sufficient reason, I would think, to use some of those words (though, in my view, never taking God's Name in vain). But for so many other films, it reminds me of a second-grade boy who says a bad word just so he can say, "I said a bad word!"
Just as you don't have to see someone blown in pieces to understand that they are dead (how in the world did the old-timers make it back in the day when you didn't even see blood on a white shirt?), nor, for that matter, see the nudity and sexual motions to get that they are having sex (or did that part where Rhett Butler scooped Scarlet up and headed upstairs confuse everyone?), there is almost never a really good reason to insert the ANY curse words, let alone the worst ones. And if the director feels differently, maybe he ought to ask himself why?
I wish I had the connections to reach out to Hollywood actors and ask for them to "take the pledge" to not use God's Name in vain, the f-word, or the c-word, in a movie. Surely the civilizing of our tongues just might do more than we imagine.
I not only learned of sapiosexual I learned they have a flag (green, brown, blue) for sale on Amazon.
ReplyDeletexoxoxoBruce
My Minnesotan grandmother would throw out "Oh, sugar!" when losing gin rummy.
ReplyDeleteThe regionalisms must be truly fascinating. After moving to Vermont I discovered that every kid there learns to say "Jeezum crow!" They might even switch it up to "Jeezum crowbars!" if they want to get fancy.