What does "Sacredam!"mean?
May 25, 2011 9:54 AM Subscribe
I am reading "The call of the wild" and my question is ...about "sacredam"-----"Sacredam!" he cried,when his eyes lit upon Buck.---- When you native speakers hear this word,do you understand its meaning easily? I couldn't find it on any web dictionaries.Will it come from [sacred + damn] ? Could you give me more information about it?
I suspect that it's from "Sacre Dame" which is, loosely translated "Mother of God!" I googled to find the phrase in context, and I found this conversation. So, yeah, seems right!
posted by chatongriffes at 9:59 AM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by chatongriffes at 9:59 AM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Given the generally blasphemous nature of French-Canadian swear words, I would assume that it's actually supposed to be "Sacred Dame" - aka referencing the virgin Mary.
No, it is not a common swear in modern French-Canadian.
posted by muddgirl at 10:00 AM on May 25, 2011
No, it is not a common swear in modern French-Canadian.
posted by muddgirl at 10:00 AM on May 25, 2011
I'm a native English speaker and I've never seen that word before. It sounds like a minced oath for "Goddamn!"
posted by theodolite at 10:00 AM on May 25, 2011
posted by theodolite at 10:00 AM on May 25, 2011
Scratch that, the "sacre dame" explanation makes more sense.
posted by theodolite at 10:01 AM on May 25, 2011
posted by theodolite at 10:01 AM on May 25, 2011
No, it is not a common swear in modern French-Canadian.
Responding to myself, as I always do - it seems to me that anyone familiar with Canadian French swearing would recognize that it's supposed to be a swear word - "Sacre +" is a very common form.
posted by muddgirl at 10:04 AM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Responding to myself, as I always do - it seems to me that anyone familiar with Canadian French swearing would recognize that it's supposed to be a swear word - "Sacre +" is a very common form.
posted by muddgirl at 10:04 AM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Best answer: The character speaking in Call of The Wild is Perrault, a French-Canadian. As an native English speaker, I am not familiar with the word, but I can infer that it's a profanity, used to express surprise and amazement about the dog, Buck. There's more information on the word here.
In my copy of Call of the Wild, "Sacredam!" is italicized. This is a convention often used to indicate that the word is not in English.
Hurray for another mizukko question! Welcome back!
posted by zamboni at 10:15 AM on May 25, 2011
In my copy of Call of the Wild, "Sacredam!" is italicized. This is a convention often used to indicate that the word is not in English.
Hurray for another mizukko question! Welcome back!
posted by zamboni at 10:15 AM on May 25, 2011
Best answer: Yup, French-American familiar with moults gros mots many bad words :D chiming in to agree that it means "sacred lady", i.e., Marie/Mary the mother of Jesus. France was (is) Catholic historically, and you may have heard of the swear word "sacrebleu". "The phrase originated from the swear words "sacré bleu", a Marian oath, referring to the color (i.e., "sacred blue") associated with Mary, mother of Jesus." Voilà! Easy to envisage "sacredam" being used as well.
Taking the background a bit further, you've very probably heard of Notre Dame cathedral, "notre dame" means "our lady". Paris' Notre Dame is not the only one – we have a Notre Dame church in Nice as well. It's common, see again Mary and Catholicism.
posted by fraula at 10:48 AM on May 25, 2011
Taking the background a bit further, you've very probably heard of Notre Dame cathedral, "notre dame" means "our lady". Paris' Notre Dame is not the only one – we have a Notre Dame church in Nice as well. It's common, see again Mary and Catholicism.
posted by fraula at 10:48 AM on May 25, 2011
I've never heard that expression before in my life, but it took me about 1 second to translate it to "holy mother of god!" in my head.
posted by Aquaman at 11:16 AM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Aquaman at 11:16 AM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Are you familiar with the English exclamation "Holy Mary mother of God!"? Not as a prayer but as an interjection? "Sacre dame!" is that, but in French.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:17 AM on May 25, 2011
posted by DarlingBri at 11:17 AM on May 25, 2011
I also think that given the context, the speaker (and writer) were also familiar with "damn!" as a very bad swear word, almost the equivalent of f**k. So the similarity of the sounds of "Damn" and "Dame" gives the word more punch, and is probably why London wrote it as "Sacredam" not "Sacre Dame!"
posted by bearwife at 1:08 PM on May 25, 2011
posted by bearwife at 1:08 PM on May 25, 2011
The TLF gives "dam" (from Notre-Dame; the virgin Mary) as an alternative spelling for "dame" when it's used as an interjection. They give an example from Balzac: "Ah dam! nous sommes si bêtes, nous aut' pésans! que nous finissons par entendre les bêtes (Balzac, Paysans, 1844, p. 34).".
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 2:01 PM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
posted by Monday, stony Monday at 2:01 PM on May 25, 2011 [1 favorite]
Bit of a tangent related to bearwife's comment: "damn" comes from the Old French "damner", meaning "to damn". The verb "damner" is still used in modern French.
posted by fraula at 2:08 PM on May 25, 2011
posted by fraula at 2:08 PM on May 25, 2011
"damn" comes from the Old French "damner", meaning "to damn"
There's something amusingly circular about this :)
posted by muddgirl at 2:23 PM on May 25, 2011
There's something amusingly circular about this :)
posted by muddgirl at 2:23 PM on May 25, 2011
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posted by jozxyqk at 9:58 AM on May 25, 2011