'Motherless ogre' would be absolutely perfect thank you! A lot of characters are cursing at another character who they think is some kind of animal (he's not an actual animal, but without giving the story away, he is called that because of some of things he has been accused of). There is a lot of allusion towards him being a beast and the references to 'son of a gun/bitch' and being a bastard child would fit too as there is a lot of superiority and smugness from some of the characters due to class and things like that (as most of them of a noble class), and particularly as my 'beast' character's parents are never mentioned. Thanks guys you've given me loads of ideas
Speak for yourself. As well as being vulgar it is a profanity. I know a lot of people, particularly Americans, who wouldn't dream of swearing in this way--that's why 'gosh' etc were coined. It is offensive for many, and sounds particularly disgusting coming out of the mouths of young children.
'Bloody' originates from the term 'by our lady' and I can't see how it is offensive. In modern times, its not nearly as offensive as some other words. Yes, it used to be offensive but times have changed and like CruciFICTION said its an exclamation, not an insult towards anyone. Just as a side-note, in the media I always hear Americans swearing in this way, and sometimes worse but definitely just as much as us Brits, for example.
But the media is not actual middle-American life. Just from personal experience, while none of my many American colleagues swear, most of my Brit ones do--although they attempt to tone it down because it's so unacceptable here. I've never heard my Australian relatives swearing as part of their normal conversation. It's like saying 'everyone' uses slang or bad grammar--no, they don't. The point I was trying to make originally is that a) if you want to show an alien culture, it might be interesting to have them express themselves without expletives--partly to make them different, and b) I wanted to say that swearing really isn't universal in every country so don't feel you have to have it for 'authenticity'. And I said this expression was vulgar as well as profane, and there are other origins to the phrase, apart from the one you mention, which still make it plain nasty.
You mean as considered blasphemy? The expression "Oh my God" is technically no less profane, yet (according to wikipedia) accounts for 24% of American women's swearing.
I understand this urge to avoid the use of (our current) expletives in fantasy. I've not read any but can say that I would have found swearing incongrous in one of the Lord of the Rings movies..or whatever. While many of our current expletives are rather venerable it still stands that most of them have a very nowish quality and that most folk, on some level, think they are the first to use them (as many likewise think drugs and recreational sex are peculiar to the present)..so expletives do have a peculiar tendency to drag one into the humdrum present..which is wholly inimical to the the enjoyment of fantasy with its manufactured sense of timelessness.
Kind of - some people use the English "f" word when swearing in Swedish, but I think it may be to tone it down. Swearing in a foreign language removes some of the charge; makes it seem less serious. It may also be to sound cooler and more fashionable. Most Swedish swear words have a religious origin, like "jävlar" (devils), "helvete" (Hell), "satan" (self-explanatory), and there are also a few sexual ones (male and female body parts). The sexual ones are considered very rude, and the religious ones are frowned upon in daily speech and will make you seem crude and unsophisticated. However, all of them are acceptable in literature, especially in dialogue, since there's a wide consensus that literature can, or even should, show everyday reality and not avoid the dirt and grit of it. There's a genre called "social realism" which grew really strong when the worker's movement gained power in the 20th century, which rejects the sophisticated, artificial and larger-than-life in favour of revealing social conditions and showing the hardships and drama of ordinary people's lives.
Expletives common in modern society can be used to good effect in Fantasy. See, for example, Joe Abercrombie. Take a read through his book "Best Served Cold."
-me personally,i use the same stuff we do f**k ,s**t, the usual.i guess it really depends on what kind of time period that effects dialect.for example in avatar ,lord of the rings ,a and the matrix,they don't speak the same now do they? i say keep the norms and don't put to much thought into it.however,when referring to species,since my characters are not human obviously that would be different .example: calling a vampire a bat would be like (i'm black...) calling me a coon,or a porch monkey or whatever other stupid insults get thrown around.
It's interesting that your Brit colleagues are rather sweary. I found (here in Britain) that when I was doing blue-collar work the air tended to be blue, but as I progressed into a profession the swearing stopped. I did have a colleague for a while who swore a lot, but it jarred and he didn't fit in so he didn't stay -- it seemed unprofessional. Nowadays I never hear swearing at work. Maybe it varies by field.
I worked as an attorney at a large, international law firm (900+ attorneys) and I heard the f-bomb thrown around plenty by the other professionals there.
As far as swearing goes in fantasy novels, you'll rarely find that characters will drop an f-bomb. They may use "a**" to refer to a packmule or donkey, and maybe a "d***", but rarely have I ever read those in fantasy novels. There's simply too much of a difference in time period. I've seen a lot in terms of swearing on a fictional deity, or some other made-up term. These are what makes the setting and time period in most, if not all, cases.
If you're gonna write in English, why wouldn't you use English swear words? If it's supposed to be another language, people will just assume that it correlates to that English word anyway, and if the fantasy people are just somehow speaking English and it's never really addressed why, then it would be the same with swearing. That said, swearing stands out in all prose, so if it's used incongruously, it'll be a problem as it would in non-fantasy writing.
I think you will find that that isn't swearing; it's a correct English term that you will even find in the Bible.
Just like "bitch" is the correct term for a female dog, and so on. It's kind of funny that the words are used for swearing so much, it almost sounds like swearing when you use them in their proper sense too.
You could make up a couple of new words to substitute for the swearing in your fantasy, but if not, you can just use the modern-day words we always use to swear.
If used in the correct context, then yes, you'd be correct, but it was meant to make a point that swears have their origins in older ages, so as an A** is a mule or donkey, it can also be used as an insult, which today would be seen as a swear, but in a fantasy enviornment it's more of a severe insult. It's all about the interpretation.
"Ass" meaning donkey leads to the (probably distinctively British) insult of calling somebody something like "a silly ass", which wouldn't make your (British) maiden aunt blush. The word with the same spelling but that I would have to censor with asterisks, meaning buttocks, is a completely different word with a different etymology -- a true homophone. To use that word as an insult you'd probably have to call someone an a**hole. But because of the homophone issue the taboo nature of the latter seems to have infected the former, at least in the USA. It hasn't happened in the UK to the same extent because in the UK we don't say "a**" (except through US influence), we say "ar*e" so we don't get the homophone effect.
I'd say a bit of swearing might make for some 'edgy' fantasy. I agree with what's been said though - if the rest is in modern English, then don't re-invent the wheel.
