expletive deleted question

Subject: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:16 am

Tell me, would a Texas rancher in 1847 use the word s**t if he was disgusted? In the books and movies I read and saw growing up, it would have been "horsefeathers," and I don't think that will do in this case.

If not, what expletive might the man have actually used.

Ann

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 8:38 am

Beats me-- I was born 100 years later, far from Texas and wasn't allowed to use expletives.

Dave said, "For crying out loud," once and I laughed myself sick.

Why won't "horsefeathers," work?

How about "Drat?"

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:28 am

Horsefeathers and drat are both too mild. they are made up expressions that we use when we mean something different. These are real men, and they will say whatever real men would have said a hundred and fifty years ago. It would have been mild, probably, by today's "standards" for such terms, but it would have been real.

Too bad I can't use "felgercarb." The kids and I were Battlestar Galactica freaks. We adopted that one to use at home.

Where are the guys when you need them?

Ann

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:42 am

Good question!

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:53 am

Google book search should find the word you're looking for Ann. I searched for "darn" in books publlished in the nineteenth century: Book Search

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 9:55 am

Thank you;thank you; thank you...
Ann

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:14 am

Tell us what you decide on.

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:25 am

The word you were looking for was in use in West Somerset:

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=qHkKAAAAIAAJ&q=%22shit%22&dq=%22shit%22&hl=en&ei=deA2TrSDLsm5hAf26qDAAQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CFMQ6AEwCDgy

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 10:31 am

Ah! And Daniel's ancestors were from Somerset, so that makes it even better.

It seemed to me to be the appropriate word under the circumstances, but I didn't want to risk and anachronism I'm sure there will be a few of those in the history, no matter how careful I am with the research.

Ann

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:01 pm

In watching old westerns, I've heard the word, "Dagnabbit" used often.
Of course in the time of the old westerns, no modern swear words were permitted on TV or the movies.

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 12:42 pm

That's the point, Abe. Same as horsefeathers. It was Gabby Hayes who used to say dagnabbit.. and Burt Lancaster once called Kirk Douglas a "son of a lily-livered coyote."

Comic relief.

It's as far as writing can get from what I'm looking for.

Shelagh found the answer. I'm going witj s**t.

Ann

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 4:55 pm

Aw Phooey! I loathe that word and also hate puke--too descriptive. I used to make my kids pay me a dollar if they said puke--I preferred upchuck.

At work the sh** word was used so frequently, it became boring, I said , "let's substitute bleep." After we all got to bleep, bleep, bleeping aound I found out it was not a good word.

I still like the word, but it is too new and vague for the 1847's.

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:06 pm

At the Joiner's house in New Jersey, everything is "fish." Jaycie gets bored by that one, and doesn't bother to repeat it.

But I don't think these two wranglers would say fish, either.

Sometimes a writer has to choose between what they like and what their characters would like.

This guy has just heard some very upsetting news.

I don't think he would say, "Oh, twit, which is what I would probably say - maybe."

He doesn't use the word everyday.

Ann

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:11 pm

Of course you need to say what he would say not what we like.

It is funny, that 's all.

Subject: Re: expletive deleted question Mon Aug 01, 2011 5:45 pm

Yes, it is, especially to come up with just the right curse word. I wonder what T. S. Eliot would say about it.

Quote :: The word neither diffident nor ostentatious,
An easy commerce of the old and the new,
The common word exact without vulgarity,
The formal word precise but not pedantic

Little Gidding

I guess he never lived in Somerset.

Ann Very Happy

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