Quebec French profanity

Quebec French profanities, known as sacres (singular: sacre; French: sacrer, "to consecrate"), are words and expressions related to Catholicism and its liturgy that are used as strong profanities in Quebec French or joual (the main language of Canadian French and, to a lesser degree, in Acadian French spoken in Maritime Provinces east of Quebec). Sacres are considered stronger than the foul expressions common to standard French which centre on sex and excrement (such as merde, "shit"). For other French speakers, sacres may have no meaning.

The sacres originated in the early 19th century when the social control exerted by the Catholic clergy was increasingly a source of frustration. One of the oldest sacres is sacrament, which can be thought of in Quebec French as equivalent to "goddamn it" in English. It is known to have been in use as far back as the 1830s. The word "sacrer" in its current meaning is believed to come from the expression Ne dites pas ça, c'est sacré ("Don't say that, it is sacred/holy"). Eventually, sacrer started to refer to the words francophone Québécois were not supposed to say. This is likely related to the commandment "Thou shalt not take the name of the Lord thy God in vain" (Exodus 20:7). The influence and social importance of the Catholic religion at that time allowed sacres to become powerful forms of profanity.

As a result of the Quiet Revolution in the 1960s, the influence of the Roman Catholic Church in Quebec has declined. This has had no effect, however, on the use of sacres, which are as widespread as ever.

These sacres are commonly given in a phonetic spelling to indicate the differences in pronunciation from the original word, several of which, notably the deletion of final consonants and change of [ɛ] to [a] before /ʁ/ are typical of highly informal Quebec French.

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