SV: Question about cursing / Oliver

[Bror.Hellman@partena.se]

> What is the literal meaning of "For ... Sake"? Is it 
> nescessarily connected to a curse when it doesn't mention God in it? I
mean, could 
> "For Pete's Sake" also be offending to religious people?


In Sweden we have a lot of "curses" that have replaced "offensive" words to
sound familiar, but with another meaning. 

I think "for Pete´s sake" is a way to say "For Gods Sake" and avoid
mentioning
God. 

Curses are an interesting subject..  In Sweden curses are mostly religious. 
A Saudi friend of mine curses about relatives and dogs.  And americans
and English seems to have more sexual topics in their curses.

> The reason why I'm asking this is that I wonder if religious 
> people could have been offended by the title of Barks' story "For Old 
> Dime's Sake" (US 43).


I don't think anyone would be offended because of the little word "Old".

"For old Times Sake" is an old phrasing.  If you had called it "for Ducks
sake!"
instead - perhaps someone somewhere could take offense.


It's hard to translate into a language one's not entirely fmiliar with, but
leaving it
untranslated is sometimes even worse... :-)  One classical example is a
Swedish
slogan for the swedish Donald Duck (Kalle Anka & C:o) "Full fart med Kalle
Anka & C:o"
(Translation: "Full speed with ...") but many americans find this amusing...
:-) 
Especially when the slogan is published together with a Barks-drawing of a
Firefighter
Donald with a dustcloud behind his tailfeathers.. :-)

I presume that such a sign would be offensive to many english speaking
persons
SOMEWHERE if it wasn't translated. 

    // Steamboat Willie