Friday, July 3, 2009
Pirate Talk 101: One of the Best Parts - Threats, Oaths, Curses and Insults
A threat is a warning that something unpleasant is imminent.
| I’ll fly your bloody head as my banner |
| I’ll have you for my prize |
| I’ll let out your evil soul by incision of steel |
| I’ll peel your skin like a mango |
| I’ll send you with my service to the devil |
| I’ll slit the veins on your arms and use your blood to warm my rum |
| I’ll tear out your tongue and let it flap in the sun |
| I’ll watch you dance the yardarm jig |
| ‘tis a sin to suffer such a <EPITHET> as you live |
| You’ll go down with the tide |
| You’ll rue the day your mother ever spawned you |
Oaths add emphasis and are used to ‘swear that it is true’. Oaths are used to convey something sharply or deeply felt.
| Pirate | Translation |
| As I am a soul | As I live and breathe |
| Bloody hell | Used with –what, how, when, who or why |
| By all that is great and good | By God |
| Dear heart | My dear / Used for emphasis |
| I would have my soul fry in hell-fire | I swear |
| Snoggers | Used to avoid more offensive words |
| Upon my life | I swear on my own life |
Curses are the building blocks of pirate profanity. Curses wish harm on someone or something. A Curse says ‘you’ll suffer’.
| Pirate | Translation |
| Curse you for breathing | Damn you for living |
| Damn you the depths | Damn you to hell |
| Devil take you | Go to hell |
| Flog off | Fuck off |
| Plague seize you | Express anger, disgust and frustration |
Insults identify something bad about the addressee. The insult is substantive and often observational.
| Pirate | Translation |
| Tailor is your trade | You’re not fit to be a pirate. |
| You’ve a split tongue. | Liar |
| Some phrases need no translation… | |
| Beezelbub himself could hardly desire better company | |
| Here’s fine stuff for the gallows | |
| Hold you tongue and your whinin’ for them that’s at your beck and call, because I ain’t | |
| There is more fire in a small, dead fish that in all your slow body | |
| Yellow was never a pirates color | |
| You always was trouble | |
| You got no more brain than a sea-turtle | |
| You should be more a man and less a fish | |
| Your mind’s unhinged | |
| You’ve neither sense nor memory | |
This primer was summarized from the book "The Pirate Primer: Mastering the Language of Swashbucklers and Rogues" by George Choundas and available here.
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