Favorite Science Fiction curse words

[YankeyMCC]

Inspired by a thread in DU Lounge.

Maybe I a little biased toward this right now with the new show but I have always liked "Frak!" from BSG.

[phantom power]

1. tanj!

from Larry Niven's known-space stories. "There Aint No Justice"

He seemed to have a thing against using curse words, or at least traditional cursing. I prefer authors when they just have their characters curse like we all know they would, but I have to hand it to Niven, he's kept up his cursing boycott for decades.

[salvorhardin]

3. TANJ! I forgot about that one.

I'll have to rework it into my vocabulary -- been overusing frell lately.

[phantom power]

5. seems to me he also used "fap", as in "what a fapping mess"

[Ready4Change]

15. He used another form: Tanjit.

I think he used Tanj to express amazement or wonder, and Tanjit as an expression of defeatism.

[Orsino]

18. IIRC there was also 'tanjdammit'...

...a particularly silly extrapolation of a failed concept. I just never could buy the acronym "tanj" becoming a slang oath.

[Hong Kong Cavalier]

2. Frell.

From Farscape.
So much better when Chrichton said it in the second season, trapped aboard a shuttle about to go boom and the only space suit went out the airlock with someone else.

The image of Chrichton storming about the cabin as it shakes and shudders saying "FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL! FRELL!" was perfect, because you totally knew what he was saying, but they could get away with it.

[Technowitch]

7. 'Frell' has actually made it into my daily lexicon

Had a few people even realize the reference, too.

[ralps]

10. Frell is one of my fav. words too

:hi:

[phantom power]

4. "slick"

from "Anvil of Stars" by Greg Bear. Used in all the various ways we would use the word "fuck". Noun, verb, exclamation, emphasis, etc.

[phantom power]

6. There was this Arthur C Clarke book

co-written with Gentry Lee (whom I suspect is now doing most of the writing these days, but perhaps I'm just being unkind) called "Cradle", which featured a colony planet where all the original colonists were robotically grown from stored DNA. They were also raised robotically, and allegedly not taught any curse-words. There was this interesting comment along the lines of: "when a <colonist> hit his thumb with a hammer, he was at a loss for words."

I thought that was an interesting notion. I expect that if we didn't have curse words, we'd simply *have* to invent them. But how long would it take...?

[Technowitch]

8. "Gor-am" -- Firefly

I miss that show...

[jayfish]

16. Yes!

It actually sounds like a cuss word.

Jay

[Ravenseye]

9. Frak or Feldergarb

I've used those. Like Frell, when they say Frak on BSG you know exactly what they're saying. They even use it contextually...'Frak me'

[Bok_Tukalo]

11. Belgium

<eom>

[phantom power]

12. LOL!

[Bok_Tukalo]

13. And here I thought I was being obscure.

Only at DU would anyone get that, I swear.

[Salviati]

17. Sass that hoopy Bok_Tukalo...

now there's a frood who really knows where his towel is...

[YankeyMCC]

14. Ah nutz

I knew there was something I was forgetting from HHGG.

[Endangered Specie]

19. Anything Klingon

[Sabriel]

20. Does fantasy count?

Shells!

Better yet, "Silflay hraka!"

[ProfessorPlum]

21. Not really science fiction, I guess

but "taff" and "taffer" from the "Thief" series of video games are words that will enter your lexicon if you ever play the game.

[Coventina]

22. Shazzbot!!!

:hide:

[paulk]

23. "tud"

From a book named "Radix" by A.A. Attanasio.

It's sort of become part of my wife and mine's vocabulary, usually in reference to one of our cats...

[Walt Starr]

24. Gosa and Humped

Firefly.