Oh Flip

[pne]

You know they say little children pay more attention than you think, but this morning I was reminded of it again.

I was on my computer and running rather late when I suddenly realised we had a meeting at work and I couldn't come arbitrarily late—and that even if I left immediately, I would be about ten minutes late! At that realisation, I swore, "Oh flip!"

Amy, who was standing in the same room at the time, picked that up and said, "Oh flip! Oh flip!" a couple of times, apparently finding the word interesting. I'm glad I didn't say anything stronger.

(I'm not sure where I picked up this particular euphemism, but possibly from Elder Rogers, a missionary from Australia, with whom I shared a flat in Cyprus for a while. I think it's not one of the typically Utahn euphemisms.)

Comments

[pleiades829.livejournal.com]

I'd say it's stereotypical Utah slang, but more from the late-80's and early 90's. :)

[pne.livejournal.com]

Utah swearing is fun :) "Flippin' heck!"

[pthalo]

That reminds me of a story from a few years back when I was in Serbia. There was a little kid, about 2 or 3, and he had a baby sister. His mother was feeding the baby some baby food and said "Kapd be, hamm!" bekapni is "to take something in" and you can use it in the context of eating and it's perfectly fine. But without the context of eating, it becomes a mild swear, meaning "shut up", I think it's short for "kapd be a faszom" (suck my dick). So the little kid, the 2 or 3 year old starts running aruond yelling "kapd be kapd be kapd be". :)

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

I repeatedly heard "flippin'" in Soth Africa from someone who never went to the US I think. I didn't hear other people use it, though.

I wonder what exactly people find so bad about children knowing how to swear or children swearing.

[pne.livejournal.com]

In my case, I think it's guilt: I feel that I shouldn't be swearing, nor should I be teaching my children to swear.

I can't speak for others, especially those who think that it's fine if they themselves swear.

[elgrande.livejournal.com]

Anyway, I find it interesting that you privately swear in English rather than in German.