[PW] Plut and Shazbat! - TANJ!

[Paul Zimmerman]

"Laurence, Xan" <xlaurence at hclib.org> writes:

 > > -----Original Message-----
 > > From: project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org
 > > [mailto:project-wombat-open-bounces at lists.project-wombat.org]
 > > On Behalf Of Dennis Lien
 > > Sent: Thursday, May 01, 2008 9:47 AM
 > > To: list at project-wombat.org
 > > Subject: Re: [PW] Plut and Shazbat! - TANJ!
 > >
 > >
 > > At 11:00 PM 4/30/2008, you wrote:
 >> > >My favourite made-up expletive is TANJ! - used in Larry
 > > Niven and Jerry
 >> > >Pournelle's Ringworld series of Sci-Fi novels. It's an acronym for
 >> > >"There Ain't No Justice!".
 > >
 > >
 > > Marvel Comics used to have such tough-guy characters as Luke Cage,
 > > Hero for Hire "swear" by shouting "Spit!" and describing things
 > > as "freakin' ."
 > >
 > > My favorite personal expletive substitute is "squid and petunias!"
 > > Doesn't mean anything in particular, but certainly *sounds* as though
 > > it ought to do so.
 > >
 > > Dennis Lien / U of Minnesota Libraries // d-lien at umn.edu
 > >

 >Back in the late 80s, a member of  a creative writing class that
 >I attended wrote a SF short story (which was later published in
 >an L. Ron Hubbard "Writers of the Future" anthology) for which
 >he coined the word "drang". In describing the dedication of a
 >platoon of space soldiers to their squad leader, the narrator
 >says something like, "When he say 'Drang!' we say, 'How deep?'"
 >Since "drang" sounds like a mash-up of "dreck" and "dang", it
 >works for me as a substitute swearword, at least in my internal
 >monologue; I don't think I've ever said it out loud in anyone's
 > presence, because no one would recognize it and it would just
 >sound weird. But I'd be happy to start a fashion if other people
 >want to pick it up...

Well, if we're collecting coinages, don't forget 'frell' from the tv 
series Farscape. I think it was invented by the actress who plays the 
character that first used it (Gigi Egdely) but it might be something the 
writers had to invent specifically to avoid actual profanity on a tv show.