De bleu de bleu !
Geneva French
Said in Geneva
Good heavens!
De bleu de bleu !
Where it comes from
De bleu de bleu! is astonishment Geneva-style: according to the Wiktionnaire, the interjection expresses surprise. According to Wikipedia, the old French oaths were often blasphemies, which people twisted to hide the divine name: in morbleu or palsambleu, bleu replaces Dieu, God, and one is really swearing by “God’s death” or “God’s blood”. The Wiktionnaire counts de bleu among these softenings, like sacrebleu or parbleu, where bleu takes the place of Dieu to avoid blasphemy.
The oath does not belong to Geneva alone. A segment of the RTS news calls it typically Genevan, while adding that it is heard outside the canton too; the Wiktionnaire simply files it as Swiss and knows a variant, nom de bleu.
In Geneva, bleu already had a link with surprise. In 1852 Jean Humbert’s Nouveau glossaire genevois gives the adjective bleu the meaning “surprised, astounded”, and the Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande takes up this use, which it also notes in popular French. None of these sources links that bleu to the oath: we are the ones bringing them together, and nothing proves they are related.
In use
Two examples written for this page:
- “De bleu de bleu ! T’as vu la bise sur le lac ?” – Good heavens! Did you see the bise on the lake?
- “De bleu de bleu, il est déjà midi !” – Good heavens, it’s already noon!
Sources: RTS, 12h45, “Genève est connue pour son fameux juron “De bleu de bleu””; Wiktionnaire, “de bleu”, “bleu”, “sacrebleu” and “parbleu”; French Wikipedia, “Juron”; Jean Humbert, Nouveau glossaire genevois (1852), “bleu”; Glossaire des patois de la Suisse romande, “bleu” (volume II, p. 420).