"Herrschaftzeiten," mumbles S. He is squinting at his cellphone. I recognize from the tone of his voice that this is a Bavarian curse, but despite living with S for 33 years, I've never heard this one.
--"Her satt zeichen?" I ask. "What's that?"
"The weather," he says.
--"No, I mean what's 'her satt zeichen'? You've been cursing a lot this semester, but I haven't heard that one yet."
"Herrschaftzeiten."
--"Herrschaft Zeiten? Lordship's times? That's a curse?"
"Herrschaftzeiten. Times of the superiors. It's what you say when your superiors are on your nerves."
--"Uh oh, something up at work?"
"No, it's the weather."
--"Hunh?"
"It's supposed to rain."
--"What does the weather have to do with Lordships? I mean, why that particular curse?"
"I dunno. It's just what you say."
I pull out my laptop and head to Google translate. It tells me Herrschaftzeiten means "reign times."* But S and the curse are Bavarian. He finds a Bayerisch translation.
"It comes from Herr, schau auf die Seite."
--"Lord, look askance." That makes more sense.
We decide to make a list of Bavarian curses for future reference. It turns out that despite all of his cursing, S thinks his repertoire is limited to only five. (As I was typing this, first it was just four, then just five, then just six, and now eight. Time will tell.)
S's comprehensive (?) list of Bavarian curses
Hoast mi! - Hast du mich verstanden - Do you understand me?!
* (I always thought this one meant "Hoerst du mich?"--Hear me!--but S says otherwise. And to be fair, S doesn't say this--I do. It's one of the first German curse phrases S taught me because it was cute to hear the oblivious USAmerican say it, and it makes Bavarians laugh.)
Himmel, Arsch, und Zwirrn - Heaven, ass, and twine.
So a Kas' - What a cheese.
So was bloedes - Idiotically stupid
* (I always thought this one mean "bloody" in the British curse sense, but I was wrong.)
Sau dumm - Pig dumb.
Hejgott sakra - Herr Gott Sakra - Lord God, Sacrament.
Herrschaftzeiten - Lord look askance.
Zefix - Crucifix.
Bonus list: Curses S's mom H "used all the time"
Kruzetiakn - Kruzi Turken - S thought this meant "crucify the Turks," but Kruze apparently refers to Kuruzen, a Hungarian Protestant sect that united with the Turks against Catholics in the late 1600s.
Depp - Deppeda - So a Dep - What a dope.
Dridschla - Slowpoke, e.g. that jerk who's driving aggravatingly slowly right in front of you.
-------------
For additional Bavarian curses, see Wikipedia's collection of Bavarian Curses at https://bar.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spruch:Boarische_Fluachsammlung. (The title of the page is, naturally, Bavarian for "Bavarian Curse Collection." In high German, one would write "Bayerische Fluchsammlung.")
-------------
*Reign and rain are homophones, although that has nothing to do with any of this.
