Oh! Circe!

[resonant]

I've stopped thinking of this as a practical problem and started thinking of it as a linguistic puzzle.

What would wizards use where we use blasphemy?

The elements? "Fire and water, I could use a drink just now."

Place names important in the history of magic? "Will you stop that awful noise? Salem, it's annoying."

Are there any Latin exclamations? The only one I remember from high school was io, which is pronounced more or less "yo" and thus would add an unfortunate bit of MTVishness to the proceedings.

Comments

[darthfox.livejournal.com]

Shoot, where was I reading about cursing --

Ah. Here it is. "In almost all cultures, swearing involves one or more of the following: filth, the forbidden (particularly incest), and the sacred, and usually all three. ... English is unusual in including the impossible and the pleasurable in its litany of profanities. ... Can there be, when you think about it, a more improbably sentiment than 'Get fucked!'? We might as well snarl, 'Make a lot of money!' or 'Have a nice day!'" (Bill Bryson, in "Mother Tongue")

Of course, now that I've gone and looked it up, I realize you're probably talking specifically about the religious-euphemism type of curses, so I haven't actually addressed the question at all. [hangs head, kicks dirt with toe] Don't we see someone invoking the name of some legendary wizard, in canon? I can't think of chapter and verse, but it seems like one of the big four, who gave the Houses their names, must have been taken in vain, eh?