Sacrebleu

Sacrebleu (also spelled sacre bleu) is a French minced oath or oath, literally translating to "sacred blue." It is a dated and somewhat comical euphemism for sacre Dieu, meaning "sacred God." The phrase is generally used to express surprise, shock, dismay, frustration, or anger.

While once a common exclamation in French, sacrebleu is now considered archaic and rarely used by native French speakers in contemporary conversation. It is more commonly encountered in older literature, films, or other media as a humorous or stereotypical representation of French speech.

The use of "bleu" (blue) as a replacement for "Dieu" (God) is considered a grawlix, a substitution of offensive or blasphemous words with nonsense words or symbols. The practice arose from a desire to avoid uttering direct blasphemies, which were often considered socially unacceptable or even punishable offenses in the past.

Sacrebleu is often associated with caricatures of French characters, particularly in English-speaking cultures, and is sometimes used ironically or humorously to evoke a sense of old-fashioned French expression.