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The [[Species 8472]] recreation of {{dis|Boothby|Species 8472}}, stationed on [[Terrasphere 8]], referred to the concepts making up the [[United Federation of Planets]]: "tolerance for all species, the [[Prime Directive]]" as "'''[[targ]] [[manure]]'''," during talks with [[Kathryn Janeway]] and the [[senior staff]] of {{USS|Voyager}}. In response to those statements, [[Tuvok]] corrected Boothby and stated "''your metaphor is colorful, but inaccurate.''" ({{VOY|In the Flesh}})
 
The [[Species 8472]] recreation of {{dis|Boothby|Species 8472}}, stationed on [[Terrasphere 8]], referred to the concepts making up the [[United Federation of Planets]]: "tolerance for all species, the [[Prime Directive]]" as "'''[[targ]] [[manure]]'''," during talks with [[Kathryn Janeway]] and the [[senior staff]] of {{USS|Voyager}}. In response to those statements, [[Tuvok]] corrected Boothby and stated "''your metaphor is colorful, but inaccurate.''" ({{VOY|In the Flesh}})
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In [[2385]], as rogue [[synth]]s attacked [[Utopia Planitia]], one of the workers swore "Shit." ({{PIC|Maps and Legends}})
   
 
== Klingon profanity ==
 
== Klingon profanity ==

Revision as of 03:10, 1 February 2020

Multiple realities
(covers information from several alternate timelines)
Data, Oh Shit

"Oh, shit!"

"And a double dumb-ass on you!"

A colorful metaphor, more commonly known as profanity, was a use of slang language or physical expression intended to emphasize derision, curses, or other emotional outbursts.

Although such usages were uncommon in the 23rd and 24th centuries, they were an essential part of 20th century conversation, seen in the novels of "giants" such as Jacqueline Susann and Harold Robbins. When the crew of the USS Enterprise time traveled to 1986, James T. Kirk began using "colorful metaphors" in an effort to blend in though he felt that Spock shouldn't attempt them, as he didn't "quite have the knack for it." (Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home)

Saru once informed Sylvia Tilly that she should not curse while on duty, leading to her use of the term "freaking amazing," as opposed to something more colorful. (DIS: "Light and Shadows")

Spock mastered them fairly quickly, as he exclaimed "Damn you, sir!" to General Korrd to impel him to use his authority to command Klaa to stand down. Kirk had earlier shouted a series of curses on Spock for allowing Sybok to take over the Enterprise, "Dammit, Spock! Goddammit!" adding "I oughta knock you on your goddamned ass!" (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)

Human profanity

Ass

The word "ass" was a slang term for a "fool", someone's "butt", or a member of the horse family, especially in terms of a "jackass".

The frustrated Montgomery Scott referred to Leo Walsh in 2266, as "that jackass" after he wrecked his own vessel caused the Enterprise to lose a number of lithium crystals, "in saving his skin..." Kirk sympathized with Scott, explaining that as for Walsh, "that's one jackass we're going to see skinned." (TOS: "Mudd's Women")

In 2364, Jean-Luc Picard asked his new first officer, William T. Riker, a favor: that he help him to avoid "making an ass" of himself in front of children, as he was not a family man. (TNG: "Encounter at Farpoint")

Phillipa Louvois, upon seeing Jean-Luc Picard for the first time in many years in 2365, stated, "You know, I never thought I would say this, but it's good to see you again. It brings a sense of order and stability to my universe to know that you're still a pompous ass. And a damn sexy man." (TNG: "The Measure Of A Man")

Bastard

In 2152, when Silik desperately tried to contact his benefactor at the Helix, Jonathan Archer emerged and attacked Silik. He answered "I said you're an ugly bastard" to Silik, who had just asked his benefactor to repeat what he said before Archer arrived. (ENT: "Shockwave, Part II")

In 2257, after discovering that the Gabriel Lorca she had assigned to the USS Discovery had been an impostor from a parallel universe, Katrina Cornwell angrily muttered "bastard" as she destroyed a bowl of fortune cookies as an effigy for Lorca. (DIS: "The War Without, The War Within")

James T. Kirk referred to the Klingons several times as "bastards". (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock; Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)

Bitch

In 2293, Montgomery Scott referred to the new Klingon Chancellor, Azetbur, as "That Klingon bitch killed her father." (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

Son of a bitch

In 2152, when the Vulcan ambassador Soval maneuvered to end the mission of Enterprise NX-01, Commander Charles Tucker III stated of him to Doctor Phlox, "They'll probably give the son of a bitch some gaudy medal and then cart him off to wherever they send bitter old Vulcans to retire." (ENT: "Shockwave")

In 2153, Charles Tucker III called Kessick a "stupid son of a bitch". Later, Captain Archer cursed, "The son of a bitch lied to us!", after discovering the destroyed Xindi homeworld Kessick sent Enterprise to. (ENT: "The Xindi")

Later that same year, Captain Archer described Commander Shran as a "son of a bitch" after he and his vessel, the Kumari, refused to surrender the second prototype of the Xindi weapon. (ENT: "Proving Ground")

Archer warned Degra, "Listen to me, you son of a bitch!", before explaining what would happen if Earth was destroyed. (ENT: "Azati Prime")

After being called a "son of a bitch" by Jeremy Lucas, Arik Soong told him that his mother was actually a chemist. (ENT: "Cold Station 12")

In 2285, Doctor Leonard McCoy referred to Spock as "that green-blooded son of a bitch", while suffering from the transfusion of the Vulcan's katra into his own mind. (Star Trek III: The Search for Spock)

In 2367, Picard learned that his brother Robert had described him to René as an "arrogant son of a..." (TNG: "Family")

Bloody

Chief Vanderberg of Janus VI referred to the Mother Horta as a "the bloody thing." (TOS: "The Devil in the Dark")

Harry Mudd claimed that the Denebians had "no respect for private property" after "they damaged the bloody spaceship" that he had stole. (TOS: "I, Mudd")

After the USS Enterprise passed through an unidentified energy field in 2269, the ship's computer developed the personality of that of a practical joker. When the computer began altering the ship's artificial gravity, at one point causing Montgomery Scott to fall to the floor, he described the ship's computer, and thus the ship, a "bloody big scatterbrain." (TOS: "The Practical Joker")

Following the death of Klingon chancellor Gorkon in 2293, Scott accused Azetbur of possibly being behind her father's death, adding "...Take my word. She did not shed one bloody tear." Spock, however, dismissed his theory, adding, "Hardly conclusive, Mister Scott, as Klingons have no tear ducts." Later, when Spock called down to engineering to devise a stall for the USS Enterprise to not return to spacedock, he inquired to Scott how long repairs to the warp drive would require. Scott, who was at first not in on the operation, replied, "There's nothing wrong with the bloody thing." (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

While the USS Enterprise-D was transporting a group of Bringloidi colonists, they attempted to ignite a fire in the ship's cargo bay, unaware of the ship's automated fire system. Following the arrival of Worf and Picard to the cargo bay, Danilo Odell emerged from the cargo bay and exclaimed, "My God, Picard, the place is a bloody death trap! Lightning bolts falling from the ceiling!" Later, Danilo approached Worf and explained, that they were "brewing poteen, but we need to find a way to heat it without this bloody ship firing bloody lightning bolts at us," Worf then introduced them to the replicator. Also during this same voyager, when Riker explained to Brenna Odell that it wasn't necessary for her to clean up the cargo bay, because "the ship will clean itself," she remarked back, "Well, good for the bloody ship." (TOS: "Up The Long Ladder")

After Montgomery Scott was released from the USS Jenolan's transporter in 2369, he initially argued with the Enterprise-D's computer while attempting to view the bridge of the original Enterprise in the holodeck, finally (through gritted teeth and frustration brought on by intoxication) specifying the ship's registry number as "NCC-1701 – no bloody A, B, C, or D." A short time later, while speaking with Picard in the same simulation, Scott became frustrated with his being out of place in the 24th century before instructing the computer to "shut this bloody thing off." (TNG: "Relics")

Miles O'Brien frequently used the word "bloody" to express his initial frustrations with the operation of Cardassians or their technology. In 2369, he was quoted as saying, "bloody Cardassians", "these bloody Cardassian internal sensors", he described the station's carbon reaction chambers as "a bloody inefficient system." (DS9: "Emissary", "Q-Less", "The Forsaken") Makbar once quoted O'Brien as stating, "the bloody Cardies can't be trusted". (DS9: "Tribunal")

He even stated the euphemism, upon spotting Q aboard the station, "bloody hell". (DS9: "Q-Less") As well as on other various instances. (DS9: "The Storyteller", "In the Hands of the Prophets")

While searching for a runabout in the a particularly region of space with numerous planetary bodies, he described the venture as looking for a "bloody needle in a haystack." (DS9: "Battle Lines")

When a pah-wraith had taken over Keiko O'Brien body, and then continued to manipulate Miles into acting as if nothing was wrong, he had once uttered "You bloody...", after she took particular advantage of the situation with him while in front of Doctor Julian Bashir. (DS9: "The Assignment")

While on a salvage operation at Empok Nor, O'Brien complained to Nog that "I've already lost four crewmen trying to send out that bloody signal," during their attempt to escape murderous Cardassians who were left behind there. (DS9: "Empok Nor")

After their runabout entered a recently discovered subspace compression anomaly and did not return to their original size after emerging, O'Brien exclaimed to Bashir, "Are you telling me that I'm going to be this bloody tall for the rest of my life?" Bashir responded, correcting O'Brien's visual size representation to an even smaller size, stating "This bloody tall, actually." (DS9: "One Little Ship")

In the anti-time future, where Data was the head of Cambridge University, he was visited by his friends Jean-Luc Picard and Geordi La Forge. Data's maid at the time, Jessel, later told the two visitors that "If you're really his friend, you'll get him to take that grey out of his hair. Looks like a bloody skunk." (TNG: "All Good Things...")

Bollocks

On one occasion, when Molly O'Brien fell into the past through a time portal on the planet Golana, Miles O'Brien used the expletive "bollocks" when some of the equipment he used in an attempt to retrieve her malfunctioned. (DS9: "Time's Orphan")

Damn

In 2259, Captain Kirk used the colorful metaphor "Damn it" when he found out that the warp drive on the USS Enterprise had a coolant leak and that it would take twenty minutes to get to Qo'noS in the K'normian trading ship they had confiscated. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

In 2368, Chief Miles O'Brien described Ensign Ro Laren's suggestion to separate the saucer of the Enterprise-D and put as much distance as possible between it and the drive section as being "damn cold-blooded," as the resulting warp core breach would destroy the drive section and all on-board. (TNG: "Disaster")

Fuck

In an alternate 2240s, a young James T. Kirk played the song "Sabotage" as he drove his stepfather's 1965 Chevy Corvette on a joyride through the Iowa countryside, which included "fuckin'" in its lyrics. (Star Trek)

In 2256, when working with Paul Stamets and Michael Burnham to discover a way to operate the spore drive without the tardigrade "Ripper", Cadet Sylvia Tilly exclaimed, "You guys, this is so fucking cool." She immediately apologized for the outburst, but Lt. Stamets assured her that "it is fucking cool." (DIS: "Choose Your Pain")

In 2399 Kirsten Clancy told Jean-Luc Picard "The sheer fucking hubris. You think you can just waltz back in here and be entrusted with taking men and women into space?" after the former requested to be reinstated into Starfleet (PIC: "Maps and Legends")

Hell

The word "hell" was often used in Terran vernacular as an epithet, as in an exclamation that Captain Kirk used at least once, when he exclaimed, "Let's get the hell out of here." (TOS: "The City on the Edge of Forever") Doctor Leonard McCoy used the word in much the same way upon discovering that he and other members of a landing party from the USS Enterprise had unwillingly beamed into a bizarre and obviously incomplete Melkotian recreation of Tombstone, Arizona, from October 26, 1881; McCoy's response was "Hell for leather, right out of history." (TOS: "Spectre of the Gun")

In 2263 of the alternate reality, McCoy's counterpart used the word in that way too, remarking, "What the hell are you drinking?" upon seeing that Captain Kirk was imbibing some Saurian brandy. (Star Trek Beyond)

In 2293, Spock suggested that "Go to hell" might be an appropriate Human response to the order for the USS Enterprise-A to be decommissioned. (Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country)

The final draft script of TOS: "Shore Leave" described the Black Knight charging at McCoy as galloping "hell for leather."

Piss off

To be made very angry.

After Spock saved James T. Kirk from falling to his death from El Capitan, Leonard McCoy complained that "you two of you could drive a man to drink." Kirk innocently inquired, "Me? What did I do?,", to which McCoy replied that "You piss me off. Human life is far too precious to risk on crazy stunts. Maybe it didn't cross that macho mind of yours that you should have been killed when you fell off that mountain." (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)

Shit

In 2063, Lily Sloane used the expletive "bullshit" twice in response to Captain Jean-Luc Picard of the USS Enterprise-E when his crew traveled to her time to stop the Borg's attempt to prevent first contact. She first used it when Picard told her that he was here to help while she was firing at him and Data, she later used it when he denied that he had a desire for revenge against the Borg. (Star Trek: First Contact)

In 2256, Michael Burnham muttered "Shit, that worked" after managing to attract the tardigrade away from the rest of the away team she was part of. (DIS: "Context Is for Kings")

In 2257, Sylvia Tilly exclaimed "Oh, shit! That is not a drone!" upon discovering that the "drone" in question was in fact a hydro bomb. (DIS: "Will You Take My Hand?")

Later that year, Vice Admiral Katrina Cornwell told Christopher Pike and Leland to "cut the manlier-than-thou bullshit" and work together on finding Spock. (DIS: "Saints of Imperfection")

Later still in that year, Pike asked Cornwell "what kind of shitstorm" awaited the USS Discovery at Section 31 Headquarters. (DIS: "Project Daedalus")

In 2258, James T. Kirk, banished to Delta Vega for attempted "mutiny" on the orders of Spock, used the "accurate" version of this metaphor, "bullshit", when the old Vulcan who saved him from becoming a native beast's dinner – who not only recognized him on sight but professed to be his lifelong friend – identified himself as Spock. (Star Trek)

In 2259, Alexander Marcus, upon discovering that the crew were aware that "John Harrison" was Khan Noonien Singh, uttered "Well, shit. You talked to him." Later, Kirk used "shit" when he lost track of Khan for a brief period on the USS Vengeance. (Star Trek Into Darkness)

In 2263, Spock was injured by shrapnel embedded near his iliac region while in a Swarm ship that crashed on Altamid. Assessing the wound, Leonard McCoy told Spock that he would be fine, but Spock noted the forced optimism in his voice suggested he was trying to elicit a sense of calm. McCoy then said he would "cut the horseshit," although Spock failed to see how excrement of any kind bore relevance to their situation. Moments later, McCoy quickly removed the shrapnel and cauterized the wound, telling an agonized Spock that he heard it hurt less if it came as a surprise. Spock, in turn, replied, "If I may adopt a parlance with which you are familiar, I can confirm your theory to be horseshit." (Star Trek Beyond)

In 2364, Picard uttered the curse, "Merde" when the USS Enterprise-D was drained of power by the Tkon Portal 63 near Delphi Ardu IV. (TNG: "The Last Outpost")

The following year, Picard used the same expletive when Geordi La Forge realized that he had inadvertently invested James Moriarty with consciousness by misstating a command to the computer. (TNG: "Elementary, Dear Data")

When the USS Enterprise-D was about to crash into Veridian III, Data expressed the shock and horror he felt (thanks to his newly-installed emotion chip) with a suitably colorful metaphor, saying "Oh, shit." (Star Trek Generations)

The Species 8472 recreation of Boothby, stationed on Terrasphere 8, referred to the concepts making up the United Federation of Planets: "tolerance for all species, the Prime Directive" as "targ manure," during talks with Kathryn Janeway and the senior staff of USS Voyager. In response to those statements, Tuvok corrected Boothby and stated "your metaphor is colorful, but inaccurate." (VOY: "In the Flesh")

In 2385, as rogue synths attacked Utopia Planitia, one of the workers swore "Shit." (PIC: "Maps and Legends")

Klingon profanity

In 2366, William T. Riker commented that Alidar Jarok's knowledge of Klingon curses was impressive, after Jarok had referred to Worf as both a petaQ and a tohzah, adding that "only a Veruul would use such language in public." (TNG: "The Defector")

Later that year, Klingon Governor Vagh swore at Picard in Klingonese after Picard denied the charges of supplying weapons to terrorists. Picard returned the favor. (TNG: "The Mind's Eye")

Appendices

Background information

In addition to the above, the word "fuck" was also used by a native of 20th century San Francisco in the script of Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, though not heard in the final version of the movie.

In "Terra Prime", at one point ambassadors at the meeting to form the Coalition of Planets noted that xenophobic Humans were using "language that is not programmed into the universal translator", which Nathan Samuels brushed off as emotional outbursts during a stressful time. The nature of that language was not explicitly explained.

External link