[dendory]

In Quebec a lot of our modern taboo words are religious themed. Unlike many other cultures however, it's not religion that made them taboo, but rather the fact that we had a heavier than most religious presence in our political and education systems up to the 1960s, and when we 'woke up' as it were, a lot of religious terms became swear words. Today the province is much less religious than say the US, on average, and most of our swear words remain that way.

[hausen]

Although it may be true that "les sacres" (swear words derived from religious terms) were a form of insurgency against the power of the church, their usage extends far back into the beginning of the 19th century: http://www.maisonsaint-gabriel.qc.ca/fr/musee/chr-20.php

[SixSigma]

In Finland the highest category swear word is "Perkele" which they call "the P word".

It translates as "devil"

[jpatokal]

Uhh, no. Vittu, literally "cunt", is the Finnish equivalent of "fuck" and is used with similar disregard to its notional meaning (fucking cheeseburger = vitun juustohampurilainen).

Kind of like those Quebecois swears, perkele manages to be both rude and formal: it's used in Finnish translations of the Bible for "Devil".

[Wildgoose]

Interesting! That immediately made me think of the fabulous independent movie "Star Wreck: In the Perkinning" and the "P-fleet".

Well worth watching by the way, it's a humorous take on Star Trek and Babylon 5. The effects were made by a render-farm of PCs in their kitchen whilst a bedroom was set up for blue screen work. It was even shown on Finnish national television.