Italian profanity

"This tirade could be translated from Neapolitan as follows:"Ah, good for nothing, feather, full of shit, bed-pisser, jack of the harpsichord, shirt on the arse, loop of the hanged, hard-headed mule!

[101] Nowadays, the most common kind of blasphemous profanity involves the name of God (Dio), Christ (Cristo), Jesus (Gesù), or the Virgin Mary (Madonna), combined with an insult or sometimes an animal—the most used being porco ("pig"), as in porco Dio ("God [is a] pig") and porca Madonna ("the Virgin Mary [is a] pig"); or cane ("dog"), as in Dio cane ("God [is a] dog").

Another common formula for blasphemy combines a divinity, an animal and an atrocious death, like in dio porco scannato.

In some areas of Italy,[102] such as Veneto, Friuli-Venezia Giulia, Umbria, Marche, Lazio, Abruzzo, Emilia Romagna, Piedmont, Lombardy, and Tuscany, blasphemy is more common, but not because of a strong anti-Catholic sentiment.

[citation needed] Tuscany and Veneto are the regions where bestemmiare is most common, and in these areas, blasphemy appears in the everyday speech almost as an ordinary interjection.

[103] At the same time, it is not an entirely uncommon pastime to come up with creative and articulated bestemmie,[104][105] especially among the lower social classes, such as dockers.

[110] In the Italian language, profanities belonging to this category are called bestemmie (singular: bestemmia), in which God, the Virgin Mary, Jesus, the Saints, or the Roman Catholic Church are insulted.

For example, anyone caught uttering bestemmie in the Italian version of the reality television franchise Big Brother (Grande Fratello) "must be immediately expelled," because they offend "millions of believers.

[114] For instance: Other minced oaths can be created ad libitum when people begin to utter one of the above blasphemies, but then choose to "correct" themselves in real time.