verb to talk profanely or obscenely. According to one source, this term is in use with this meaning in Nova Scotia's South Shore. It derives from the French blague (chaff, humbug, hoax, fib) but may also derive from an English gang of blacking boys and torch-carriers in London known for their scurrilous language. In the form 'blackguarding', it is in use in parts of the US with the same meaning as in Nova Scotia CANADA, 1988