The swearing thread!

[Jacco]

Alright, so hopefully I don't get in trouble for this but I'm genuinely curious. I'm currently taking Spanish and the more I learn about it, the more I am fascinated at how things don't literally translate. It is my first language aside from English so this is a new thing for me. Anyway, I'm curious as to how things translate to other languages as well. We're all familiar with profanity, so I feel this is the best way to sort of get the idea across.


So. If you're bilingual, post a profane phrase from your language and then give its rough translation in English.
For example, the Spanish word "cabrón" literally translated means "male goat" but in actual usage is more akin to "************" in offensiveness.

I'm really curious as to how different cultures shape words and phrases which might otherwise be completely benign in another language.

Capcha: Spicy! hahaha how does it know?!

Edit:

Being the ethnocentric jerk I apparently am, I should also say that if you speak english and have different swear words from the "normal" ones, share those as well. Dialects can be just as interesting as different languages.

 

[Rylot]

I took Japanese for a number of years and from what I can remember Kuso means 'shit' as an expletive and Kusoyaro roughly translates to 'shit head' but a bit more derogatory. Well, I guess google translate says it's more like 'Son of a *****'. Sadly that's about all the Japanese I can remember.

 

[Johnny Novgorod]

Spanish is my first language but insults vary from country to country. "Pinche cabrón" (lit. spike male goat) is very popular in Mexico, but gets laughed at for being nonsensical anywhere else. In Spain they use "hijoputa" (lit. sonbitch), ignoring "de" (lit. of a) in the process, whereas (mostly) everybody else says "hijo de puta".

These are the most popular in Argentina...

boludo (lit. big-balled)
pelotudo (lit. big-balled, too) - These can either be used in friendly fashion.
concha de la lora (lit. parrot's vagina) - No idea how the fuck we came up with that.
concha de tu hermana (lit. your sister's vagina) - Even if the other guy doesn't have a sister you can still use it. We insult people's moms and sisters a lot.
andá a cagar (lit. go take a shit) - Used as "go fuck yourself".
la puta que me parió (lit. the whore that gave birth to me) - Freely used to curse our luck.

For a crash course you can watch this video of a guy getting flamed up about a football match. It's quite viral back home.

 

[Jacco]

I took Japanese for a number of years and from what I can remember Kuso means 'shit' as an expletive and Kusoyaro roughly translates to 'shit head' but a bit more derogatory. Well, I guess google translate says it's more like 'Son of a *****'. Sadly that's about all the Japanese I can remember.

Do you know what the literal translation is? Google Translate is reasonably good at giving the "intended" translations so sometimes it missed the literal meaning.

 

[dyre]

well, in Chinese (or at least Mandarin) a common insult is "dog shit," or I guess more literally "dog fart." In any case, it's somewhat close to the Western "bullshit." I'm guessing that many cultures around the world had a poor appreciation for excrement

There are also a number of sexual-related Chinese insults, though despite my semi-fluency of Mandarin I have not really been exposed to an environment in which I would be able to learn very many of them.

 

[SUPA FRANKY]

I took Japanese for a number of years and from what I can remember Kuso means 'shit' as an expletive and Kusoyaro roughly translates to 'shit head' but a bit more derogatory. Well, I guess google translate says it's more like 'Son of a *****'. Sadly that's about all the Japanese I can remember.

Do you know what the literal translation is? Google Translate is reasonably good at giving the "intended" translations so sometimes it missed the literal meaning.

It's basically a REALLY rude way of acknowledging someone. Ususally translated as " You little shit

I'm taking Japanese in College, though most of my swears I leanred from other sources
Kusogaki ( An insult for rude kids. Basically means shit-head brat.)
Kisama ( Bastard)
Kono Yarou ( You little Shit)
Fuza ken Da yo! ( Don''t fuck aorund with me.)
Teme ( A Really rude way of saying you)
Buto Basu Yarou ( I'll fuck you up, little shit.)
Koitsu,Aitsu ( "That Guy", " This Guy")
Shinjimae ( Go to hell.)
Chikusho ( Fuck Me!/ Oh SHit!)


All that comes to mind.

 

[Jacco]

Spanish is my first language but insults vary from country to country. "Pinche cabrón" (lit. spike male goat) is very popular in Mexico, but gets laughed at for being nonsensical anywhere else. In Spain they use "hijoputa" (lit. sonbitch), ignoring "de" (lit. of a) in the process, whereas (mostly) everybody else says "hijo de puta".

These are the most popular in Argentina...

boludo (lit. big-balled)
pelotudo (lit. big-balled, too) - These can either be used in friendly fashion.
concha de la lora (lit. parrot's vagina) - No idea how the fuck we came up with that.
concha de tu hermana (lit. your sister's vagina) - Even if the other guy doesn't have a sister you can still use it. We insult people's moms and sisters a lot.
andá a cagar (lit. go take a shit) - Used as "go fuck yourself".
la puta que me parió (lit. the whore that gave birth to me) - Freely used to curse our luck.

For a crash course you can watch this video of a guy getting flamed up about a football match. It's quite viral back home.

Do you know if the dialects in South America have differing ways of saying things? Or is it pretty uniform across the continent?

 

[Master_of_Oldskool]

Not a swearword, per se, but I find it interesting how seriously "Yurusenai" and variations thereupon are taken in Japan, given the literal translation ("unforgivable," as in that line that appears in every anime ever, "This is unforgivable/I won't forgive this/ Forgiveness etc. etc. GAR"). If TV Tropes can be trusted on the subject (which is a pretty fuggin' big "if," but let's roll with it for now) it's to do with Japanese culture really embracing the idea of narrowing superlatives- basically, if I'm not going to willingly forgive you, the only other thing I could do is murder your ass with a cheese grater.

Again, that's assuming my references are right. A scholar of Japanese culture I ain't.

 

[bartholen_v1legacy]

I'll refer you to a thread I made about a year ago ----> http://www.escapistmagazine.com/forums/read/18.400143-Non-english-speakers-share-your-sauciest-swears. Plenty of foreign naughty words there.
translat
I'll put some up in finnish:

Kilinvittu = baby goat's ****
Vittunaama = cuntface
Runkkari = wanker
Saatana perkele = basically satan x2, perkele is an old synonym for satan
Ruumismadon äpärä = a maggot's bastard
Painu vittuun = Fuck off
Haista paska = Fuck you ("Smell shit" literally)
Ime isääs = Suck your father
Kermaperse = "Cream-ass", used to refer to spoiled or pampered people.
Laardiperse = lardass
Saatanan huora = fucking whore

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

Canadian here, we don't seem to have many original swears of our own that I'm aware of at the moment.

So I don't have much to add, just watch swearing in a Tarantino film, a lot of the same language is used here.

[sub]Also film editors swear like sailors. FUCK YOU AVID[/sub]

 

[Amethyst Wind]

well, in Chinese (or at least Mandarin) a common insult is "dog shit," or I guess more literally "dog fart." In any case, it's somewhat close to the Western "bullshit." I'm guessing that many cultures around the world had a poor appreciation for excrement

There are also a number of sexual-related Chinese insults, though despite my semi-fluency of Mandarin I have not really been exposed to an environment in which I would be able to learn very many of them.

I found that I was always able to get by with 傻瓜 and 笨蛋 in my time there. There wasn't much need to insult people with anything else. I was a school teacher after all 8P

 

[ZZoMBiE13]

I usually just like to use those awful fake swears they make up for sci-fi programs.

Frell from Farscape for example. And even though it's not a made up word, I've co-opted Red Dwarf's "Smeg" expletive into my everyday parlance. Smeg Off, Smeghead, etc .

 

[A. Smith]

Quebec french is interesting in that not only do we have the common swear words ("merde" means shit, "Fuck" is used as it is in english, sometimes we use "pute" or "putain", which means whore), our most common swear words are religious words reapropriated as swear words. "Tabarnak" is derived from tabernacle, "Calice" is chalice, "Ostie" is the holy bread of christianity, and "Sacrament" is, well... a sacrament. These tend to be regarded more badly then the words related to sex and excrements.

You can also chain them; if you're really angry about something, you might say "Calice d'ostie de tabarnak de calice de criss" (notice the repetition, that's allowed too), which is roughly equivalent to "Goddamn fucking piss ****", but is much more common then the latter in actual use.

We got those from the Catholicism; until the late '50s and early '60s, much of Quebec was completely controlled by the church, and so the church's vocabulary was what was taboo. I'd assume speaking of shit and piss was unheard of. The church is mostly gone from public affairs, but obviously the vocabulary has stayed with us.

 

[Zemaddog]

Australia has some interesting swears and insults other countries may not understand. Such as:

Dipshit=idiot
Fucktard/fuckwit=idiot
dickhead=Australian version of douchebag
wanker=dickhead
whacker=milder version of dickhead
root=to have sex
bogan=basically the australian equivalent of a redneck
tool=useless person
have a bat=masturbate

Australians are pretty original with insults IMO.

 

[The World Famous]

Australia has some interesting swears and insults other countries may not understand. Such as:

Dipshit=idiot
Fucktard/fuckwit=idiot
dickhead=Australian version of douchebag
wanker=dickhead
whacker=milder version of dickhead
root=to have sex
bogan=basically the australian equivalent of a redneck
tool=useless person
have a bat=masturbate

Australians are pretty original with insults IMO.

Most of those are used in America, actually. Whacker, root, bogan, and have a bat are the only ones you wouldn't hear over here.

OT: I haven't been anywhere really outside of the Midwest so I don't know what quantifies as "strange." I hear dickweed sometimes, but I don't know how unique that is?

 

[Casual Shinji]

The most standard swear/insult in Dutch is 'Klootzak' and 'Eikel'.

'Klootzak' literally means 'Nutsack', but has a way cruder sound to it over here. And 'Eikel' refers to the head of a penis.

Then we also have words like...

- Kut = Replace the 'K' with a 'C' and put an 'N' infront of the 'T', and there you go. This can be an insult, but is used just as much an expressive swear.
- Lul = Dick.
- Rand debiel = On the edge of retardation.
- Tyfuslijer = Typhoid sufferer. Trust me, it sounds better in Dutch.
- Kankerlijer = See above, but with cancer. What can I say, we like our deseases.
- Godverdomme = Goddammit.
- Lul de behanger = Dick the paperhanger... Yeah, I don't know where this came from either.

 

[DanielBrown]

Swedens cursewords are mostly just about shit, devils and hell.
Helvete(Hell) = Goddammit!
Helvetes jävla skit(Hells devil shit) = GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!
Jävlar(From djävlar, meaning devils) = Fuck!
Jävla skithuvud (Devil shit head) = Fucking idiot. "Jävla idiot" is more common though.

Not really swears, but somewhat intresting:
Skitbra(good as shit) = Awesome
Skitdåligt(bad as shit) = Sucks
Skit can also be replaced by svin(boar).

Also got plenty of tame swears that's quite weird.
Attans(Old Swedish for eighteen) = Damnit
För sjutton gubbar(For seventeen men) = Damnit
Fy sjutton(Shame (on) seventeen?) = Got no clue how to translate it. We say it when we're disgusted, though mostly as "fy helvete". Holy fuck?

Most of these and more were mentioned by me in the thread Bartholen linked to. I'm bad when it comes to extreme curse words though. These are mainly the ones we use in our common language daily. I'm pretty sure I throw in "jävla" or "skit" in at least every other sentence that leaves my mouth.

 

[Elementary - Dear Watson]

Apart from the ones that I remember from being a kid as being British ones (guessing that because I have never heard them in a film) I unfortunately don't know any foreign ones.

I literally haven't heard anyone being called a gub, berk, clod, div or dipper for years! Also I thought pleb had gone until the whole 'plebgate' incident...

Also I particularily like nonce, crow, REMF, tosser and pillock as insults!

Other shouts out to prat, git, numpty, wazzack and trollop for just being awesome!

 

[Bertylicious]

boludo (lit. big-balled)
pelotudo (lit. big-balled, too) - These can either be used in friendly fashion.

That's very interesting. In England we have a similar thing the word "bollocks".

Bollocks = slang for testicles, often used as a negative adjective: "The band last night was bollocks". Sometimes used in Ireland as a directed swear: "you little bollocks!"
The bollocks = Good. "The band last night was the bollocks."
The dogs bollocks = Very good. "The band last night was the dogs bollocks!"

EDIT: In fairness 'the bollocks' and 'the dogs bollocks' tend to be more London vernacular.

 

[Bengel Hairybasement]

Australia compounds swearwords like knob or **** onto a lot of other words, like shitcunt, also I think we don't find **** as offensive as other English speaking nations.