A lady at work reckons that there are no swearwords in Maori. The closest it gets, she reckons, is "Aue!" if you drop something on your foot. (There are insults, a big one of which is "Go boil your head", since eating someone is seen as a supreme insult.)
I've read a few insults in French from Julian May's books featuring Rogatien Remillard, the most common of which is "Batege!"
What about you lot? We've got a pretty international scene here!
I worked with an English bass player for several years who had been tutored while on tour in Germany. Of course the first things you learn are cuss words.. While working in California in the 80s we had a pretty front lady singer.. He taught her all of the cuss words he knew. When some drunk would come on to her while she was working she would cuss them out in German and they would smile ignorant of what she was saying. One night while telling some guy off came a bunch of laughter from the back of the room.. Then a man showed up and said "Sie sprechen Deutsch?"
Batege..... is the fancy France way.. here in Quebec, we slang EVERYTHING! so it turns out being: Batèche! and pronounce like.. Bah-Tesh. But it's not really offensive... a child could say it and people would just laugh.. kind of a vintage swear...
Otherwise, we are pretty much founded on using the tools of the Christ as swearing...
Here's the list in order of situation of gravity, most angry to most mellow.
Tabarnak! : Tabernacle
Sacrament!: Sacrement
Siboire!: stays the same
Criss!: Christ
Calis! : Caliste
Esti! : Osti
Where it becomes interesting is when you start combining all of them in a most angry situation...
Maudit calis de tabarnak d'esti de marde de saint calis!!!
This could go on forever! ;)
These are the one used mostly, but each region of Quebec have their own swearing aswell and various other words inspired by historical and political events. Most of the Quebec resident leaving outside of the Montreal and Quebec city area are for the most part categorized as vulgar speaker... ...wich i'm part of.
Rej
We've got a pretty good one in Australia, if you really want to offend somebody when they come over to your house, serve them a VB (beer) :D
Don't worry, serving Australian beer is considered an insult in NZ as well ;)
haha! I would say vice versa but im not sure you guys have a brewery yet? ;-)
Edit: For Americans/Canadians reading, this is US/Canadian banter equivalent. :D
Quote from: chromesphere on March 26, 2015, 05:25:52 AM
haha! I would say vice versa but im not sure you guys have a brewery yet? ;-)
Edit: For Americans/Canadians reading, this is US/Canadian banter equivalent. :D
PBR and Budweiser are equaly drink across NorthAmerica and each country have their well develloped pallet of micro brewers for wich there's commune respect toward each other... :P
The two or three good things to come out of Australia is DIY Guitar Pedals and it's proprietor, and Coopers Homebrew Kits. Other than that, it's venomous snakes, venomous spiders, and poisonous scorpions. And Coober Pedy. And some sheep. ;) ;) ;)
Thanks Alan...! :-[
lol i think i've posted this here before but always give me a laugh :)
Quote from: alanp on March 26, 2015, 05:20:39 AM
Don't worry, serving Australian beer is considered an insult in NZ as well ;)
I think it's fairly worldwide ;)
English (and particularly Yorkshire) swearing can be very confusing as even the strongest of words (yes those) can be used as terms of endearment. Depending on inflection. Doesn't really work in text form though.
Also we assign several meanings to the same words. Bollocks is a prime example which can mean something not very good (that's bollocks that is), someone's saying something untrue (you're/he/she's talking bollocks), exasperation (bollocks to this/that!), something that's the best ever (that's the dogs bollocks!), an exclamation of pain/surprise/shock (BOLLOCKS!), and it's also slang for testicles (kicked in the bollocks).
Quote from: juansolo on March 26, 2015, 09:03:10 AM
Quote from: alanp on March 26, 2015, 05:20:39 AM
Don't worry, serving Australian beer is considered an insult in NZ as well ;)
I think it's fairly worldwide ;)
Hey hey hey hey hey! That's enough of that thank you very much! I'll assume you are talking about mainstream in which, well, carry on. Craft beers, different story. I could show you some craft beers that would blow your ahhh..bollocks off
;D
Fosters and Castlemaine XXXX are pretty much our entire exposure to Aussie beers...
Oh dear...
Funny thing is they reckon the european Fosters is nicer then the the Australia variety...it gets worse! Thank god for the massive Australian craft beer seen.
Anyway sorry Alan for OT'ing the thread.
Quote from: chromesphere on March 26, 2015, 09:33:58 AM
Anyway sorry Alan for OT'ing the thread.
It could maybe be the spring, but beer is emerging as aa concurent topic lately ;D
Regarding swearing.. we have books about it here in Spain :)
The rest of the Spanish-speaking community gets usually amazed by our swearing capabilities.
The most common one may be "joder!" which is like "fuck!" (I use it as much as the big lebowsky uses the english equivalent). And sometimes we get creative: the word "cojones" (our equivalent to bollocks) has many uses:
"no me toques los cojones" - literally: don't touch my balls / meaning: don't upset me
"tener cojones" - usually to be brave "Peter tiene un par de cojones" = "Peter has a pair of balls" = "Peter is a stand up guy"
but applied to a situation it changes the meaning: "la situación politica actual tiene cojones" = "current political situation is a shit"
"no hay cojones" = you don't have what it takes to do something
"me descojono" = LMAO
"es cojonudo" - "mi nuevo Klon es cojonudo" = "my new Klon is awesome"
"no me sale de los cojones" - "I don't want to do it and don't care about it"
there's a lot more, and the meaning changes depending on the verb tense :)
Here you got an article about "how to swear like a Spaniard":
http://youngadventuress.com/2012/12/swear-spanish.html
Spanish swearing sounds awesome!
Missed that one. He's/she's got massive bollocks - is also someone very brave/stupid/without fear.
Quote from: juansolo on March 26, 2015, 09:56:43 AM
Missed that one. Someone with massive bollocks is also someone very brave/stupid/without fear.
same as here. And I can imagine the absence of bollocks implies cowardice?
Quote from: micromegas on March 26, 2015, 09:58:46 AM
Quote from: juansolo on March 26, 2015, 09:56:43 AM
Missed that one. Someone with massive bollocks is also someone very brave/stupid/without fear.
same as here. And I can imagine the absence of bollocks implies cowardice?
Yep :) ie: No way I'd have the bollocks to do that.
QuoteWe've got a pretty good one in Australia, if you really want to offend somebody when they come over to your house, serve them a VB (beer) :D
Really? When I was at (Ballarat) Uni 20 years ago it was the pub beer of choice. I don't drink (and I didn't then either) so I can't tell you why that was or what the situation is there.
What I do know is that no one in Australia drinks Fosters....
Drolo should chime in this thread. My mother is learning portuguese and she says they are really creative for swearing :)
The main advantage of swearing in Dutch is that you can combine many words into one huge swearwords. We also like to use diseases a lot as we really love to inflict nasty diseases upon each other. Using the Lord's name is also a steady staple. So we could get:
Godgloeiendegodverdommekankerteringtyfuszooi! (God glowing God dammit cancer tuberculosis typhoid crap)
Krijg de tering! (Get tuberculosis!)
Certain handicaps also do well:
Achterlijke kutmongool! You retarded cunt with Down syndrome (this one loses a lot in translation)
Calling people by their genitals, the three letter words as we call them, is also a perennial favorite. There are lots of regional variations and people can be quite creative themselves and in their own social groups.
Finally, having been a few times to Iran I also picked up a few Farsi swearwords. Although I don't think they are as vulgar as we are, when spoken right they have a nice exotic flavor to them
Keesaphat (dirty person) I heard quite a lot, which you can combine with a person's name.
Zahremaar (snake venom)
Quote from: Muadzin on March 26, 2015, 10:45:25 AM
The main advantage of swearing in Dutch is that you can combine many words into one huge swearwords. We also like to use diseases a lot as we really love to inflict nasty diseases upon each other. Using the Lord's name is also a steady staple. So we could get:
Godgloeiendegodverdommekankerteringtyfuszooi! (God glowing God dammit cancer tuberculosis typhoid crap)
Krijg de tering! (Get tuberculosis!)
Certain handicaps also do well:
Achterlijke kutmongool! You retarded cunt with Down syndrome (this one loses a lot in translation)
Calling people by their genitals, the three letter words as we call them, is also a perennial favorite. There are lots of regional variations and people can be quite creative themselves and in their own social groups.
Finally, having been a few times to Iran I also picked up a few Farsi swearwords. Although I don't think they are as vulgar as we are, when spoken right they have a nice exotic flavor to them
Keesaphat (dirty person) I heard quite a lot, which you can combine with a person's name.
Zahremaar (snake venom)
Thank you for providing names for my next batch of pedals ;D Those are awesome! When pronouncing the Farsi ones I feel like I'm cursing someone.. (like in that racist Indiana Jones movie "kalimaa")
Quote from: micromegas on March 26, 2015, 10:13:48 AM
Drolo should chime in this thread. My mother is learning portuguese and she says they are really creative for swearing :)
There are indeed some nice ones ...
Seu Cabrão dum corno! = litterally translated " You Big goat of a horn!"
You sometimes wonder what the origin of such swearwords are, what situation could possibly have summoned someone to invent that .... :-)
This might be the best thread ever!
My gran (95) has some good old school ones that slip out now and again. "Arsehole scrapings!" being my favourite, used at my mum (gran has Alzheimers) when really annoyed with her. Reduces my mum to hysterical laughter even when she really means it.
Love the subject. Unfortunately I'm not a grammar king, so I do have a bit of a hard time expressing the nuances of Swedish swearing, but I should give it a try:
Traditionally we get our rich swearing from hell. The word "helvete"=hell is a common swearword itself. Also:
"Satan"=Satan
"Fan"=Satan
"Jävlar"=Devils. But this word is hard to translate; in fact "devils"="djävlar" in Swedish, we skip the initial "d" to make it a bad word.
The meaning of those words cannot in context be directly translated to English as the list above. Rather - if a swede sais/shouts "Vad I helvete" (translates to "what in hell") he means "what the fuck". If he sais "Fan", he means "Fuck", and if he sais "Jävlar", he also means "Fuck". "Jävla idiot" will translate to "fuckin moron/idiot".
Those words also take their own path in the Swedish word classes - making them quite unique words. In some sentences they are not swearwords but used to put you down anyway. if I say "brinn I helvetet" = "burn in hell", helvete is really a place where I wish you shall burn rather than a swearing, compared to "Vad I helvete" (above), where "helvete" definitely is a cussword.
Lighter forms of swearing might include the word "förbannat"="damned" (which can be compared to "förbannad" which simply means "really angry"), or "jäklar", a more kind form of "jävlar"... Someone just changed a letter.
If I got things right, It seems common in English to pick the bad words from sex, and in Sweden we got them from the devil downthere. At least traditionally. The youth have - however - recently implemented a new generation of insulting expressions, often in form of family insults; "din mamma är en hora"="your mother is a whore". This often shortened to just "din mamma"="your mother"; incomprehensible for many of us, but a sever insult to those understanding the code.
Cheers
Here in the States, "Fuck you you fucking fuck" showcases our American laziness and lack of creative vocabulary when it is time to curse.
We often combine the f-bomb with other insulting words to increase effectiveness: i.e. "hey fuck-tard", etc.
Silliness.
It seems that these are also often accompanied by some aknowledgement of the subject's parents belonging to canine species ... :-)
I'm glad someone from Holland popped on here, because Dutch and German curses are my favorite to see written out.
Quote from: midwayfair on March 26, 2015, 01:12:57 PM
I'm glad someone from Holland popped on here, because Dutch and German curses are my favorite to see written out.
Why is that, verdammte Scheiße?!
Schweinepriester! (Pigpriest)
Another interesting one for etymological research ...
Or Sauhund (pig dog).
Quote from: drolo on March 26, 2015, 01:23:01 PM
Schweinepriester! (Pigpriest)
Another interesting one for etymological research ...
There seem to be three main categories of European swearing in general:
1. Body parts (including things that come out of the body)
2. Animals
3. Religion
English lost a lot of the potency of #3. "Hell" and "damn" are really, really mild, and we don't have nearly the variety that French has in that category. We also have very little left in the animals category. We kept "bitch" but it's not even one of the seven words we can't say on TV. If you go by American broadcast rules, apparently the worst things you can say are related to what you do after you get up in the morning and uhhhh what you probably want to do before going to bed at night.
So American swearing is crepuscular.
Quote from: midwayfair on March 26, 2015, 01:38:54 PM
Quote from: drolo on March 26, 2015, 01:23:01 PM
Schweinepriester! (Pigpriest)
Another interesting one for etymological research ...
Couldn't have said it better myself ;) American swearing is boring and uncreative.
There seem to be three main categories of European swearing in general:
1. Body parts (including things that come out of the body)
2. Animals
3. Religion
English lost a lot of the potency of #3. "Hell" and "damn" are really, really mild, and we don't have nearly the variety that French has in that category. We also have very little left in the animals category. We kept "bitch" but it's not even one of the seven words we can't say on TV. If you go by American broadcast rules, apparently the worst things you can say are related to what you do after you get up in the morning and uhhhh what you probably want to do before going to bed at night.
So American swearing is crepuscular.
Awesome topic!! Rej covered French Canadians pretty thoroughly , and I imagine east coasters (Newfs and PEIers) have their own thing going on. But out here on the west coast at least for the last decade, the #1 swear to insult someone else is douche, most often combined with something else:
- douche-bag (very popular)
- douche-nozzle
- douche-rocket
- douche-bucket
- and my personal favourite because it really takes the Canadianness to the next level, douche-canoe. Example: Look at that raging fucking douche-canoe drinking a Canadian (Molson Canadian beer, the Canadian equivalent of Fosters, something no self respecting canadian would drink).
Hoser might have been an insult/swear at one time, but is only used as a term of endearment these days (see the movie Strange Brew if you have never heard the term hoser).
Also despite (or maybe because of?) being one of the more diverse and least religious parts of the country, we reaaaaaly like to thow Jesus' and God into the mix. EG Fucking god damn jesus fucking christ. Sweet fucking jesus on a stick.
Quote from: pryde on March 26, 2015, 12:21:54 PM
Here in the States, "Fuck you you fucking fuck" showcases our American laziness and lack of creative vocabulary when it is time to curse.
We often combine the f-bomb with other insulting words to increase effectiveness: i.e. "hey fuck-tard", etc.
Silliness.
That's probably because the f-word is still considered the worst of the worst. It is kinda lazy to only use the f-word though. You've got to mix it up.
Last week we had a snow storm on the first day of spring, so I could be heard saying something like "Fuck this fucking snow straight in the ass. This cock sucking mother fucking snow can go eat shit and die. Fuck." Or something like that, while I was shoveling.
Quote from: DuctTapeRiot on March 26, 2015, 04:25:00 PM
Awesome topic!! Rej covered French Canadians pretty thoroughly , and I imagine east coasters (Newfs and PEIers) have their own thing going on. But out here on the west coast at least for the last decade, the #1 swear to insult someone else is douche, most often combined with something else:
- douche-bag (very popular)
- douche-nozzle
- douche-rocket
- douche-bucket
- and my personal favourite because it really takes the Canadianness to the next level, douche-canoe. Example: Look at that raging fucking douche-canoe drinking a Canadian (Molson Canadian beer, the Canadian equivalent of Fosters, something no self respecting canadian would drink).
Hoser might have been an insult/swear at one time, but is only used as a term of endearment these days (see the movie Strange Brew if you have never heard the term hoser).
Also despite (or maybe because of?) being one of the more diverse and least religious parts of the country, we reaaaaaly like to thow Jesus' and God into the mix. EG Fucking god damn jesus fucking christ. Sweet fucking jesus on a stick.
I yell "Jesus fucking christ" and "God fucking dammit" a lot, especially in traffic. I'm also fond of douche-bag (and occasionally douche-nozzle) when talking politics.
I'm from the most western part of Austria, Vorarlberg, which has lots of swiss influences concerning our dialect. In fact, many eastern austrians can't quite understand me, if I go full on hillbilly. Living in Vienna for 8 years now, I pretty much learned to not use my dialect around here, yet I always fall back when swearing :D
Disclaimer: the following are not real german words per se, rather a written form of how we would say it
* sackzefix! an expression for general swearing, eg. when you drop something or something isn't working
* huramentig! actually translates to "whore monday" just implying the distaste for mondays in general but it kinda is useable like the sackzefix!
* Leack mi am füdl/Leck mi am tschöple. translates to 'lick my ass'
* schrenzgealta. this is from a part called Bregenzer Wald where the dialect is intensly strong. It's a word used for ugly people :D
Obviously, we also use the usual german stuff
Quote from: juansolo on March 26, 2015, 09:59:58 AM
Quote from: micromegas on March 26, 2015, 09:58:46 AM
Quote from: juansolo on March 26, 2015, 09:56:43 AM
Missed that one. Someone with massive bollocks is also someone very brave/stupid/without fear.
same as here. And I can imagine the absence of bollocks implies cowardice?
Yep :) ie: No way I'd have the bollocks to do that.
Missed more uses of bollocks.
Bollocks = No, really no, not in a million years.
Go Bollocks = F**k off and all it's various iterations from a light hearted 'nonsense' to no really 'f**k off'.
It's a very versatile word.
One Kiwi phrase that I don't think I've heard used anywhere else (except for Australia, but they pinch lots of our stuff like Pharlap) is "Good Cunt".
It's used as a term of praise, as in "Juan sent me a set of Lovetone Flange boards -- and a MN3007 -- for free! He's a genuine good cunt, he is." You've got to be careful who you use the phrase around, though.
Mind you, if you call someone an utter cunt, it's a very harsh insult.
(https://fbcdn-sphotos-e-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xat1/v/t1.0-9/11096548_10155456404705145_7448531908720890718_n.jpg?oh=40a629e2348be1224d627b4094c08a54&oe=55765C59&__gda__=1437152923_e919b3fe8574b889fa0927f281b6b5d3)
Quote from: alanp on March 27, 2015, 09:01:57 AM
One Kiwi phrase that I don't think I've heard used anywhere else (except for Australia, but they pinch lots of our stuff like Pharlap) is "Good Cunt".
It's used as a term of praise, as in "Juan sent me a set of Lovetone Flange boards -- and a MN3007 -- for free! He's a genuine good cunt, he is." You've got to be careful who you use the phrase around, though.
Mind you, if you call someone an utter cunt, it's a very harsh insult.
That'll work here too. c**t and t**t can be terms of endearment ;) or not...
Quote from: alanp on March 27, 2015, 09:01:57 AM
One Kiwi phrase that I don't think I've heard used anywhere else (except for Australia, but they pinch lots of our stuff like Pharlap) is "Good Cunt".
It's used as a term of praise, as in "Juan sent me a set of Lovetone Flange boards -- and a MN3007 -- for free! He's a genuine good cunt, he is." You've got to be careful who you use the phrase around, though.
Mind you, if you call someone an utter cunt, it's a very harsh insult.
Australia, where you call your mates "cunt" and your enemies "mate."
(And yes, I know he's in NZ. It's a quote from something, and I'm too lazy to find out where.)
Quote from: juansolo on March 27, 2015, 10:08:09 AM
Quote from: alanp on March 27, 2015, 09:01:57 AM
One Kiwi phrase that I don't think I've heard used anywhere else (except for Australia, but they pinch lots of our stuff like Pharlap) is "Good Cunt".
It's used as a term of praise, as in "Juan sent me a set of Lovetone Flange boards -- and a MN3007 -- for free! He's a genuine good cunt, he is." You've got to be careful who you use the phrase around, though.
Mind you, if you call someone an utter cunt, it's a very harsh insult.
That'll work here too. c**t and t**t can be terms of endearment ;) or not...
Brings back fond memories of my semester in England. I recall a few people using the term "Knobhead" quite a bit, I thought that was a pretty good insult.
Quote from: Luke51411 on March 27, 2015, 01:27:41 PM
Quote from: juansolo on March 27, 2015, 10:08:09 AM
Quote from: alanp on March 27, 2015, 09:01:57 AM
One Kiwi phrase that I don't think I've heard used anywhere else (except for Australia, but they pinch lots of our stuff like Pharlap) is "Good Cunt".
It's used as a term of praise, as in "Juan sent me a set of Lovetone Flange boards -- and a MN3007 -- for free! He's a genuine good cunt, he is." You've got to be careful who you use the phrase around, though.
Mind you, if you call someone an utter cunt, it's a very harsh insult.
That'll work here too. c**t and t**t can be terms of endearment ;) or not...
Brings back fond memories of my semester in England. I recall a few people using the term "Knobhead" quite a bit, I thought that was a pretty good insult.
Another one that can be a term of endearment in Yorkshire ;)
My personal favourite is an embellishment of a family favourite that a friend of mine came up with to describe awkward customers. It just became adopted as a regular swearword for anyone deserving.
(http://juansolo.co.uk/motas/images/BERT14-20.jpg)
I was asked by a friend how long I had to stand there before someone put the sign up...