In English one of the worst things you can call someone else is a motherfucker. In Hindi, it’s ‘sisterfucker’ - behenchod. Interestingly enough, calling someone “brother-in-law” - “saala” - can be both literal, or also a curse word, as in “I am fucking your sister.” The thing is, nowadays, even women say “saala” as an insult, which is amusing. I’ve used it myself.
“Haraami” means “bastard” or born out of wedlock. It also can just plain mean illegitimate, so you can say “haraami kismet” - my illegitimate fate.
Haraamzaada means just “bastard”.
Here’s an interesting one - you all think owls are smart over here but we know they are really pretty dumb, so to be called an owl - “oloo” is to be called stupid. Then we say “Oloo ka patta”, which means “son of an owl!”
“Kuthi” is bitch. “Kutha” is dog.
Here is one I’ve heard to say “Teri jaat hi aisi hai” is a grave insult, meaning basically, “That’s the level of your caste.” It’s basically like saying “You people.” Insulting both the caste and the person.
I’ll post more as I think of them. How about you guys, interesting curse words in your languages?
My favorite is how the politesse of Japanese doesn’t allow many actual swear words. The strongest they get is shit or asshole. But there are levels of politeness in word choice, so depending on that and your tone, a translation for something like bitch or fucker is just the rude way of saying “you.” Another example has a word that means “That’s loud,” but if you use the casual/impolite ending to the word, it means “Shut up.”
Shebar-sek-key : whore
geseki : son of a Bitch
keseki : Bitch
Yamogo : F U
I used these alot in bob jones university were profanity was a no no. There was at least 20% koreans in my classes and they all did the same. Nobody got in trouble.
In Swedish, for reasons I will never understand, the number seventeen is a mild swear. OK it is very mild, the kind of thing Grandad would say, but a swear it is. “För sjutton!”
To be honest, Swedish swearing is pretty crap all round. None of the words can really be spat out with the same venom as English swears, which is probably a large part of the reason why many Swedes swear in English. That and sounding cool, obviously.
Canadian French cursing is really funny, especially to francophones from elsewhere. It’s largely based on stringing together various religious terms. Tabarnac de câlisse, for example, literally means tabernacle of the chalice. Seriously
I think in Spanish it’s important to specify the country, insults are not always the same.
So, Chile here:
very common are, “hijo de puta” (son of a whore), “conchatumadre” that’s short of “concha de tu madre” (your mother’s cunt?) “culiado/a” (fucked) and it’s variations, maricón (faggot)
The absolute worst thing you can call someone in Thailand is a hia or monitor lizard. You’d damn well better be holding a gun visibly in your hand if you do that. Think about calling someone a “shit-eating cunt whore child fucker” in the US; hia is exponentially worse. The funny thing is that monitor lizards are often found on the grounds of the local parliament building compound, giving rise to lots of innuendos about politicians.
Almost as bad, but you could probably get away with wielding a knife rather than a gun, is khwai or water buffalo. Despite the beasts being the backbone of the traditional farm family – many farm wives openly admit they’d rather lose their husbands than their water buffalo, because the loss of the latter would be ruinous to the family – it implies you’re slow and stupid.
Tack on “Cambodian” to the beginning of either insult, and there is no force on earth that could save you.
P.S. My favorite Afrikaans joke involves swearing, so I’ll share it here:
Van der Merwe (the generic Afrikaaner used in all white SA jokes) gets a flat tyre in the middle of nowhere while he is rushing to an important engagement. He’s busy changing the tyre, sweating all over his nice suit and getting more and more frustrated when, out of nowhere, a convoy of official looking cars swoops past, showering him with dust, pebbles and associated crap. Van der Merwe leaps to his feet, shakes his fist at the convoy and yells out “Vok jou*”
In a squeel of brakes, the convoy comes to a halt, reverses and stops next to Van der Merwe. The rear window of the biggest limo winds down and there is PW Botha** sitting inside, livid. “Don’t you know who I am? How can you speak to me in such a way?” He demands.
Van der Merwe is shaken and stumbles an apology. “Sorry, Sir. I didn’t know who it was,” he says “Vok U!!***”
Grim
*Fuck you!
**as it was at the time, although given recent events, Jacob Zuma would actually fit the bill just as well
***Fuck you!! - but using the honorific form of “you” used when addressing one’s elders and betters
There are curse words in Quebec that aren’t religion-based. For example, if I want to tell someone off, I can go with “va chier” which literally means “go shit” but is sort of equivalent to “go fuck yourself” or something similar. (I don’t know if it’s used in other French dialects.)
Another couple in Czech: “Ježíšmarjá!,” used similarly to the way we’d say “Jesus Christ!” Also, “Krucifix!”
Calling someone a cow, “kráva,” is much worse than calling someone a cow here. However, calling someone “you ox” (ty vole, pron. “tee VO-lay”), while technically insulting being that oxen are big, ugly and stupid (and therefore a funny thing to call a close friend), is as ubiquitous in slang as the American “man,” as in “What’s going on, man?” or “Oh, man!”
A very mild one, “Houby!” (“Mushrooms!”). Used when someone is full of it, like we’d say “Baloney!”
I learned very quickly when getting intimate with my wife (who is Korean) to never use the term “bo-ji”
I thought I’d surprise her with my newfound word. I was told in no uncertain terms that was one of the most vulgar words in the Korean language. Like “cunt,” only worse.
clarification: I wasn’t calling her a “bo-ji.” More of “name the body part you want to get to next” type of thing.
