Here in North America, our main, worst profane utterances pertain to:
a person who fornicates (fucker) * [Like this is a bad thing?] *
a person who fornicates with his mom (motherfucker)
a person of the lineage of a dog (bitch; son of a bitch)
a person who has an unknown or not-around father (bastard)
a person who performs fellatio on males (cocksucker)
a person who is metaphorically linked to the body part from which we shit (asshole)
My question is: In foreign countries, particularly those that speak a language other than English, are their profanities the same things interpreted into their language? If not, what do their worst profane utterances translate to in English?
You can look for yourself at The Alternative Dictionary. It has dirty words and phrases in over a hundred langauges, but unfortunately not all entries give literal translations. Words meaning “whore” seem pretty common. I wouldn’t want to be called a “turtle egg” in Chinese.
In my experience, it has less to do with language than culture. Generally, the worst calumnies revolve around parentage in Europe and the Mideast, while body parts references are the nadir for Austronesian/Polynesian cultural groups.
My main familiarity with foreign swearwords is with French. In mostly Catholic Quebec, where I grew up, the predominant swearwords were religiously connected:
hosti (pronounced ST) = the Host
chalice (pronounced col-liss) = the Chalice
Sacrament
Tabarnac = tabernacle
Maudit = Damned
I found these to be an interesting cultural variation on swearing. If I hit my thumb with a hammer and yelled out “Host, chalice, tabernacle and sacrament”, my (english-speaking unilingual) mother wouldn’t have batted an eye. But if my friend Pierre did the same thing, his mother would have washed his mouth out with soap.
My parents came to American in 1967 from Czechoslovakia, so I grew up speaking Czech fluently (not so much now since I’ve lived away from home for 10+ years, but I can still understand it!) Anyway, I have asked my mom in the past about swear words and their meanings. They are not literally translated like American ones. Like, if you are angry or surprised by something you would say “Jeziz, Maria, Josefe!” (I don’t have the correct letters on this keyboard) but that means “Jesus, Marie and Joseph!” Or, I remember when I got into trouble when I was little my mother would call me a “hlavo”, which literally means “head” but she meant “idiot”. Or, another popular one is, instead of saying something like “son of a bitch!” when you slam your finger or drop something, she would say “kournik shopa!” which literally translates into “chicken coop pig pen”. Go figure!
There are a few more really bad words that I remember made me feel like shit when I was called them, but I must have blocked them out!
Ahoj, Voorvie, jak se mate? Dovolte mi abych se predstavil. Jmenuje se Magdalene. Bydlila jsem jeden rok ve Praze, a mluvim trochu Cesky. Studovala jsem na Filosofickou Fakultu, Universitu Karlovy.
Back to the OP, the French cuss words I know aren’t so different from English, and are related to sexual activity and excrement.
Merde - shit Salope - bitch or whore
I know, should have paid more attention in French class.
Czech I know do prdele, which is supposed to mean “up the ass” but perhaps Voorvie can give a better description. I know Tomcat knows some more good Czech curses and the origins. Voorvie, Tomcat je American, ale bydli ve Praze a mluvi cesky. Ma ceskou manzelku.
Magdelene, too COOL! I am VERY impressed! I feel like such a loser now, I want to respond to you in Czech but alas, I have always lacked the skill to write in my “native” tongue, despite my father’s gargantuan efforts during my childhood! (I still have my grammar text book, maybe I should drag that out of storage and get re-acquainted) My mother is from Klatovy, my aunt and cousins still live there. My father is from Dubnany, his 3 brothers and both of his parents and tons of cousins all still live there. My sister was born in Klatovy, they all came to America when she was 2 years old. I am the first generation of American in my family.
I totally forgot about “do prdele”! My mother says that all the time, I guess I don’t view it as a swear word, per se.
Here’s a few more:
“curve” = “whore” (pronounce koor-va)
“hovno” = literally means “shit” but its pretty mild, like its ok to say in front of children. Example: someone says something like “I saw a UFO, I swear!” and you would respond in disbelief, “Ale hovno!”.
“picha” = I’m not sure of the spelling, but this basically means “bitch” or that even harsher words that starts with a “c” and ends with a “t”. Depends on how harsh you say it!
That’s all I can think of right now. I’m so glad I found this message board!
