# Question about insults/obscenities **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 10, 2015, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284 "2015-02-10T07:22:19Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Crazier\_Catlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Crazier\_Catlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazier_Catlady)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 1:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/21 "2015-02-11T13:51:13Z")
Dutch insults often accuse someone of having a certain disease, such as kankerlijer (cancer sufferer). One step further is kankerhoer (cancerous whore). Other “popular” diseases for this purpose are smallpox and consumption. Strangely enough, insulting one’s mother is not common at all in the Netherlands. ---
**Author:** ![ZipperJJ](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/zipperjj/32/211_2.png) [@ZipperJJ](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ZipperJJ)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/22 "2015-02-11T18:31:40Z")
[Buzzfeed recently posted a short list of insults from around the world.](http://www.buzzfeed.com/tomchivers/31-excellent-insults-and-profanities-from-around-the-world#.wiZR7mALL) The ones they chose happen to involve a lot of excrement, nether-regions and mothers. There’s some that don’t like “Wearer of a green hat” but that one suggests that a guy’s wife is a whore. ---
**Author:** ![Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/son_of_a_rich/32/5439_2.png) [@Son\_of\_a\_Rich](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Son_of_a_Rich)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/23 "2015-02-11T18:57:55Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > The standard insult “Bastard” implies one without a father. No, that would be “Clone!” 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![purplehorseshoe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/purplehorseshoe/32/2996_2.png) [@purplehorseshoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/purplehorseshoe)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 7:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/24 "2015-02-11T19:39:30Z")
> [@Toxgoddess](#): > > The OP may be interested in reading \*The Anatomy of Swearing \*by Ashley Montague. History, meaning, examples in many languages. Very scholarly…and entertaining! Imagine getting a research grant to study cursing. > > You’re correct in that there are “categories” of cursing - anatomical, scatological, sexual, compound terms. According to Montague, effective cursing is an art form. > > [The Anatomy of Swearing: Montagu, Ashley: 9780812217643: Amazon.com: Books](http://www.amazon.com/The-Anatomy-Swearing-Ashley-Montagu/dp/0812217640) Dunno about the OP, but _I_ just added it to my Amazon list! Thank you! > [@Crazier\_Catlady](#): > > Dutch insults often accuse someone of having a certain disease, such as kankerlijer (cancer sufferer). One step further is kankerhoer (cancerous whore). Other “popular” diseases for this purpose are smallpox and consumption. Strangely enough, insulting one’s mother is not common at all in the Netherlands. Damn, what do you say to someone (or about someone) who’s just been diagnosed with the big C and you \*\*\*don’t \*\*\*want to be insulting? ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/25 "2015-02-11T21:57:26Z")
> [@Steken](#): > > Nothing beats _me cago en la leche que te pario_, i.e. “I shit in the milk which fed you,” meaning the mother’s milk the guy suckled as a babe. Can’t think of an insult more truly vile and nasty than that. The classic _me cago en la leche de tu puta madre_ (I shit in the milk of your whore mother) is a little worse. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [February 11, 2015, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/26 "2015-02-11T22:10:44Z")
> [@](#): > > Quoth **Si Amigo** : > > To call a woman a bitch in the United States is a supreme insult to a woman here and will be responded to with a full out nuclear attack. Call a Japanese woman a bitch and she will just give a strange look (unless she has spent a lot of time in the states). I’ve been told by the Japanese that if you truly want to insult a woman you just need to refer to her a big cow. Kind of works in any language. I once heard one (American) high school student exclaim to another “Go milk yourself, you fat cow!”. The listener seemed to take it in the spirit in which it was intended. ---
**Author:** ![Grotonian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c2a13f/32.png) [@Grotonian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grotonian)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 1:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/27 "2015-02-12T01:37:22Z")
> [@eschereal](#): > > It can also mean that your biological father was a low-life prick who refused to do right by your mother. No, that’s still an insult to the mother–what kind of a woman _needs_ a man “to do right by her,” other than a slutty slut who slutted around before she was married? ---
**Author:** ![Crazier\_Catlady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9e5f3/32.png) [@Crazier\_Catlady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crazier_Catlady)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 9:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/28 "2015-02-12T21:50:15Z")
> [@](#): > > Damn, what do you say to someone (or about someone) who’s just been diagnosed with the big C and you \*\*\*don’t \*\*\*want to be insulting? The word lijer is old fashioned and only used for these insults, but yes, that is a problem. ---
**Author:** ![eschereal](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eschereal/32/18939_2.png) [@eschereal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eschereal)\ **Post date:** [February 12, 2015, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/29 "2015-02-12T21:59:57Z")
One of the nastier lines in that bottom-of-the-barrel TV series came when Al was trying to reassure Peg that he was not fooling around on her, “_Why would I go out for milk when I have a cow at home?_” Calling a woman a cow in pretty insulting in American English, because cows are stupid, smelly beasts basically good for one thing. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/30 "2015-02-13T04:15:16Z")
> [@SimonMoon5](#): > > I think the B-word is losing it’s power to offend. You can easily imagine a woman going, “Tee-hee, I’m such a bitch, aren’t I?” Back in 2008, during the Democratic Primary battle between Barack Obama & Hillary Clinton, there was a minor flap because someone in the Obama camp had called Hillary a bitch. Shortly afterward, she entered a meeting of her campaign staff, greeted by the tune of Elton Johns’ “The Bitch is Back”. With some shocked, but mostly lots of laughter from the staff, and even Hillary herself. There was even suggestions to do this at the next big public rally she was to appear at – maybe even fly in Elton to play – but the idea was killed by older staffers, because it would likely offend some voters (especially females) and would focus attention on her personality rather than her issues/experience. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 13, 2015, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284/31 "2015-02-13T14:18:01Z")
> [@TCMF-2L](#): > > The standard insult “Bastard” implies one without a father. No, one whose father is not married to the mother and may not have acknowledged the child. He also may have, history is full of recognized bastards from royal and high households. > [@Colibri](#): > > In Spanish, the most severe insults you can give to a man are to indicate that he’s a cuckold, that is, that his wife or lover has been unfaithful to him. > > Insults to one’s mother are pretty high up there too. I’d say the one about pimping one’s women (wife, daughters, sisters) is worse. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-insults-obscenities/712284.md?page=1)