# Strange "other culture" insults... **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 18, 2003, 3:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767 "2003-12-18T15:24:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 6:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/41 "2003-12-21T06:48:46Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panamajack \* > \*\*I don’t know about Arabic, but this is true in Urdu. The word _sala_ is used for both. > > According to a friend, there seems to be some sentiment that one’s brother-in-law is stupid, probably simply by association with the word used as insult. \*\* _sala_ is an insult in Hindi and Gujarati as well. But, it’s a pretty mild insult. It’s so ubiquitous that I don’t even consider it an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 6:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/42 "2003-12-21T06:51:49Z")
I’m a bit confused about that myself, **DanBlather**. On it’s own, “rass” = “ass,” so you’d think that “rassclot” would be the same as “bumbaclot,” but it’s not. I’ve asked for elaboration on this a couple of times, and as near as I can make out, a rassclot is similar to a bloodclot in function, but different in form. A bloodcot is your familiar tampon- a rassclot is something else. Not a pad-- something “old style,” I’m not sure beyond that, since folks got visibly irritated by the line of questioning. Not just the “I hate the boring task of explaining idiom,” irritation that you’d expect-- they seemed to be even less eager to make small talk about the details of various feminine hygiene products than most guys are. I got the strong feeling that “rassclots” are simply rolled-up cloths inserted tampon-wise, (which was the usual thing before Kimberly Clark changed everything,) but I’m not prepared to swear a blood oath on it. ---
**Author:** ![II\_Gyan\_II](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/bbe5ce/32.png) [@II\_Gyan\_II](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/II_Gyan_II)\ **Post date:** [December 21, 2003, 7:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/43 "2003-12-21T07:01:15Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by panamajack \* > \*\*I don’t know about Arabic, but this is true in Urdu. The word _sala_ is used for both. > > According to a friend, there seems to be some sentiment that one’s brother-in-law is stupid, probably simply by association with the word used as insult. \*\* _sala_ is an insult in Hindi and Gujarati as well. But, it’s a pretty mild insult. It’s so ubiquitous that I don’t even consider it an insult. ---
**Author:** ![saramamalana](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/74df32/32.png) [@saramamalana](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/saramamalana)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 8:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/44 "2003-12-22T08:11:17Z")
There’s a yiddish insult (which I can say, but can’t really transliterate) that means “go shit in the ocean!” ---
**Author:** ![\_ceQueen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/_/b9bd4f/32.png) [@\_ceQueen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_ceQueen)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/45 "2003-12-22T08:34:08Z")
**ElvisL1ves** “Wrap it around your moustache” is not an insult. It’s an equivalent of “Live and learn”. **Osip** Impressed with your used of “crabwise!” Much more colorful and appropriate than “doggie-style” I’d have used. **MrTuffPaws** Yes, that’s it. Russian curses are more _poetic_. In any case, after cursing in Russian, English curses don’t even seem like cursing altogether, much less _cough_ creativity there. Even if there is no really good curse word for “asshole.” (Russian curses are never scatological, they are all sexual – ooooh boy where do I start.) ---
**Author:** ![Sanscour](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f475e1/32.png) [@Sanscour](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sanscour)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 8:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/46 "2003-12-22T08:34:43Z")
A friend from Pakistan told me many Pakistani swears thinking I would never remember them…how WRONG he was! The worst one I’m told meant Turtle Dick, an insult that would get you shot. And I like the yiddish insult about the hotel with 100 rooms. Sanscour ---
**Author:** ![slortar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6bbea6/32.png) [@slortar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/slortar)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 1:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/47 "2003-12-22T13:05:58Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Larry Mudd \* > \*\ ***slortar** , I dunno about the subtleties of the ‘eggplant’ slur – that’s something I’ve only heard on the T.V. As far as I know, though, the “white inside” part doesn’t enter into it. It’s presented as something that only Italian Americans say, if you want to add an extra layer of ironic stereotyping. 😃 \*\* Very odd. I knew I should’ve paid more attention to my grandpa…he knew every racial slur in the book…wonderful guy at times… :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![gex\_gex](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/94ad74/32.png) [@gex\_gex](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gex_gex)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/48 "2003-12-22T14:27:18Z")
> [@](#): > > _originally posted by cowgirl_ > Also, in English there don’t seem to be any (that I’ve heard, anyway) that are as grievous as some of the ones in other languages. How often does someone tell you “You’d get _shot_ for saying this in Mexico”? There’s nothing you can say in English that would be guaranteed to really piss someone off. How about “nigger?” Say that around the wrong person and you’d get in a hell of a lot of trouble. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 2:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/49 "2003-12-22T14:47:28Z")
I used to work with a South Korean woman back in the 1980s/early-1990s who said that a popular insult in her homeland was **"I hope you end up begging on the street corner for brown rice!"** My own favourite insult/exclamation is **“Son of a _whore!_”** I’ve recently been giving it a Middle-Eastern flavour by saying, “Offspring of a prostitute!” In _Lawrence of Arabia_ one character (I think it was the one played by Anthony Quinn) said “Your mother copulated with a scorpion.” ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/50 "2003-12-22T14:50:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by saramamlana \* > \*\*There’s a yiddish insult (which I can say, but can’t really transliterate) that means “go shit in the ocean!” \*\* Is is something like “Geh kaken auf in yam”? ---
**Author:** ![Iteki](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/eada6e/32.png) [@Iteki](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Iteki)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 7:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/51 "2003-12-22T19:04:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Diogenes the Cynic \* > \*\*A friend of mine who was stationed for a year in South Korea told me that “Your mother has a bald pussy” was a big insult there. \*\* I just asked the mrs, and she says she thinks thats an insult everywhere 😃 Doesn’t shed much light on the situation, but it made me laugh. Swedish swearing is boring, very fixated on death and the devil while sexual swearwords are almost non existant (but gaining in popularity), this means that I had to quickly wean myself from the common Irish phrase “C’mere ‘n’ I kill ya”. Swedish people don’t like it when you say that to their kids. Touchy bastards. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 22, 2003, 8:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/52 "2003-12-22T20:03:44Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Iteki \* > \*\* > Swedish swearing is boring, very fixated on death and the devil \*\* Mabye it’s all those [Ingmar Bergman](http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0050976/) movies. ---
**Author:** ![Kantalooppi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a5b964/32.png) [@Kantalooppi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kantalooppi)\ **Post date:** [January 8, 2004, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767/53 "2004-01-08T12:32:41Z")
> [@](#): > > but asked a real Finn about this and they said that ski is actually a noun in this context, ie. “put a ski into your vagina”. Actually, I’m a real Finn and I’ve always thought it was used as a verb. Though technically I guess you could also use it as a noun in this context. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/strange-other-culture-insults/219767.md?page=2)