The first thread went a little bit far afield (as is the nature of such things), but I’m still going to try to do this by subject matter. So - what are your favorite things to shout at the driver who just zipped across four lanes of highway traffic, narrowly missing your front bumper, to get to his off-ramp? What do you call the guy who puts his bare foot up on your armrest from behind in coach on an airplane?
I typically stick with, “asshole,” although, “dickhead,” is fairly common as well. I think there’s some subtlety of meaning - to my mind an asshole is more blatantly uncaring and…well, assholish…often self-aware of his assholery. A dickhead is a bit more likely to be merely stupidly obnoxious, and less conscious of their dickheadedness.
I’ve decided to split this one up into two parts because in my experience there is an entire subset of words devoted to men, and a different subset devoted to women. So, let’s try to stick to the foul language you throw toward men in this thread, and deal with the female-directed invectives in the next. Feel free to share the gender-neutral phrases wherever you’d like.
In Dutch, “klootzak” would be appropriate, possibly intensified with “vuile”. (Dirty scrotum). Alternately (and there are so, so many alternates): “Godvergeten teringlijer”. Suffer of tuberculosis of whom the Lord has no memory.
In Spanish, cabron is one of the worst things you can say to a guy and definitely fighting words. It technically means “male goat” but conveys “cuckold,” or someone whose wife screws other men. It has an equivalent weight as “motherfucker” in English.
Idiota and imbecile are common but much stronger than the equivalents in English. In subtitles, I often see “asshole” translated by one of these words.
In Spanish from Spain, specifically a man who pimps out his own women. That is, cabrón is not merely a man whose woman is cuckolding him, but one who forces women supposed to be under his care and protection to have sex with other men.
Cabestro refers to a man who behaves like a bull in a china shop, either physically or emotionally. Some people will also use it as an alternative to cabrón; Spanish dislikes repetition to the extent that we’ll apologize for using the same root (not even the same word) twice in a single sentence.
There’s also mamón (sucker but more agressive), references to one’s mother and references to being gay, many of which have become watered-down and obtained gender-flipped versions. 40 years ago, maricón meant “a gay man” and maricona meant “a gay transvestite” (Spain has enough of a tradition of gender-flipped theater characters to be very clear on the concept of “gender flipped clothing doesn’t necessarily mean anything about the wearer’s sexuality”); nowadays they’re more likely to mean “that male asshole who cut me off” and “that female asshole who cut me off” respectively.
Capullo (literally flowerbud) means dickhead, both as an anatomical reference (no me sale del capullo - my dick says no) and as an insult.
A long time ago I lived in a large apartment complex. There were a group of Central American immigrants at our end of the complex who had some kind of feud with another group of Central American immigrants in another part of the neighborhood. One night a group from the other end came to our section and smashed the car windshield of one of the guys that lived near us. The victim shouted “CABRON” in anger louder than I have ever heard someone yell anything.
In Waali, the strongest insult is probably Bon degre nga i.e. This dirty thing. It seems to be more insulting to refer to the insulltee in the third person like that. There is also nimbiiri yoho i.e. Blank eyes, implying stupidity.
Italian: testa di cazzo (dickhead), testa di minchia (same, Sicilian version but popular in the whole country), coglione (ball, this one implies stupidity rather than malice), figlio di putana (son of a whore).
In Italian this would be “cornuto” (to be “horned”). It doesn’t imply pimping, but does imply that your being cheated on by your wife. Quite a grave insult, do not use in Naples.
I like “klootzak.” Lots of sharp consonants - the word even looks angry.
Is this Spanish Spanish only? I know a lot of words (both uncouth and otherwise) have different meanings depending on which Spanish-speaking country the speaker is from. I like the word, but I’m wondering if it will be understood as, “dickhead,” here in Miami.
I like, “wichser.” I never know if, “Arschloch,” was actually useful in German or one of those things I picked up that maybe nobody ever uses in practice. Thanks for the validation.
Norwegian: You devil - “Jævel”, or you ballsack/testicle - “kødd”.
The latter word has the same origin as cod in “codpiece”, is also the origin of the Swedish for “pillow”, and is also our word for “dicking around”, “joking”, “messing with”.
And I forgot an important French one : ‘enculé’ - literally someone who takes it up the ass. It could theoretically be used for both sexes but is usually reserved for guys. It hasn’t quite lost its initial sexual connotation but is now mainly a general-purpose insult, like ‘connard’.
The tone would be understood; the word, not sure. Have you ever played Civ5? The bunched-up-fingers gesture the Latin American guy does when initiating conversations always throws me off; it is common in both Spanish and Portuguese speakers, sure, but you would use it under very different circumstances. Depending on what is being said, it means “you’re a dickhead (and an asshole, and your mother is so ugly a satyr wouldn’t fuck her in daylight”, “I’m such an imbecile (why didn’t I think of this sooner)” or “we’re such morons (why didn’t we think of this sooner)”.
Another group in Spanish is related to animals: donkey/ass/stupid = burro, borrico, pollino; pig/dirty/sleazy = cerdo, puerco, cochino, marrano, guarro… (it’s one of the nouns that has the highest number of synonyms, and most of them include the kind of strong phonemes we favor in our insults). I remember one of my bosses saying “I will not say I dislike him, but I certainly do consider him an animal porcino” (he got an ovation).
Arschgeige. Hosenscheisser. Sau Preusse, Du ehlender! (To denote displeasure with someone not from Swabia, Bavaria or Austria). Zigenficker. Arschgeburt.
All valid :D. Though a Bavarian worth his salt would call me “Saupreiss, elendiger!” (I like “Arschgeburt”, wouldn’t say I’ve ever heard it in the wild)
I seem to recall having read that in the times after the reconquest of all of Spain from the Moors: there was a considerable issue about Jews (all of whom had faced the choice between conversion to Catholicism, and expulsion from Spain) who had stayed; and on the face of it, converted – but whose “conversion” was suspected of having been about expediency, not conviction, and they were suspected of still secretly performing Judaic religious observances in secret. (This was, IIRC, an issue with which the Inquisition was majorly preoccupied.) I seem, again, to recall that these folk were especially referred to as “marranos”.
