# What English words are rude in other languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 4, 2008, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322 "2008-01-04T22:11:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![naita](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/naita/32/5862_2.png) [@naita](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/naita)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/62 "2008-01-06T20:32:35Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Isn’t the German _busen_ also pronounced with a voiced “s” (i.e. “z”) sound? It looks to me like the Norweigian would be pronounced with an unvoiced s, but I’m only guessing at the double-s orthography. I don’t speak any Norweigian. [/QUOTE] You’re probably right about the German, and definitely right about Norwegian. We don’t have voiced s’s at all. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/63 "2008-01-06T20:34:12Z")
[QUOTE=naita] We don’t have voiced s’s at all. [/QUOTE] Interesting! I did not know that. ---
**Author:** ![Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Bambi\_Hassenpfeffer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bambi_Hassenpfeffer)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/64 "2008-01-06T20:40:20Z")
[QUOTE=Hypnagogic Jerk] Heh, maybe. The word “ordinateur” in this sense was created by IBM in the 50s, I wonder if they left some documentation. [/QUOTE] I doubt it has anything to do with avoidance of taboo words. European Spanish uses _ordenador_ to mean “computer” (whereas in American Spanish, the word is _computadora_), and that’s clearly a cognate with _ordinateur_. _Computar_ means “to calculate” in Spanish, and _con puta_ would be “with whore”, but it’s not like it gets analyzed like that. I can’t imagine French would be that much different. ---
**Author:** ![squeegee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/squeegee/32/14537_2.png) [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2008, 11:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/65 "2008-01-06T23:20:39Z")
I vaguely knew a fellow whose name is apparently quite funny in the UK: Randy Peters. ---
**Author:** ![kellner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c2a13f/32.png) [@kellner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kellner)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 12:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/66 "2008-01-07T00:18:08Z")
[QUOTE=pulykamell] Isn’t the German _busen_ also pronounced with a voiced “s” (i.e. “z”) sound? [/QUOTE] Yes. At least that’s the “standard” pronunciation. In southern Germany you can find people who pronounce it with a voiceless [s]. In both cases the “u” is a long [uː] (almost, but not quite “oo”.) ---
**Author:** ![jovan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/0ea827/32.png) [@jovan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jovan)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/67 "2008-01-07T02:56:00Z")
[QUOTE=Tool of the Conspiracy] I don’t know the languages well enough to know how rude these are… French: cul (cull) = bottom/butt [/QUOTE] [QUOTE=Peter Morris] And “peter” means “to fart” in French. [/QUOTE] _Cul_ doesn’t sound anything like “cull”, the final “l” being silent and the “u” is a different vowel. _Péter_ is also pronounced quite differently from “Peter”, though it’s written essentially the same way. ---
**Author:** ![Valteron](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/f17d59/32.png) [@Valteron](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Valteron)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2008, 3:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322/68 "2008-01-07T03:11:38Z")
“Big Jim” paper towels (remember, the ones with the lumber jack?) were marketed as “Gros Jos” (pronounced Jo) in Quebec. Trouble is, “Jo” is Quebec slang for tits, (dunno if European French uses the same word) so they were calling them “big tits”. The other funny thing is that it did not affect Quebec sales and they just kept marketing them under that name. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-english-words-are-rude-in-other-languages/432322.md?page=3)