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Florid + typical swear words / expressions, around the world

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nimh
 
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 04:09 pm
Do you have any swear words or expressions in your language that are typical for your country and/or different from what's said elsewhere?

Do you know of swear words/expressions from other countries that you yourself were stunned or intrigued by?

Can you come up with any interesting speculations about what the differences in the choice of expletives might say about respective cultures?
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drom et reve
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 04:18 pm
Great thread, Nihm.

I know quite a few unusual swear words. In Japanese, instead of saying 'f___ you,' they say 'Lord of the donkeys!' (kisama!) and nothing else. I have always wondered how this started.
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 04:39 pm
If anything travel teaches that there are more similarities in expletives than differences.

Interestingly in science fiction (Congo) the claim this is even true across species is made.

Anywho, one I love from Japan is:

"Goldfish ****".

The goldfish poop trails behind the goldfish for a while and Japanese use this to describe the sycophants of an alpha male or female. The "hangers on".
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Noddy24
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 04:55 pm
My mother, a classics major (Class of '30) used to curse, "Oh, spite. Oh, Hell. Oh double damn." Mild now, but quite infectious among high school students of the '50's.
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 04:56 pm
"Pillowcase biter" is used in Brazil as a colourful way to poke fun at a friend, implying that they are gay.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 05:26 pm
Hmmm - now I am wanting to disappear into the signing ape literature to see if swearing really IS cross species!
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 06:30 pm
dlowan wrote:
Hmmm - now I am wanting to disappear into the signing ape literature to see if swearing really IS cross species!


Grrr, this was one of the hardest searches I've had as all my attempts to locate it just found netizens and their potty mouths. Ultimately I found a cache of a blog that told me what query to use on Amazon's search within the Michael Crichton's book Congo (it was "shitty" and I had been looking for "****" and Amazon wasn't stemming my query).

Anywho, I typed up the relevant part of the book.

Michael Crichton Congo, on page 246:

    Amy signed Peter's name, then tapped the underside of her chin again.This was the Ameslan sign politely translated in scholarly reports as "dirty", although it was most often employed by apes when they needed to go to the potty. Primate investigators were under no illusions about what the animals really meant. Amy was saying, [i]Peter shitty[/i]. Nearly all language-skilled primates swore, and they employed a variety of words for swearing. Sometimes the pejorative seemed chosen at random, "nut" or "bird" or "wash." But at least eight primates in different laboratories had independently settled on the clenched-fist sign to signify extreme displeasure. The only reason this remarkable coincidence hadn't been written up was that no investigator was willing to try and explain it. It seemed to prove that apes, like people, found bodily excretions suitable terms to express denigration and anger. [i]Peter shitty,[/i] she signed again....


I also went ahead and looked up Koko the gorilla's vocabulary and found the sign listed as "toilet" with pictures of her signing it:

http://www.koko.org/world/signpics/images/sign_toilet.jpg

From: http://www.koko.org/world/signpics/sign_toilet.html

Just for kicks, here is Koko's sign for stupid:

http://www.koko.org/world/signpics/images/sign_stupid.jpg
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 06:41 pm
LOL! I have read Congo!!!


I wonder if he is reporting reality there?

Hmmmmmmm - I just bet he has a website - I will see if I can ask him!

They throw faeces when they are angry.


But - does Koko use toilet or **** as a swear word?????
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Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 06:54 pm
dlowan wrote:
LOL! I have read Congo!!!


I know, but have provided a lead to the specific portion as a shortcut.

If you have access to a copy see if there were footnotes on the page I typed from, as I am not sure the Amazon image included footnotes.

Quote:
I wonder if he is reporting reality there?


Dunno, but my hunch is that he is.

Quote:
Hmmmmmmm - I just bet he has a website - I will see if I can ask him!


From his site:

    Michael likes to hear from you but he gets so many messages he can't personally respond to each one.


Quote:
They throw faeces when they are angry.


Yeah, and I don't think they do this coincidentally.

This very funny clip seems to indicate that they can find it offensive.

Note: you have to be a member of the Raven's Realm to download it.

Quote:

But - does Koko use toilet or **** as a swear word?????


Dunno, I can't find anything about it. Crichton said that the academic community hasn't addressed it and that they sanitize the interpretation of the vocabulary for the public but I do not know if that is true.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 07:07 pm
Craven de Kere wrote:
dlowan wrote:
LOL! I have read Congo!!!


I know, but have provided a lead to the specific portion as a shortcut.

If you have access to a copy see if there were footnotes on the page I typed from, as I am not sure the Amazon image included footnotes.

Quote:
I wonder if he is reporting reality there?


Dunno, but my hunch is that he is.

Quote:
Hmmmmmmm - I just bet he has a website - I will see if I can ask him!


From his site:

    Michael likes to hear from you but he gets so many messages he can't personally respond to each one.


Quote:
They throw faeces when they are angry.


Yeah, and I don't think they do this coincidentally.

This very funny clip seems to indicate that they can find it offensive.

Note: you have to be a member of the Raven's Realm to download it.

Quote:

But - does Koko use toilet or **** as a swear word?????


Dunno, I can't find anything about it. Crichton said that the academic community hasn't addressed it and that they sanitize the interpretation of the vocabulary for the public but I do not know if that is true.


And thank you very much for providing said specific portion.

I surmise it is true, too - I should know - I have read heaps - I bet Piffka (or is it Osso who knows so much about this?) would know.

Hmm - bet if I pose the question on my monkeys and culture thread someone will know.

Yes - I dinna figure Crichton would answer himself - but I just bet some fan there knows - ! am waiting for my registration to take effect so I can ask the question on their Science board.

Off to look at clip....
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 07:09 pm
Oh - I didn't see the foot-note thing - I will look for my copy. Could take time to find it.
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nimh
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 07:12 pm
Once, quite a few years ago, I read this article about an American who collected curses and swear words and expressions from around the world. I dont think he was an academic; more of a self-taught sort. He had a website on which he collected them, and had already found some few thousand, I think.

Like Craven here, he noted that there were more similarities than differences, but still recounted the different focuses in different cultures: some peoples were more focused on religious themes, others on family (your mother, especially), others again more on the piss and poo stuff, or sex and homosexuality. All of 'em classic themes of course, but still in some places one would be dominant and in others, absent - and of course, there were also some curious examples that were in a category all of their own.

I also remember that he was asked what the very worst one was he had come across, and after some prevaricating he came up with one that had caught his attention because it had managed to combine all the themes rolled into one sentence. Romanian or something. I dont remember it, but it must have been something like, may your mother be fucked in the ass by your dirty ****-covered dog of a sissy god.

Tried to google up this guy a while ago, but since I remember no name or anything, not much luck ...
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 07:22 pm
That clip IS hilarious!!!!
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ossobuco
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 07:23 pm
Not me, must be Piffka. Though I am interested in Koko of course.

And that clip was hilarious.
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dlowan
 
  1  
Reply Sun 18 Jul, 2004 07:23 pm
And that is very funny Nimh - I guess we could make one up for each culture, eh?
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Clary
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Jul, 2004 07:04 am
diu lei, which means f*** you in Cantonese, is pronounced quite like du lait, milk in French. Wits at my sons' school translated milk into Cantonese - sin nai - and used that as a swear word.
0 Replies
 
Craven de Kere
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Jul, 2004 07:06 am
Ahh, I know an interesting difference.

The disbelieving retort "my ass" in Brazil is "your ass" and for the life of 'em they can't figure out why we use a reference to our own.
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Jul, 2004 07:19 am
Check out Roger Mellie's Profanisaurus. I haven't been able to access this link yet (due to my work's web filters) but it should work.

My all-time Mellie favourite is 'The chocolate chimney sweep uses his purple-headed womb-broom for the dirtier duties'
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Grand Duke
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Jul, 2004 07:36 am
The main difference between American and British swearing that I have noticed is the use of 'fanny' and 'piss/pissed'. If I used the derogatory phrase 'She's got a fanny like a wizard's sleeve' in the US, it would no doubt cause much confusion.

If I was angry, I would be 'pissed off', but if I was drunk, I would be 'pissed'.
0 Replies
 
smog
 
  1  
Reply Mon 19 Jul, 2004 07:41 am
Probably linked elsewhere on this site, but a fun way to look at differences between British and American versions of English: http://www.peak.org/~jeremy/dictionary/

And I had a list of French swear words and expressions somewhere, but the odds of my finding it are pretty small.
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