Inventing stupid words for "weak" people like that is an ancient German running gag. Like Schattenparker (someone who parks in the shade) or Warmduscher (someone who likes warm showers). It's always tongue-in-cheek and no serious insult.
Schnitzelkind. Breaded-veal kid (wienerschnitzel / milanesa). Basically a kid so ugly, that the parents needed to put a schnitzel around his neck so that at least the dogs would play with him.
So calling someone a ‘triangeljosti’ is basically comparing them to someone who plays the simplest possible instrument in a band for developmentally disabled people.
I mean if any intelligence-based insult is, this one certainly is. The thing is it is better to be smart than not, so trying to shut those all down is probably a fool's errand.
Yes that's right, it means salami and in spanish it's used to call someone an idiot. Soft insult, but I use it, and saying so and so is a salami in english would only get me weird looks.
That's interesting, I didn't know. It seems gammon makes reference to the color red and to anger, and according to the link, it has some political connotations. None of that is applicable to salame, it's not so much about being angry or hot headed in any way, it's just a way to say someone isn't the sharpest tool in the shed.
Calling someone a 'silly sausage' in English is a very gentle way to say they are being foolish, sometimes endearingly. Typically it's used for children. So not far off!
While not my native language, in Japanese, many insulting things to call people are often translated as English curses, but actually are just increasingly disrespectful ways to refer to the listener. The actual translation for them is just "you" but not respectful. This might not be a complete list, but I got most of them at least.
Anata - Polite way of saying "you" but not often used in conversation except between spouses or lovers. It's preferred to use the listener's name instead.
Kimi - Rude in a polite setting, but not explicitly disrespectful, necessarily.
Omae - Now you're on the level of picking a fight, but good friends often use this for each other.
That's correct, you can insult someone accidentally while complimenting them in a similar way. The particles は (as in wa) and が (ga) have different connotations that can simply different things.
So saying メリーさんの顔はきれい (Mary-san no kao wa kirei, "Mary has a beautiful face") causes an implication that Mary has a beautiful face, (... But nothing else about her is beautiful). Changing the は for が makes the statement come across as intended.
Without going into detail on the whole wa vs ga thing, wa is more like "as for x..." which can imply a "but..." at the end, whether stated or not, which causes this effect.
I'm not a native speaker, but I've heard Japanese doesn't have any outright curses. That is, there are no words which are always bad, just bad in certain contexts.
Omae and Kisama were how one would refer to emperors. There are no more emperors so referring to someone that way is always sarcastic.
"Spargeltarzan", which is German for "asparagus Tarzan". Basically someone who is physically weak, but tall and lanky.
I also like "Lauch", which just translates to "leek", the veggie. Oh, and "Bohnenstange", which means bean stalk. We do seem to have quite a few vegetable-related insults in German, now that I think of it...
"Ei ole kaikki muumit Muumilaaksossa" "Not having all the Moomins in Moomin Valley"
Used for people who are either stupid or lack sanity. There are other variants of this and Moomin one is not older than a couple of decades.
I find our version of Grammar Nazi pretty great. We call them comma fuckers.
"Ei voi kauhalla ottaa jos on lusikalla annettu" "You can't take with a ladle if it was given with a spoon". This refers also to a lack of something, usually a lack of intelligence or sense.
There is also a second part to it: Rüttel nicht am Watschenbaum, die Frucht sie reift du merkst es kaum - You're shaking the slap tree, the fruit is ripening while you hardly notice
Băga-mi-aș pula-n coliva mă-tii de să-mi sară coaiele din bomboană-n bomboană
This is a highly niche one in my native language as well, as one must also know what is colivă - it's basically a desert that we eat at funerals with m&m-sized candies in it as well. So it roughly translates let me stick my dick in your mother's coliva so hard that my balls jump from candy to candy
Does the insult mean the colivā is served at your mother's funeral, or that it's the colivā your mother made? Also in what kind of context you use this insult?
There's a good one in Cantonese I learned from Hong Kong movies. It translates to "Are you talking?" but the implication is "You're making noise, but is that supposed to be human speech?" Lei guuung yeieh!?
Oh, another one: "deves comer gelados com a testa", which translates to "you must eat icecream with your forehead", a not so soft way to call someone stoopid
Brazil "eu caguei e andei" (I shat and walked). Functionally equivalent to "I don't give a shit" but in Portuguese one actually shits but doesn't care to wipe and walks away or walks at the same as is shitting.
I've heard 'caralho' used to be the name for the lookout on top of a ship's mast (later turned into yet another word for dick) and sailors were sent to duty on the caralho as punishment?
I'm not Portuguese though, so if any native could confirm ...
My favorite has to be zkundyksicht, it comes from "z kundy ksicht" which literally means "a face [that came] from a cunt". "Z" = from, "kunda" = cunt, "ksicht" = a rude way to say face.
Context:
This is when somebody doesn’t react/listen/change no matter how much they are insulted. The other party asks if they add salt to their food, or if they only eat bland food, and thus have lost all emotions and have become as bland as their food.
It’s a bit difficult to explain, but the general belief is that food reflects your emotions and reactance and moods. Bland food - emotionless, spicy food - easy to anger, etc.
In polish, calling people with the neutral gender. It's a grave insult which implies lack of agency and dehumanisation, and thank to some rightwinger assholes in parliament is also a specific transphobic insult now.
While in english it's completely normal thing to say if you're not sure of a person's gender.
So definitely not my "favourite", i would never said this to anyone in polish and i occasionally get a hiccup of misgendering someone in english because of that, but interesting from language point of view.
While in english it’s completely normal thing to say if you’re not sure of a person’s gender.
Well...
You can use "they" without being insulting, as it still presumes personhood, but if you call someone "it" you're dehumanizing them and stripping personhood from them, as "it" is used for objects and things, not people. It sounds like what you're translating would be closer to "it" in English than "them" or "they".
Yes but "it" in polish is specifically belonging to the neutral gender. There's a bit more nuance there if you add context of sentence but it's pretty much build in. Polish equivalent of "they" or "them" is specifically 3rd person plural and cannot be used in singular and in 2nd person.
Which can also be lovely further embellished such as "πάρε φορά και κλάσε μου τ'αρχιδια" ("take momentum and fart my testicles") or "θα μου κλάσεις μια μάντρα αρχίδια" ("You'll fart me a yard of testicles", usually utilized as a defiant answer to a physical threat)
Not my native language but the German language has some pretty fantastic words/insults like "punchable face" (backpfeifengesicht) and "brain denier" (gehirnverweigerer).
In the dialect of the Italian province I'm from, my favorite insult is "Perdabàll", which literally means "balls loser" as someone who's so stupid and useless that could even manage to lose his testicles
No but for that we use another genital: we say "S'é infigá" which roughly translates to "He got pussy-ed", meaning someone that got enslaved by a vagina
We have something similar to "fuck your house". "Fuck your couch" is a popular insult in American English thanks to Rick James and The Chappele Show. Still, "fuck your house" is more extreme because I guess it includes the couch, too.
Those are all amazing insults that you listed, btw.
I’m a native English speaker so I can’t really contribute much to this post, but I remember watching a hidden camera prank show in the 90s, and the victim of the prank started yelling at the guy who pranked him. Unfortunately, I don’t know what language the show was in.
The TV show translated the insults he used and put it in the subtitles… and one of the insults was “curse the pig who delivered you”.
It probably sounded fine in his language but I remember thinking how oddly specific and personal to insult the midwife who helped your mother give birth to you lol.
Maybe there’s someone here who can recognise what phrase and language was used here?
It's like saying somebody is not the sharpest tool in the shed.
My favorite way to say that somebody is stupid is to say "Er ist dumm wie drei Meter Feldweg", translates to "he's as dumb as three meters (a bit more than 9 yards) of dirt road".
Reminds me of ones like "You're one fry short of a Happy Meal", or "You've lost some marbles". They generally imply that you've lost or are missing some mental faculties.
English: "You're missing one potato for the kilo."
When you want to call someone a fool or an idiot, you question if they're in their right mind, if they use their head before speaking or doing something.
Argentinian here, I find very funny that a while ago somebody decided to express frustration saying la concha del pato or la concha del mono (lit. "vagina of the male duck" or "monkey"). Yes, the absurdity of a male animal with a female organ seems to reinforce the obscenity somehow.
Calling a male a "nephew" in Chinese 契弟 kai dai is calling them a male prostitute.
Usually it doesn't mean target male has actually been used sexually, but commonly used for general belittlement.
This term comes from ancient times: Traveling businessmen who would take a young boy with them for sexual use, but if anyone on the road or destination asked who the boy was, the business man would euphemistically explain "He's my nephew"
契弟 kai dai is commonly translated as "nephew" but it means "adopted brother"
If you want to say that you don't care about something (as in: "I don't give a fuck"), in Serbian you would say: "My dick hurts". And that's an expression you'll hear almost daily. A less used variant of that, but still legit is: "My balls are beeping".
While not insulting, I'll throw in our way to say: "I'm/You're fucked". It's: "Jebao sam/si ježa u leđa", which means: "I/You fucked a hedgehog in the back"
You are a fair bitch. People working the carnival / fair scene don't have the best of reputation. In Belgium we had a song about this phenomenon and the real fair people were all kinds of angry about the stereotype. The thing is about stereotypes: it really has a base in reality.
All of our swear words are Catholic church vocabulary words. As a never Catholic I always find them hilarious when I say them. They can basically be used as stand-ins for words in the same way as we use “fuck” in English or strung together.
“Saint Ciboire” was my grandmother’s favorite when I would fuck something up.
baptême [ba.tae̯m]: "baptism"
câlice [kɑːlɪs] (calice): "chalice"
ciboire [si.bwɑːʁ]: "ciborium" or "pyx", receptacles in which the host is stored
criss [kʁɪs] (Christ): "Christ", or crisser, a more emphatic version of sacrer, both verbs meaning "to curse"
esti [əs.t͡si], [ɛs.t͡si] or ostie [ɔs.t͡si] (hostie): "host [cookie]"
maudit [moːd͡zi] (m) or maudite [moːd͡zit] (f): "damned" (or "damn")
sacrament [sa.kʁa.mã] (sacrement): "Sacrament"
saint [sẽ]: "Saint", added before others (ex. saint-simonaque, saint-sacrament, etc.)
simonaque [si.mɔ.nak] (simoniaque): from the sin of simony
tabarnak [ta.baʁ.nak] (tabernacle): "tabernacle"; typically considered the most profane of the sacres
viarge [vjaʁʒ] (vierge): "the Virgin Mary"
Moïse: Moses
Probably "sluta vara en så lagom rolig person". It isn't directly an insult. However, it's not something you would love to hear.
It translates to "stop being a person who has the just right amount of fun".
Another thing my friends say when they are med is: "Din jävla ångvält!" which translates to "You fucking steamroller!".
It just sounds much better in Swedish.
Brazilian portuguese tends to lack impactful phrases, but is full of single curse words. A big portion of them a clear example of how much negative bias there is culturally against certain groups (gay men, women in general, disabled), unfortunately :/
One that isn't often used, but that I almost always laugh loud whenever I hear, is "Enfia uma dentadura no cu e sorria pro caralho", which roughly translates into "Stick a denture up your asshole and smile at the dick". For when simply saying "go fuck yourself" isn't enough.
Me cago en tus muertos = I shit on your ancestors / I shit on your dead relatives.
Me cago en todos tus muertos = I shit on all of your ancestors / I shit on all of your dead relatives.
And in the theme of insults from Spain, a loaded one is also:
Me cago en tu puta madre = I shit on your fucking mother / I shit on your whore mother
See, the thing with "puta/puto" is that it literally means "whore", but it's used to empathize cursings just like "fucking" is used in english. We're even misusing it by putting it before verbs, imitating it's use in english.
Me cago en tus muertos = I shit on your ancestors / I shit on your dead relatives.
Me cago en todos tus muertos = I shit on all of your ancestors / I shit on all of your dead relatives.
I've found this one even stronger and more insulting: Me cago en la sangre de tus muertos = I shit in the blood of your dead relatives
Kioskmongo - kiosk mongoloid - someone of very low intellect that knows the difference of right and wrong and still chooses wrong
Chipsmongo - chip/crisp mongoloid - someone of low intellect that would rather just eat chips, preferably in a sandbox with the whole bag emptied into the sand.
Interesting. Does "mongoloid" on its own mean someone of low intelligence? We have mongoloide in Brazil with that meaning. More often used as a way to call a friend silly instead of an actual insult, but can be used as one too.
Well, in french we have the simple yet effective "Enculé de ta race" and I just can’t translate it. If someone’s brave enough to do it, many thanks in advance.
I speak Canadian French so we may have different definitions but even I have no clue how to translate this in a way that makes sense in English.
Literal translation would be "[you're] the fucked of your race"
(I could precise details about "fucking" present in the French word, but I am not risking any more of my credibility for that.)
"La recalcada concha de tu madre."
The closest translation would be "your mother's pussy" but with added emphasis by the word "recalcada" which would be something like... uhm... super-copied? Yeah, don't ask.
I recently learned that la concha de la lora originates in old slang in which lora was commonly used to refer to prostitutes.
It makes sense. I didn't think it really applied to birds 🙃
"Chuj Ci w dupe" is very popular in Polish. Literally "(put) a dick in you ass". But it's not " fuck you" or "fuck yourself". That would be " pierdol się".
Well, not really my native tongue but close enough. "Baap maral anhariya mai, beta ke naam powerhouse" literally means "The father died in darkness and the son's name is powerhouse." Used for overly ambitious people/ lying about achievements.
'Balance your (inner) pig' of 'Keep your inner pig' in check'
On social networks, beyond the feminist spheres, a call around the keywords #balancetonporc and #metoo broke the omerta and reports testimony ranging from daily sexism and street harassment to sexual assaults.
I recently learned "Arschgeige" in German, which according to the reactions of people I asked, is a pretty mean thing to say. I can't get over the fact it literally means butt violin though.
In Italian when you can’t swear with a “vaffanculo” (f you) you can say “vai a quel paese” that’s “go to that country”
And specifically in Milanese dialect you can also say “va a ciapà i rat” “go catching rats”
Tölpel is originally a species of bird, but you're right, klutz is pretty close in meaning. Origin-wise it's pretty different though: klutz (Yiddish) & Klotz (German) are related, which means klutz is more like a stopping block made of wood/metal.
We have curse stacking so it forms one big word. Godverdommemiljaardenondju. It's an ugly mix of dialect, French and Dutch, meaning something like "curse you a billion times in the name of God". And if it's only a mild inconvenience we only use a small part, like "dju" or "miljaar."
Hebrew has a non-insult that sounds like an insult - "In your mother".
It's not a polite phrase, mind you, but it's not usually used directly as an insult.
It has many varied uses. it can be a shorthand for "Swear on your mother's life", mainly to express doubt (ex. "Dude, I won first prize in the lottery!" "really? In you mother!?") or a plea ("I really need a ride right now. In you mother, could you come pick me up?"). It can also be a modifier to "leave me alone", where "leave me in your mother" has about the same meaning as "leave me the fuck alone"/"fuck off".
Despite being half Cypriot, I don't speak much Greek. Apologies to actual Greeks who realize how badly I'm butchering my transliterations here; my ancestors would be ashamed. (Most of them would probably just laugh at me though.)
That said, one of the funnier ones that used to go around in my family works like this: You yell for me from across the house. I respond "Di?" ("What?") And you yell again, usually meaning I should come over to wherever you are. Again, I say, "Di?" ("What?") And in exasperation, you respond, "Si kephali su tribidi!" (Your head is full of holes!) with emphasis on the last, matching, syllable as if to say "that's what!"
It's not an insult but a way to show frustration without hurling insults.
So here in Russian like
ЁКЛМНЭ
ЁПРСТ
Ёшкин кот
Блин (pancake) to not use Блядь (whore)
Мать твою за ногу
Пиздец
Ппц
hmm that's all that comes to mind unless going into really insulting words.
In romanian I know only "Du-te in pula" "Du-te in pula mea" which is Get Fucked, fuck off.
In Argentina, "Boludo" or "Pelotudo". It's very common to hear both, but the first one is like a little bit friendly, you can use it with friends and they'll accept it, but in the other face, "Pelotudo" isn't that friendly and it is regularly used to just insult, haven't found anyone that used that ironically.
They are used to say someone is stupid, though it's slightly more offensive than the word stupid. As for a direct translation, yes, it means someone with big or with too many balls, and you can compare it to fuckwit or dickhead in the sense that the brains of the person are no better than their genitals.
Not in my language but it my local dialect "va' in mona" or "va' in figa" both translate to "go to (fuck a) p***y" and are short forms of
Va' in figa to' mare
which suggests the listener should go fuck his own mother's p***y. Very common insult in north-eastern Italy with no equivalent even in standard Italian.