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#Post#: 16310--------------------------------------------------
Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Nikola
Date: May 31, 2019, 6:23 am
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This is a topic most of us can probably comment on: Do you have
any creative swear word alternatives in your language?
In Czech, we have a phrase Jdi do prdele. It means Go to... and
the word for the rear part of the body. It's similar to "Go to
hell" in English. Its shorter version do prdele is more of an
exclamation, not so much "to hell with that", more like a much
stronger "crap" when something goes wrong. Prdel is a
considerably bad word so there are numerous alternatives, for
example: Jdi do háje. "Háj" is an old-fashioned word for forest.
So you're telling people to go to the forest. When something
goes wrong, you can exclaim "do háje!" - to the forest!
Other alternatives are jdi někam meaning "go somewhere". As
for do prdele, there's do pytle (into the bag/sack), do prkna
(into the wooden board/plank) or doprčic/do Prčic
(Prčice is a name of a village, conveniently starting with
pr- just like prkno and prdel).
Fellow Slavs and people who have spent some time around them
will know the word kurva. In Czech, you would use it when
something goes wrong, similarly to do prdele. It means
"prostitute". There's kurník (henhouse), kurňa (regional
word for henhouse again but no one really knows what it means
anymore, it's just "the word you use when you don't want to say
kurva").
German speakers will be familiar with hergot (Herr Gott), which
is not a swear word but considered offensive to believers so
there are several, often nonsense alternatives such as hernajs,
herdek or heršvec (švec = shoemaker).
Two English alternatives that jump to mind are sugar! and fudge!
Looking forward to hearing more.
#Post#: 16322--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: SHL
Date: May 31, 2019, 9:27 am
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--- Quote from: Nikola link ---
>
> This is a topic most of us can probably comment on: Do you
have any creative swear word alternatives in your language?
>
> In Czech, we have a phrase Jdi do prdele. It means Go to...
and the word for the rear part of the body. It's similar to "Go
to hell" in English. Its shorter version do prdele is more of an
exclamation, not so much "to hell with that", more like a much
stronger "crap" when something goes wrong. Prdel is a
considerably bad word so there are numerous alternatives, for
example: Jdi do háje. "Háj" is an old-fashioned word for forest.
So you're telling people to go to the forest. When something
goes wrong, you can exclaim "do háje!" - to the forest!
>
> Other alternatives are jdi někam meaning "go somewhere".
As for do prdele, there's do pytle (into the bag/sack), do prkna
(into the wooden board/plank) or doprčic/do Prčic
(Prčice is a name of a village, conveniently starting with
pr- just like prkno and prdel).
>
> Fellow Slavs and people who have spent some time around them
will know the word kurva. In Czech, you would use it when
something goes wrong, similarly to do prdele. It means
"prostitute". There's kurník (henhouse), kurňa (regional
word for henhouse again but no one really knows what it means
anymore, it's just "the word you use when you don't want to say
kurva").
>
> German speakers will be familiar with hergot (Herr Gott),
which is not a swear word but considered offensive to believers
so there are several, often nonsense alternatives such as
hernajs, herdek or heršvec (švec = shoemaker).
>
> Two English alternatives that jump to mind are sugar! and
fudge!
>
> Looking forward to hearing more.
>
--- End Quote ---
Nikola,
Sugar and fudge as swear words? Sugar I have never heard used as
a substitute swear word, and fudge is really really archaic,
like 1900s era, maybe. Never today. I’ve heard that one said as
a substitute to a swear word maybe twice in my entire life and
thought it sounded weird then. It’s way toooo
euphemistic-sounding. It just doesn’t work and sounds just
strange to me. Are you sure about those? Instead of God damn you
might hear „goodness“ or „for goodness sakes“ or heck instead
of hell. Not too many others come to mind. I‘d not ever say
„fudge“. It‘s really out of date and corny-sounding.
#Post#: 16326--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Nikola
Date: May 31, 2019, 9:53 am
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: SHL link ---
>
> Nikola,
>
> Sugar and fudge as swear words? Sugar I have never heard used
as a substitute swear word, and fudge is really really archaic,
like 1900s era, maybe. Never today. I’ve heard that one said as
a substitute to a swear word maybe twice in my entire life and
thought it sounded weird then. It’s way toooo
euphemistic-sounding. It just doesn’t work and sounds just
strange to me. Are you sure about those? Instead of God damn you
might hear „goodness“ or „for goodness sakes“ or heck instead
of hell. Not too many others come to mind. I‘d not ever say
„fudge“. It‘s really out of date and corny-sounding.
>
--- End Quote ---
Believe it or not, sugar and fudge are used in the UK.
#Post#: 16329--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: MartinSR
Date: May 31, 2019, 10:34 am
---------------------------------------------------------
In Polish when we want to withdraw from saying "kurwa", we say
"kurka wodna" (water bird similar to a hen) or "kurza twarz"
(the face of a hen), sometimes similar things or switch to
nonexisting words like e.g. "kuśwa" or "kuwa".
Polish 'go to hell' is "Idź do diabła" (go to the
devil) or oldfashioned "do diaska" (the same meaning but the
devil not so serious one - rather a kind of an evil dwarf).
Sometimes substituted with even more rude "spadaj" (fall off?)
Or "spływaj" (piss off?) or similar. When you want suggest
someone to go away, you may always say "Sprawdź czy
Cię nie ma w..." (Look if you're not in...).
When you are completely not interested in something and an
annoying person keeps on talking about it to you. Or when you
don't mind some rules or regulations - the rude answer is "Mam
to w dupie" (I have it in my ass) what you can easily switch to
nice though somewhat enigmatic expression "Mam to w
GŁĘBOKIM poważaniu" (I have it in the DEEP
respect).
#Post#: 16330--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: MartinSR
Date: May 31, 2019, 10:39 am
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On the other hand in Polish "Idź do pierdla" is an
expression (a rude one) meaning 'Go to jail'.
#Post#: 16332--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Alharacas
Date: May 31, 2019, 11:34 am
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In Polish, there's also "kurcze pieczone", grilled chicken,
which I find simply enchanting as a swear word. Plus, it's a
sure way to make people laugh when I say it. :D
In German, there's a sanitized version of almost every swearword
I can think of:
Scheiße (shit) -> Scheibenkleister ((window) pane glue) (Yeah,
that makes about as much sense in German as in English.) or
"Mist!" (dung)
Arschloch (asshole) -> Armleuchter (candelabra, candlestick)
verflucht (cursed) -> verflixt (like: cussed), with the
extension of "Verflixt und zugenäht!", sort of like "cussed and
sewn up"
The potentially offensive exclamation "(Du/Mein) Lieber Gott!"
is mostly used to express awe, surprise or horror and can change
to "(Du) Liebe Zeit!" (dear time), "(Du) Liebe Güte!" or "Meine
Güte!" (dear/my goodness) or "(Du) Liebes Lieschen!" (dear
Lizzie).
Bavarians are very much into religious curses which get changed
or shortened out of all recognition: "Herrgott!" ->
"Herrschaftsseiten!", "Kruzifix" -> "Zefix!"or "Zefixalleluja!",
"Sakrament!" -> "Sakra!", "Jesus, Maria und Joseph" ->
"Jessasmarandjosef!"
Interestingly, "Kruzitürken!" has nothing to do with modern day
Turkish immigrants, and in fact, most people are very much
surprised when told that Turkish people find that curse
offensive. It's a leftover from the times of the Crusades and
has lost all meaning - to Germans, that is. To us, it's just a
generic swear word.
#Post#: 16333--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Nikola
Date: May 31, 2019, 12:22 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
Thank you everyone so far, I'm having a good laugh here. The
face of a hen! Windowpane glue! Crazy stuff.
@Martin
"Mam to w dupie" is probably the equivalent in meaning to our
"je mi to u prdele" (it is next to my ass/down by my ass =
that's how little I care).
And you're using our "prdel" to refer to jail? "Idź do
pierdla"? We use the German Loch (hole) for jail but it's not
rude, just colloquial. I wonder what Germans use? A French word?
;D
@Alharacas
Thanks to you I remembered some Czech ones that we stole from
you :) "Krucifix!" - "Sakra!"- "Sakramentský... !" (adjective) -
"Ježíšmarja!" - "Šmarjajozef!"
And the best one comes from Trautenberk, a character from an old
kids' series. They never admitted he was German, they just
hinted. He curses
"Himmel-Herrgott-Donner-Wetter-Kruncajs-Element!"
#Post#: 16334--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Alharacas
Date: May 31, 2019, 1:18 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Nikola link ---
>
> And you're using our "prdel" to refer to jail? "Idź do
pierdla"? We use the German Loch (hole) for jail but it's not
rude, just colloquial. I wonder what Germans use? A French word?
;D
>
--- End Quote ---
The most commonly used informal word for Gefängnis (prison) is
Knast. There's also an exact equivalent to "behind bars": hinter
Gittern. The expression schwedische Gardinen (Swedish curtains)
isn't much used anymore, it's from 1906, apparently, and refers
to the high quality of Swedish iron products (I'd had no idea!).
The colloquial verb for sending someone to prison is verknacken,
that's why (Ex-)Knacki means "jailbird".
--- Quote from: Nikola link ---
>
> And the best one comes from Trautenberk, a character from an
old kids' series. They never admitted he was German, they just
hinted. He curses
"Himmel-Herrgott-Donner-Wetter-Kruncajs-Element!"
>
--- End Quote ---
Ah! Oh yes, there's "Himmel, Arsch und Zwirn!" (heavens, ass and
yarn) or "Himmel, Arsch und Wolkenbruch!" (... and, er, sudden
rain) if you're feeling particularly vexed.
"Donnerwetter!" (literally: thunder-weather), "Donnerkeil!"
(literally: thunder-wedge*) and "Donnerlittchen!" are all used
to show you're impressed.
*wiktionary gives "thunderbolt" as the English meaning, which is
a bit misleading since we only say Donner when we're talking
about a storm.
A relatively new expression (ca. 2000) for astonishment I quite
like is Holla die Waldfee (... the wood fairy), also used
ironically.
#Post#: 16335--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Nikola
Date: May 31, 2019, 2:02 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Alharacas link ---
>
> The colloquial verb for sending someone to prison is
verknacken, that's why (Ex-)Knacki means "jailbird".
>
--- End Quote ---
So is Knäckebrot "prison bread"? It would be quite fitting.
#Post#: 16337--------------------------------------------------
Re: Swear Word Alternatives
DIR By: Alharacas
Date: May 31, 2019, 2:57 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
--- Quote from: Nikola link ---
>
> [quote author=Alharacas link=topic=1118.msg16334#msg16334
date=1559326686]
> The colloquial verb for sending someone to prison is
verknacken, that's why (Ex-)Knacki means "jailbird".
>
--- End Quote ---
So is Knäckebrot "prison bread"? It would be quite fitting.
[/quote]
Er... no. "knäcka" is Swedish for "to crack" (I think).
Since there is no vowel change in (ver)knacken, those two words
don't even look similar to us. (Just like no Spanish speaker
will understand how anyone could ever confuse "velo" and "vela"
or "pollo" and "polla" - they're just totally different words to
them.)
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