How to Swear Around the World

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They don’t really figure in Chinese, but throughout the Slavic world the word for ‘whore’ is a key strong word; Polish kurwa is the all-purpose equivalent of the F-word . This might be okay if it were a bunch of friends sitting around comparing expressions and swear words in languages they might have learned while traveling, but zero support on pronunciation of terms and no consistency with each language offering their version of the swear word. Entertaining, informative (did you know you could nibble or sniff peppercorns to reduce the paranoia? Among Christian cultures, the line between those that swear a lot about mothers and whores and those that don’t looks quite like the line between those where Mary is a co-star with Jesus and those where she’s part of the supporting cast. But the other rudest words are saatana (Satan), perkele (devil – converted from the name of a pre-Christian thunder god), and helvetti (Hell).

The mistakes in my native language made me doubt of the other translations of languages I'm not familiar with. The set includes 100 of the best, weirdest, and most wonderfully rude words curated from around the world. Some of the F-word swears spread more broadly, onto father (Bosnian ), grandfather, even the whole set of relatives: Albanian ( qifsha robt “your family”), Turkish ( sülaleni sikeyim "your extended family"), Mandarin ( cào nǐ zǔzōng shíbā dài "your ancestors to the 18th generation"). Bought this as a present for a glob-trotting relative who is always on tour as lighting director with his rock band.Each card features the country of origin, swear word, English translation, language, and offensiveness rating on a scale from 1-5. From 2006-2011, he was an editor at Chronicle Books in San Francisco, working on a variety of books and gift titles.

Most purchases from business sellers are protected by the Consumer Contract Regulations 2013 which give you the right to cancel the purchase within 14 days after the day you receive the item. Similar direct evidence of church control shows up a little in English (centuries ago, swearing by various parts of Christ’s body was as bad as you could get; now “damn” and “hell” are still iffy). I understand you will use my personal data to improve services and send me marketing communications You must consent to the storage and use of your personal data as laid out in our privacy notice. In southern Africa, some cultures have a ‘respect’ speech that is imposed on women in regard to their in-laws: for instance, their father-in-law’s name is taboo, as is any word that sounds like it – but that doesn’t turn the father-in-law’s name into an expletive they shout when they hurt themselves.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.