Language and Society

The odd curse and rant are part of everyday life in Germany. We are confronted with it everywhere. But it is not unique to this country. Every nation has its own conventions regarding the use of swearwords.

Originally, swearwords indicated something negative and served to either insult or slander another person. In the 19th century, curse words were used in order to reveal the weaknesses and faults of an opponent. These days they are no longer quite as personal. Now we choose from a list of nasty words that have nothing to do with a person’s character. They are not necessarily directed at someone anymore, and the use of the words has changed for the people who utter them. In 1839, the book Deutsche Schimpfwörter (German Book of Swearwords) claimed that swearing helped ease pressure on the heart, that it was healthy, that it was a motivator, that it even brought an air of prestige to the speaker, that it protected against enemies and that it could help arbitrate in a conflict.

Today, the use of swearwords inspires only limited admiration (for example among teenagers, where it is considered cool to insult your peers) and more often leads to increased tension in a potential conflict situation. It typically motivates adversaries when you swear at them, not the opposite.

How the world curses

Every language has its own culture of vehemence, and the areas from which the related vocabulary originates are different. Still, there are obvious overlaps: the human body, typically genitals and fecal matter, illness, religion or familial terms.

In Germany, people tend to swear as a way of expressing irritation. When frustrated about a situation, people say “shit”, usually in reference to a concrete thing like a “shit car” or a “shit job”. The French say “merde”, the Spanish “mierda” and the Italians “merda”. A common insult in Germany is to call someone an “asshole”. Similar expletives that can be “directly” translated – despite sometimes having a slightly different meaning – include the Italian “faccia di merda”, or “shitface”, and the French “con”, which means something like an “idiot”. Italian seems to feature a lot of curse words related to sexual organs: “coglione” is used more like “ass” or “idiot” but literally means testicles. “Cazzo” is also a commonly used vulgarity for “penis”. Hungarians also use words like “fasz” (dick) and “pina” (vagina) in their slang.

A question of honor

Another way to really insult someone is to call someone a “Nutte” in German, a “bitch” or “slut” in English, “puta” in Spanish, “putain” in French and “kurva” in Hungarian. It is no nicer in other languages either. Kurds, on the other hand, use it primarily as a reference to the origins of an adversary. By calling them a “bitch” they are implying that the person is the “child of a whore”. The same is achieved by using animal names such as “child of a donkey”, a “dog”, a “pig”, etc. If you want to really insult someone, you go straight to their family honor by listing all the people of the opposite gender you have had sex with in their family (sister, mother, grandma, etc.).

Swearing is also a daily affair in Arabic, and here the family insults also rank high in the pecking order: “nik umik” (fuck your mother), or “ouild kahb” and “ouild sharmuta” (son of a whore). Also commonly used but hardly offensive are “bhim” or “himar” (both meaning “donkey”). The severity of swearwords also depends on the country. For example, “naandin rabb” (cursed is the god of your master) is treated differently due to its irreverence to god, or Allah. In Egypt or Saudi Arabia, more strict Islamic nations, it is a criminal offense that can land you in jail as a deplorable insult to the Creator. In Tunisia, on the other hand, this type of insult is common and therefore not as offensive.

Expletives as filler words

“Fuck”, which in Germany (“ficken”) is also a vulgarity for sex, is a popular swearword in Hungary too, especially in rural areas and among teenagers. “Baszd meg” (“fuck it”) is often added to sentences but doesn’t really mean what it says. It can mean anything from “damn it” or “ah, great” (sarcastically) to “right?” or just as a filler word with no meaning at all. The Dutch are unique in this realm as well – they employ almost exclusively the use of illnesses as swearwords and expletives.