Mandarin Chinese profanity

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The Traditional Chinese characters for the word huai dan (Pi Dan /Huai Dan ), a Mandarin Chinese profanity meaning, literally, "bad egg" Bad egg in Chinese.svg
The Traditional Chinese characters for the word huài dàn (坏蛋/壞蛋), a Mandarin Chinese profanity meaning, literally, "bad egg"

Profanity in Mandarin Chinese most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the object's ancestors, especially their mother. Other Mandarin insults accuse people of not being human. Compared to English, scatological and blasphemous references are less often used. In this article, unless otherwise noted, the traditional character will follow its simplified form if it is different.

Contents

Sex

Penis

As in English, many Mandarin Chinese slang terms involve the genitalia or other sexual terms. Slang words for the penis refer to it literally, and are not necessarily negative words:

Note: One should note that in Middle Chinese the words for and were homophones. The fǎnqiè of "" (丁了切) and the fǎnqiè of "Chinese :" (都了切) denoted the same pronunciation; both began with a voiceless unaspirated alveolar stop (/t/ in IPA and d in pinyin) and the same vowel and tone. Based on regular sound change rules, we would expect the word for bird in Mandarin to be pronounced diǎo, but Mandarin dialects' pronunciations of the word for bird evolved to an alveolar nasal initial, likely as a means of taboo avoidance, giving contemporary niǎo while most dialects in the south retain the Middle Chinese alveolar stop initial and the homophony or near homophony of these words.

Vagina

There appear to be more words for vagina than for penis. The former are more commonly used as insults and are also more aggressive and have negative connotations:

Brothel frequenter

Prostitution

In addition to the above expressions used as insults directed against women, other insults involve insinuating that they are prostitutes:

Mistress

Breasts

Anus

Masturbation

Male masturbation, at least, has several vulgar expressions, in addition to two formal/scientific ones that refer to both male and female masturbation (shǒuyín手淫 and zìwèi自慰):

Foreplay

Sexual intercourse

Insults

As in English, a vulgar word for the sexual act is used in insults and expletives:

Mother

Insulting someone's mother is also common:

Other relatives

Turtles and eggs

The 中文大辭典 Zhōng wén dà cí diǎn (Encyclopedic Dictionary of the Chinese Language)), discusses 王八 (wáng bā) in vol. 6 p. 281. "Wáng bā" is the term that is usually written casually for the slur that means something like "son of a bitch."

A "wángbādàn 忘/王八蛋" is the offspring of a woman lacking virtue. Another meaning of 王八 is biē, fresh-water turtle. [5] Turtle heads reemerging from hiding in the turtle's shell look like the glans emerging from the foreskin, and turtles lay eggs. So a "wang ba" is a woman who has lost her virtue, and a "wang ba dan" is the progeny of such a woman, a turtle product, but, figuratively, also a penis product. 龜頭 (guītóu, "turtle head") can refer to the glans of the penis.

"Wáng bā 王八" originally got switched over from another "忘八 wàng bā" (one that referred to any very unvirtuous individual) because of a man with the family name Wáng 王 who picked up the nickname 賊王八 zéi Wáng bā ("the thieving Wang Eight") but for being a dastard, not for being a bastard. The dictionary does not say, but he may have been the eighth Wang among his siblings. Anyway, he became "crook Wang eight" and the term stuck and spread just as "Maverick" did in English. There is a pun here because of the earlier expression 忘八 wàng bā used to describe (1) any person who forgets/disregards the eight virtues, (2) an un-virtuous woman, i.e., one who sleeps around. The first meaning applied to the dastardly Wang, but the family name got "stuck" to the second, sexual, term.[ citation needed ]

Illegitimacy

Many insults imply that the interlocutor's mother or even grandmother was promiscuous. The turtle is emblematic of the penis and also of promiscuous intercourse, because turtles were once thought to conceive by thought alone, making paternity impossible to prove. Eggs are the progeny of turtles and other lower animals, so the word dàn () is a metonym for offspring.

Suck up

Disability

References to various kinds of disability are sometimes used against both abled and disabled people as an insult.

Buttocks

While there are vulgar expressions in English referring to the buttocks or rectum, there are no real equivalents in Mandarin. Pìgu yǎn (屁股眼) or pìyǎnr (屁眼兒) one expression for anus, is not vulgar, but it occurs in various curses involving an imperforate anus

Age

Promiscuity

As in the West, highly sexual women have been stigmatized. Terms for males who sleep around are rare.

Positive connotations

Occasionally, slang words with a negative connotation are turned around and used positively:

Mixed-up

Other insults include the word hùn ( ), which means "mixed-up", or hùn (Chinese :), which means "muddy":

Eggs

Perhaps due to the influence of wángbādàn (王八蛋), dàn ( ; "egg") is used in a number of other insults in addition to hùndàn (混蛋):

Melons

The word guā ( ; melon or gourd) is also used in insults:

In addition to the senses listed above, the "melon" is a metonym for the womb, and a "broken melon" refers to a female's lost virginity.

Sticks

The noun gùn, stick/staff is often used to refer to someone who is morally corrupted.

Ghosts and spirits

The noun for "ghost" 鬼 is often used to mock someone with some bad habit. The mocking tone may not be very serious though.

精 "nonhuman spirit in a human's form" is usually for insulting some cunning people.

Useless

Boasting

Cruelty

Face

Because shame or "face" is important in Chinese culture, insulting someone as "shameless" is much stronger than in English:

Girlish

Boyish

Inhuman

Other insults accuse people of lacking qualities expected of a human being:

Death

( ; "dead", "cadaverous," or, less precisely, "damn(ed)") is used in a number of insults:

Excrement

The words " " (shǐ) (= shit, turd, dung), " " (fèn) (= manure, excrement) and " 大便 (= stool, poop)" (dà biàn), all mean feces but vary from blunt four letter to family-friendly, respectively. They can all be used in compound words and sentences in a profane manner.

Originally, the various Mandarin Chinese words for "excrement" were less commonly used as expletives, but that is changing. Perhaps because farting results in something that is useless even for fertilizer: "fàng pì" (放屁; lit. "to fart") is an expletive in Mandarin. The word "" (; lit. "fart") or the phrase is commonly used as an expletive in Mandarin (i.e. "bullshit!").

Animals

In a 1968 academic study of Chinese pejorative words, more than a third of the 325-term corpus of abusive expressions compare the insulted person with an animal, with the worst curses being "animal" generally, "pig, dog, animal", or "animal in dress", which deny the person of human dignity. [12] The expressions contain metaphorical references to the following domesticated animals: dogs, cows, and chickens (12 or 11 terms each), (8 times), horse (4), cat (3), and duck (2), and one each to sheep, donkey and camel. [13] A variety of wild animals are used in these pejorative terms, and the most common are monkey (7 times) and tiger (5 times), symbolizing ugliness and power respectively. [14]

Dogs

The fact that many insults are prefaced with the Mandarin Chinese word for dog attest to the animal's low status:

  • gǒuzǎizi (狗崽子) = dog pup (English equivalent: "son of a bitch")
  • gǒu pì (狗屁) = bullshit, nonsense (lit. "dog fart"); in use as early as 1750 in the Qing dynasty novel The Scholars .
  • nǐ ge gǒu pì (Chinese :你個狗屁) = what you said is bullshit. Also "nǐ ge pì"(simplified Chinese :你个屁; traditional Chinese :你個屁)or simply "pì"(Chinese :). Generally appears at the end of sentences.
  • gǒu pì bù tōng (狗屁不通) dog fart + does not (come out at the end of the tube) communicate = incoherent, nonsensical
  • fàng nǐ mā de gǒu pì (Chinese :放你媽的狗屁) = what you said is fucking bullshit (lit. "release your mother's dog fart")
  • fàng nǐ mā de gǒu chòu pì (Chinese :放你媽的狗臭屁) = what you said is fucking bullshit (lit. "release your mother's dog stinky fart")
  • gǒu niáng yǎng de (Chinese :狗娘養的) = son of a bitch (lit. "raised by a dog mother")
  • gǒurìde (狗日的) = son of a bitch (from Liu Heng's story "Dogshit Food", lit. "dog fuck" 日 is here written for 入, which when pronounced rì means "fuck".)
  • gǒushǐ duī (狗屎堆) = a person who behaves badly (lit. "a pile of dog shit"); gǒushǐ (狗屎), or "dog shit", was used to describe people of low moral character as early as the Song dynasty. Due to Western influence, as well as the similar sound, this has become a synonym for bullshit in some circles.
  • gǒuzázhǒng (Chinese :狗雜種) = literally "mongrel dog", a variation on zázhǒng (Chinese :雜種), above.
  • zǒugǒu (走狗) = lapdog, often translated into English as "running dog", it means an unprincipled person who helps or flatters other, more powerful and often evil people; in use in this sense since the Qing dynasty. Often used in the 20th century by communists to refer to client states of the United States and other capitalist powers.
  • gǒutuǐzi (狗腿子) / gǒutuǐ (狗腿) = Variant of zǒugǒu (走狗), lit. "dog thigh"
  • hǎ bā gǒu (哈巴狗) = someone who incessantly follows someone around, and is usually seen as a sycophant. (lit: "pug dog")

Rabbits

In at least one case, rabbit is part of an insult:

  • xiǎotùzǎizi (小兔崽子) = rabbit kitten (quite ironically, this insult is often used by parents to insult their children)

Horse

  • mǎzi (Chinese :馬子; lit.'horse') = a derogatory word for girlfriend. (Possibly influenced by U.S. slang, "filly," used for any girl.)

Bird

The Chinese word for bird "niǎo"() was pronounced as "diǎo" in ancient times, which rhymes with () meaning penis or sexual organ. [15] It also sounds the same as "penis" in several Chinese dialects. Thus, bird is often associated with 'fuck', 'penis' or 'nonsense':

  • wǒ niǎo nǐ (Chinese :我鳥你) = I give a shit about you (Beijing dialect)
  • wǒ niǎo tā de (Chinese :我鳥他的) = I give a shit about him
  • niǎo huà (Chinese :鳥話; lit.'bird speech') = bullshit, fucking words ; nǐ zài jiǎng shénme niǎo huà (Chinese :你在講什麽鳥話) = What fucking words are you talking about?
  • niǎo rén (Chinese :鳥人; lit.'bird person') = bastard, asshole. This word commonly appears in Water Margin, a Ming dynasty Classical Chinese Novel.
  • niǎo shì (Chinese :鳥事; lit.'bird matters') = mere nothing; also guān wǒ niǎo shì (Chinese :關我鳥事) = I don't care a damn, it means damn all to me

Tigress

A tigress or 母老虎 (Mǔ lǎohǔ) refers to a fierce woman, usually someone's strict wife.

Dinosaur

A dinosaur or 恐龙 (Kǒnglóng) has been used as Internet slang to describe an ugly girl.

Insect

  • wútóu cāngyíng (無頭蒼蠅) = someone running around with no sense of direction (lit: "headless fly", or similar to "chicken with its head cut off" in English)
  • hú tu chóng (糊涂虫) = absent-minded person, a scatterbrain (lit. "confused insect"), compare with wútóu cāngyíng
  • gēn pì chóng (跟屁蟲) = someone that aimlessly follows someone around, usually for the purpose of flattery (lit: "butt-chasing insect")

Contempt

Certain words are used for expressing contempt or strong disapproval:

Divinity

Miscellaneous

Some expressions are harder to explain:

Action specific

Some expressions represent offensive insults involving some kind of actions:

Region specific

Many locations within China have their own local slang, which is scarcely used elsewhere. Some of them have been listed above, but these are a few expressions that are not aforementioned:

Racial euphemisms

Mandarin Chinese has specific terms and racial euphemisms for different ethno-racial groups around the world, and some discriminatory slurs against Chinese representatives from certain governments and backgrounds.

Against Mainlanders

Against Mainland Communists

  • gòngfei (共匪) — Literally "Communist bandits" referring to communists, or to a larger extent, all Mainlanders and non-Chinese communists. The term has been in use since the Chinese Civil War by the Kuomintang against the Chinese Communist Party, but today reflects the rifts in cross-strait relations.
  • gòngzei (共贼) — Literally "Communist thieves", referring to the Beijing government, people in the Communist Party, or all Mainlanders.
  • ā gòng zǐ (阿共仔) — Literally "Commie guy", a derogatory slang term used by Taiwanese against mainland Chinese, which refers to communism as an ad hominem . [19]
  • gòngcǎndǎng (共慘黨) — By replacing the middle character with "慘", a near-homophone to "產", meaning sad and pitiful, the name of the Communist Party changes to mean "a party which causes everyone to suffer" (lit. "Everyone Suffers Party"). This term has seen increasing usage in internet communities critical of the Chinese Communist Party.

Against Westerners

Against other East Asians

Against Hong Kongers

  • gǎng dú (港毒) — a pun on the homophone "港獨" (gǎng dú, literally "Hong Kong independence"), the definition of 毒 (dú) used is "poison". A slur for Hong Kong's people who advocate for Hong Kong's independence, literally meaning "poison of Hong Kong".

Against Taiwanese

  • tái wā / wā wā (台蛙 / 蛙蛙) — Literally "Taiwanese frogs." Taiwanese are seen as 井底之蛙 (Chinese idiom, literally means "a frog in a well", referring to a person with a very limited outlook and experience), and as often holding naïve beliefs about the mainland.
  • tái dú (台毒) — a pun on the homophone "台獨" (tái dú, literally "Taiwan independence"), the definition of 毒 (dú) used is "poison". A slur for Taiwanese people who advocate for Taiwanese independence, literally meaning "poison of Taiwan".
  • tái bāzi (台巴子) — Literally "Taiwanese penis shaft." A slur and slang term against the Taiwanese. The term originated from mainland China as a pejorative directed at the Taiwanese.

Against Japanese

Demonstrators in Taiwan host signs telling "Japanese devils" to "get out" of the Diaoyutai Islands following an escalation in disputes in 2012. 2012 Anti-Japan demonstrations7.jpg
Demonstrators in Taiwan host signs telling "Japanese devils" to "get out" of the Diaoyutai Islands following an escalation in disputes in 2012.
  • xiǎo Rìběn (小日本) "Japs" — Literally "little Japan[ese]". This term is still commonly used as a slur toward Japanese among Chinese but it has very little impact left. This term was historically by the Chinese associating the Japanese with dwarfism and the historical lower average stature of Japanese in comparison with the Han Chinese.
  • Rìběn guǐzi (日本鬼子) — Literally "Japanese devil". This is used mostly in the context of the Second Sino-Japanese War, when Japan invaded and occupied large areas of China. This is the title of a Japanese documentary on Japanese war crimes during WWII.
  • dōngyáng guǐzi (Chinese :東洋鬼子) — Literally "Oriental devil". An anti-Japanese variant of yáng guǐzi, and similar to Rìběn guǐzi above. (Note that whereas the term 東洋 has the literal meaning of "Orient" in the Japanese language, the characters themselves mean "eastern ocean", and it refers to Japan exclusively in modern Chinese usage—since Japan is the country which lies in the ocean east of China.)
  • () — This was an ancient Chinese name for Japan, but was also adopted by the Japanese. Today, its usage in Chinese is usually intended to give a negative connotation (see Wōkòu below). The character is said to also mean "dwarf", although that meaning was not apparent when the name was first used. See Wa (Japan).
  • Wōkòu (倭寇) — Originally referred to Japanese pirates and armed sea merchants who raided the Chinese coastline during the Ming dynasty (see Wokou). The term was adopted during the Second Sino-Japanese War to refer to invading Japanese forces, (similarly to Germans being called Huns). The word is today sometimes used to refer to all Japanese people in extremely negative contexts.
  • Rìběn gǒu (日本狗) — Literally "Japanese dogs". The word is used to refer to all Japanese people in extremely negative contexts.
  • dà Jiǎopén zú (大腳盆族) — Ethnic slur towards Japanese used predominantly by Northern Chinese, mainly those from the city of Tianjin. Literally "big-feet-like-washbasins race", also punning on the English "Japan".
  • huáng jūn (Chinese :黃軍) — a pun on the homophone "皇軍" (huáng jūn, literally "Imperial Army"), the definition of 黃 (huáng) used is "yellow". This phrase 黃軍 ("Yellow Army") was used during World War II to represent Japanese soldiers due to the colour of their uniform. Today, it is used negatively against all Japanese. Since the stereotype of Japanese soldiers is commonly portrayed in war-related TV series in China as short men, with a toothbrush moustache (and sometimes round glasses, in the case of higher ranks), 黃軍 is also often used to pull jokes on Chinese people with these characteristics, and thus "appear like" Japanese soldiers.
  • zì wèi duì (Chinese :自慰隊) — A pun on the homophone "自衛隊" (zì wèi duì, literally "Self-Defence Forces"), the definition of 慰 (wèi) used is "to comfort". This phrase is used to refer to Japanese (whose military force is known as "自衛隊") being stereotypically hypersexual, as "自慰队" means "Self-comforting Forces", referring to masturbation. The word 慰 (wèi) also carries highly negative connotations of "慰安婦" (wèi ān fù, "Comfort women"), referring to the use of sex slaves by the Japanese military during World War II.
  • wěi jūn (伪军)- Literally "pretender army." The word is used as an insult to collaborationist Chinese forces during World War II, but is occasionally used to refer to Japanese forces as well. It is used officially by Chinese historians, and is specifically spoken towards those people, making it a rare and ineffective insult against Japanese people in general.

Against Koreans

  • Gāolì bàng zǐ (Chinese :高麗棒子) — A neutral term used against all ethnic Koreans . 高丽/高麗 refers to Ancient Korea (Koryo), while 棒子 means "club" or "corncob", referring to how Korean security guards hired by the Japanese during WW2 were not given guns, only clubs/batons as they were untrustworthy. The term is modernized sometimes as 韓棒子 (hán bàng zǐ, "韓" referring to South Korea)
  • sǐ bàng zǐ (死棒子) — Literally "dead club" or "dead plank" with the sexual innuendo of a "useless or dead erection"; refer to 高丽棒子 above.
  • èr guǐ zǐ (二鬼子) [20] — (See 日本鬼子) During World War II, 二鬼子 referred to Traitors among the Han Chinese hanjian and Koreans in the Imperial Japanese Army, as the Japanese were known as "鬼子" (devils) for massacring innocent children and women. 二鬼子 literally means "second devils". Today, 二鬼子 is used to describe ethnic Koreans who had been absorbed into Japan and joined the Japanese Imperial Army. It is rarely used as a slur in recent times.
  • Běihán gòngfěi (北韩共匪) – Literally "North Korean communist bandits". Used by the anti-communists in Taiwan towards the Workers' Party of Korea as well as the North Koreans.

Against South Asians

Against Indians

  • yìndù ā sān (印度阿三) — A euphemism to Indians. It means "Indian, Hassan".
  • ā chā (阿差) — A popular term common among the Cantonese in Hong Kong to refer to Indians. The term derives from the frequent uttering of ācchā 'good, fine' by (Northern) Indians (cf. Hindi अच्छा) Originally referring to the Punjabi "singhs" security force who used to work for the British government during colonial era. Nowadays, any South Asian is referred to as "ā chā". In Cantonese, "Ah" means "Dude", so "Ah Cha" means the dude called "Cha". It is not an ethnic slur, it is used because Cantonese cannot pronounce "Indian" as it derives from a Mandarin term that sounds too formal.[ citation needed ]
  • gālí rén (咖喱人) — Literally "curry person." A much more common contemporary term used to refer to Indians, derived from the use of curry in Indian cuisine and the perception that Indians eat food to some Chinese find to give off a strong smell, and to which Indians typically eat with their hands, a practice that many Chinese find to be dirty and unclean. For these two reasons, it is applied as a derogatory term to Indians.

Against Southeast Asians

Against Filipinos

  • Huanna (Chinese :番仔; Pe̍h-ōe-jī :hoan-á) – a Hokkien term in literally meaning "foreigner or non-Chinese." Used by most Overseas Chinese to refer generally to indigenous Southeast Asians and Taiwanese Aborigines. In the Philippines, this term is used by Chinese Filipinos towards indigenous Filipinos. [21]

Against Indonesians

  • yìnníbazi (印尼巴 or 印泥巴子) — lit. "Indonesian mud", an ethnic slur towards that refers a play on "印尼" (Indonesia) and "泥巴" (mud), where 尼/泥 are homophones, thus associating Pribumi Indonesians as being primitive, backward, uncivilized, and dirty.

Against Vietnamese

  • lǎo yuè (老越) – Literally "Old Vietnamese", or "Old Guy from Vietnam". It is not an anti-Vietnamese slur but rather a familial slang term for Vietnamese.
  • Xiǎo Yuenán (小越南) – Literally "little Vietnam[ese]". This can be used in a derogatory context, referring Vietnam's smaller geographical size than China, darker skin tone, and the lower average stature of Vietnamese in comparison with their Han Chinese counterparts.
  • Yuenán houzǐ (越南猴子) – Literally means "Vietnamese monkeys." A term used by the Han Chinese to derogatorily refer towards Vietnamese by associating them as being uncivilized, barbaric, dirty, primitive, and backward people. This term also alludes to the historical region of Nam Viet (南越 which in Chinese translates to "land of the southern barbarians"), a province that was ruled by the Han dynasty during the First Chinese domination of Vietnam; when mixed with the word "southern barbarian" (南蠻) is also used as an ethnic slur towards the Vietnamese by the Han Chinese. [22]
  • Yuenán gòngfei or Yue gòngfei (越南共匪 or 越共匪) – Literally means "Vietnamese communist bandits". A variation of gòngfei, this was directed at the Viet Cong by anti-communists during the Vietnam War. While rarely used today, this term is still also used by Taiwanese anti-communists to refer to the Communist Party of Vietnam, or Vietnamese Communists in general.

Other

Homosexuality

There are various circumlocutions in Mandarin Chinese for homosexual, and the formal terms are recent additions just as is the direct translation of "masturbation" (hand soiling). The words listed below are generally not regarded as being profane. Duànxiù (Chinese :斷袖) — cut off sleeve, from the story of a ruler whose male favourite fell asleep on the sleeve of his jacket, so when the ruler had to get up to conduct some needed business he cut his sleeve off rather than awaken his lover (See Bret Hinsch, Passions of the Cut Sleeve, p. 53). An analogous story, of a sleeve being cut off so as not to disturb a sleeping cat, is told of both Confucius and Muhammad, and perhaps others.

Yútáo (Chinese :餘桃) — remains of a peach, from the story of a favourite who rather too familiarly offered his sovereign a peach of which he had already eaten half. (From Han Fei Zi, chapter 12)

Bōlí ( 玻璃 ), literally "glass", but implies "glass person". It comes from a passage in the Dream of the Red Chamber in which Phoenix is described as having a "crystal heart in a glass body," meaning that she was glistening, pure, clear, fastidious, etc. It stands as high praise for a lady, but comes off as an effeminate slur when referring to men. The English translation of Bai Xian-yong's novel about male homosexuals in Taiwan includes the term "crystal boys," derived from the same passage in the earlier novel, and also a rather gruff reference to the old photographer who befriends some of the boys as "you old glass," which, delivered by a female friend of his, comes out sounding about on the level of "you old fart," i.e., not really so very offensive, but indicating a passing mood of aggravation on the speaker's part. Nevertheless, the general meaning is probably closer to "old queer."

Nán fēng (Chinese : 男風 ), male custom, is homophonous with ( 南風 , southern custom.) The first writing of the term would fairly easily be picked out as referring to sexual interactions, whereas the second term could just mean "the customs of the southern part of China."

Tóngzhì (同志; lit.' comrade ') was recently adopted in Hong Kong and Taiwan to mean homosexual, and is sometimes used on the mainland. Literally the term means "one having same aspirations".

Tùzi (兔子), used to refer to catamites (lit. rabbit). (See Herbert A. Giles, A Chinese-English Dictionary, entry 12,122) See also Tu Er Shen.

Since the success of Ang Lee's Brokeback Mountain , duànbèi (Chinese :斷背, lit. "Brokeback") has also become popular.

See also

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Profanity in Finnish is used in the form of intensifiers, adjectives, adverbs and particles. There is also an aggressive mood that involves omission of the negative verb ei while implying its meaning with a swear word.

The Korean language has a number of words that are considered profanity.

Singlish is the English-based creole or patois spoken colloquially in Singapore. English is one of Singapore's official languages, along with Malay, Mandarin, and Tamil. Although English is the lexifier language, Singlish has its unique slang and syntax, which are more pronounced in informal speech. It is usually a mixture of English, Hokkien, Cantonese, Malay, and Tamil, and sometimes other Chinese languages like Teochew, Hainanese, Hakka, Hockchew, and Mandarin. For example, pek chek means to be annoyed or frustrated, and originates from Singaporean Hokkien 迫促. It is used in casual contexts between Singaporeans, but is avoided in formal events when certain Singlish phrases may be considered unedifying. Singapore English can be broken into two subcategories. Standard Singapore English (SSE) and Colloquial Singapore English (CSE) or Singlish as many locals call it. The relationship between SSE and Singlish is viewed as a diglossia, in which SSE is restricted to be used in situations of formality where Singlish/CSE is used in most other circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Italian profanity</span> Profanities that are blasphemous or inflammatory in the Italian language

Italian profanity are profanities that are blasphemous or inflammatory in the Italian language.

The five most common Cantonese profanities, vulgar words in the Cantonese language are diu (屌/𨳒), gau (鳩/㞗/𨳊), lan (撚/𨶙), tsat (柒/杘/𨳍) and hai (屄/閪), where the first ("diu") literally means fuck, "hai" is a word for female genitalia and "gau" refers to male genitalia. They are sometimes collectively known as the "outstanding five in Cantonese" (廣東話一門五傑). These five words are generally offensive and give rise to a variety of euphemisms and minced oaths. Similar to the seven dirty words in the United States, these five words are forbidden to say and are bleep-censored on Hong Kong broadcast television. Other curse phrases, such as puk gai (仆街/踣街) and ham gaa caan (冚家鏟/咸家鏟), are also common.

The following is a list of words and formulations commonly used as profanity throughout Romania.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hokkien profanity</span>

Hokkien is one of the largest Chinese language groups worldwide. Profanity in Hokkien most commonly involves sexual references and scorn of the object's ancestors, especially their mother. The mentioning of sexual organs is frequently used in Hokkien profanity.

Swedish profanity can be divided into several categories. A substantial number of curse words in Swedish have religious origins. Euphemistic variants of the religious curses are commonly used as well. References to genitalia or bodily functions are common in the Swedish profanity vocabulary. Notably, no word for sexual intercourse is commonly used in invectives, unlike many other languages. However, calques of English fuck using knull (noun), knulla (verb) do occur; this comes across as more offensive than fuck does in English. In general, knull(a), along with genitalia slang words like kuk ('cock') and fitta ('cunt') are the most offensive single words. By contrast, most of the traditional religious profanities are not considered very offensive today; this is in line with Sweden's long-standing secularism.

Diaosi is a Chinese slang and internet buzzword, often used in a sarcastic and self-deprecating manner, that refers to a young male of mediocre appearance and social standing. Born into a humble family, he has no car, no house, and no connections. Yet as the term went viral on the Internet, Chinese youth from all backgrounds began to embrace it. It is slowly transforming into a descriptor of the ordinary Chinese citizen who faces everyday struggles and hardships.

Chinese Internet slang refers to various kinds of Internet slang used by people on the Chinese Internet. It is often coined in response to events, the influence of the mass media and foreign culture, and the desires of users to simplify and update the Chinese language. Slang that first appears on the Internet is often adopted to become current in everyday life. It includes content relating to all aspects of social life, mass media, economic, and political topics and the like. Internet slang is arguably the fastest-changing aspect of the language, created by a number of different influences—technology, mass media and foreign culture amongst others.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tagalog profanity</span> Profanity in the language of the Philippines

Tagalog profanity can refer to a wide range of offensive, blasphemous, and taboo words or expressions in the Tagalog language of the Philippines. Due to Filipino culture, expressions which may sound benign when translated back to English can cause great offense; while some expressions English speakers might take great offense to can sound benign to a Tagalog speaker. Filipino, the national language of the Philippines, is the standard register of Tagalog, so as such the terms Filipino profanity and Filipino swear words are sometimes also employed.

Prick is a vulgar word for penis as well as a pejorative term used to refer to a despicable or contemptible individual. It is generally considered offensive, though in the past it has been used as a term of endearment. Its history as a euphemism for penis goes back to the 1500s and has been used in wordplay by Shakespeare and other writers who have combined the vulgarism with the standard meaning of the noun, which means the act of piercing or puncturing. Most linguists believe it has been used as a direct insult only since 1929.

Profanity in the Japanese language can pertain to scatological references or aim to put down the listener by negatively commenting on their ability, intellect, or appearance. Furthermore, there are different levels of Japanese speech that indicate politeness, social standing and respect, referred to, simply, as honorific form. Using the incorrect form of Japanese can itself be insulting to the listener.

References

Footnotes

  1. 为什么"月经"又叫"大姨妈"?. Baidu Zhidao.
  2. 女生习惯说法"大姨妈"的来历. Xinhua News . 2008-05-10. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008.
  3. . Mandarin-English Talking Dictionary. Chinese Language Center.
  4. 为什么乳房叫波. Baidu.com.
  5. , , , and are all different characters for "turtle".
  6. "Glossary".
  7. "- YouTube". YouTube . Archived from the original on 2021-05-19. Retrieved 2021-05-19.
  8. FluentFlix, Chinese Slang 101: "Color Wolf"
  9. TVBS. "「屌」比周董早10年 孫大偉獨樹一格│TVBS新聞網". TVBS (in Chinese (Taiwan)). Retrieved 2023-10-18.
  10. "Forget About Perfection. Embrace 'Mamahuhu.'". New York Times . 2022-05-18. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008.
  11. Note: The character may not be supported on all browsers. It is a 巴 ba below a 尸 corpse radical, and appears as Ba hkscs.PNG . The character is present in the HKSCS. In the case where the correct character cannot be rendered, the phrase can also be colloquially shown as 屎巴巴 otherwise.
  12. Huang, Frank and Wolfram Eberhard (1968), "On Some Chinese Terms of Abuse," Asian Folklore Studies 27.1: 29.
  13. Huang and Eberhard 1968: 30.
  14. Huang and Eberhard 1968: 32.
  15. "你丫的 ""我鸟你"到底是啥意思?_百度知道.
  16. 瞧不起.[ permanent dead link ]
  17. Chao, Eveline. NIUBI!(2009) pg.13
  18. chinaSMACK Glossary: Cena
  19. Custer, Charlie (12 August 2010). "StarCraft 2 in China: "We Gamers Really Suffer"". ChinaGeeks. Archived from the original on 16 August 2010. Retrieved 15 August 2016.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  20. 第一滴血──從日方史料還原平型關之戰日軍損失 (6) Archived 2014-02-03 at the Wayback Machine News of the Communist Party of China December 16, 2011
  21. "Chinese in the Philippines". China History Forum, Chinese History Forum. Archived from the original on 26 April 2014. Retrieved 1 February 2015.
  22. Chua, Amy (2018). Political Tribes: Group Instinct and the Fate of Nations. Penguin Press. p. 43. ISBN   978-0399562853.

Sources and further reading