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The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Just a thought that popped into my head the other day. Surely, in the period depicted here in EB every people and culture had vibrant and colourful languages, and in those languages, they no doubt had vibrant and colourful insults! :laugh4:
Since the history books seem to gloss over this aspect of ancient culture, I'm putting forth a mini-challenge while genuinelly looking for some knowledge on how our distant ancestors verbally humiliated one another.
SO: Who here on this forum can come up with a genuine insult/cuss-word that was used in the BCE era? (1st and 2nd century AD is fine too) If you DO manage to find something, then please write it out first in its original language, and then translated, for extra joy. :2thumbsup:
If not, then the challenge also includes finding the ancient equivalent of today's modern insults. Direct translations of the various 4-letter profanities we use nowadays, basically.
This is strictly for fun. Unfortunately there are no prizes to be had except perhaps an enrichened vocabulary!
There are no restraints here. If you do find a genuine curse, or decide to translate, it can be as inventive, colourful, obscene, and offensive as you like.
Let's see who's up for this!
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Ne ton kuna! = Dammit!
(Nu Eta - Tau Omikron Nu - Kappa - Upsilon - Nu - Alpha)
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Good ol´Catul used a very ... err, rich language in his poems.
Here´s my favorite:
pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
aureli patice et cinaede furi
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis
quod sunt moliculi parum pudicum.
Talk about pissed off artists...^^
As for 4 letter words:
merda, cacatus : s***
sentina: scum
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
In Armenia during EB's time frame, and in to the middle ages it was the biggest insult to call some one a merchant (arevtrakan). Sort of like a combination of lier, thief, and son of a bitch all at the same time.
Even today its an Armenian mindset that a good merchant or salsemen is a shister.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bavarian Barbarian
Good ol´Catul used a very ... err, rich language in his poems.
Here´s my favorite:
pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
aureli patice et cinaede furi
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis
quod sunt moliculi parum pudicum.
Talk about pissed off artists...^^
As for 4 letter words:
merda, cacatus : s***
sentina: scum
"ex versiculis meis putastis"
is he talkin about a wife?
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Say in what languages youre talking, plz.
That stills being the portuguese word for it :laugh4:
Quote:
pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
aureli patice et cinaede furi
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis
quod sunt moliculi parum pudicum.
Latin?
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bavarian Barbarian
Good ol´Catul used a very ... err, rich language in his poems.
Here´s my favorite:
pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
aureli patice et cinaede furi
qui me ex versiculis meis putastis
quod sunt moliculi parum pudicum.
Heh, great one. I could translate, but to get the true meaning I would probably be banned from the boards for the first line alone.:laugh4:
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by abou
Heh, great one. I could translate, but to get the true meaning I would probably be banned from the boards for the first line alone.:laugh4:
pm? plz?
for latin class
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by K COSSACK
pm? plz?
for latin class
:laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:
No high school Latin class is going to teach that!
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
:yes: Does anyone know when the F word became popular. I am not talking about only in English, but in other languages as well. It seems that the equivelent of the F word is in all languages.
In Armenian kunel means "to F***"
kunem kez "F*** you"
kunem berant "F*** your mouth"
kunem lavt "F*** your good" ( has the meaning of F everything that is good and sacred to you)
Kunem Mayrt/kunem Moret/ kunem mamat "F*** your mother/mom"
so yeah there's some colorfull phrases using the F word
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
I think your "kunem" is the same "Konam" in Parsi ,Right???:wink:
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by abou
Heh, great one. I could translate, but to get the true meaning I would probably be banned from the boards for the first line alone.:laugh4:
Catullus is absolutely brilliant. We did translate him in highschool, but not that one. :laugh4:
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by abou
:laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:
No high school Latin class is going to teach that!
well I'll copy this and hand it to my "foreign language instructor" (teacher)
but I'll have to beg....
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by abou
:laugh4: :laugh4: :laugh4:
No high school Latin class is going to teach that!
Actually, over here in the Netherlands... Catullus is part of the Latin curriculum at "highschool"...
Usually, it's about 'birds' though. ~;)
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Some basic phrases for Roman conquerors:
Futue te ipsum.
Go F--- yourself
Mande merdam et morere.
Eat sh-- and die
Velim caput tuum devellere deinde in confinium gulae cacare
I'm gonna rip off you head and crap down your neck.
Te fututo, gaudeo
You having been f---d, I rejoice. (ablative absolute! Amaze your Latin teacher!)
Sentite aciem acrem ensis mortiferi, o larvae putidae, o bustirapi nefandi!
Feel the keen edge if the sword of doom, no-good stinking corpse-eating tomb-ghouls!
Mihi est in animo programmare simulationem imperii Romani quam iniuste, atrociter, imperite regam!
I will program a simulation of the Roman Empire and rule it unjustly, cruelly, and incompetently!
What the crafty barbarian should learn to say to Romans:
Me dedo. Hic nemo est quin Romam amet. Vos non victores sed liberatores salutamus. Si quid videtis quo delectamini, agite, capite sine mora!
An exercise for the class.
Bonus insult:
Mater tua tam obesa est ut cum Romae est urbs habet octo colles
Your mama is so fat when she goes to Rome it has 8 hills!
Abes etiam a consilio insultandi mihi nisi latine loqui scias
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by kambiz
I think your "kunem" is the same "Konam" in Parsi ,Right???:wink:
In Armenian kunem actualy means f*** isnt konam in parsi meaning ass but has the meaning of f***
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Ραδανιζειν - to bugger with a radish.
Why the Greeks had a particular word for this goes into some rather... interesting judicial practices. Not sure how offensive it was to them, but it's good for a laugh.
I love Aristophanes.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
...And of course the crippled-classic-cliche:
Mater tua malus sus est. ~;)
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AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Thanks for reminding me how I hate the Latin language. Please translate all your insults into a more common idiom. ~:0
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Re: AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
LOL @ oudysseos
Your mamas so fat that when she comes to Rome it has 8 hills...
Fantastic. :beam:
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Re: AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Mater tua tam obesa est ut cum Romae est urbs habet octo colles
Your mama is so fat when she goes to Rome it has 8 hills!
OMG! I so have to remember that one!
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Re: AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Now,theres only one thing left to do.Get this into Latin:
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries."
Great job with all these insults.I might try to use them sometime.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Awesome stuff indeed, oudysseos...I never thought I would log on to this forum tonight and learn how to say I'm gonna rip off your head and crap down your neck in Latin.
I love this community...
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Re: AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by EasternScourge
Now,theres only one thing left to do.Get this into Latin:
"Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries."
Great job with all these insults.I might try to use them sometime.
Tua mater mus erat, et tuus pater similiter maiobacarum oluit.
I can't believe I still remember that. We were really, REALLY bored in Latin class one day... must have been almost ten years ago now. We actually translated the whole sketch... Though I should note that it's actually saying "your mother was a mouse" as we couldn't find a word for hamster.
The next year, when we did Catullus, one of the students came in with an orange book entitled "The Latin Sexual Vocabulary" and we had a great deal of fun.
Another fun one: Tuus senex etiam est.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
For the Latin Poem, it's on Wiki'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catullus_16
(If I shouldn't have posted this then I do apologise, please delete the think).
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Caput capitis = dick head.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by oudysseos
What the crafty barbarian should learn to say to Romans:
Me dedo. Hic nemo est quin Romam amet. Vos non victores sed liberatores salutamus. Si quid videtis quo delectamini, agite, capite sine mora!
I surrender myself. There is no one here who does not love the Romans. We greet you not as conquerers but as liberators. If you see that which is destroyed by you, come on, capture it without delay!
I hope this is mostly correct. I really should be ablt to translate this better seeing as this is my seventh year of Latin in school...
What the craftier Roman should say to the crafty barbarian:
Tibi gratias ago, astute. Mecum Romam venies ubi Caesarem salutabis. Deinde ad Amphitheatrum Flavium ambulabimus ubi leones salutabis!
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Veni Vidi Veni identidem
I came, I saw, I came again and again and again....lol.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Rhipsaspis
.
I love the links in the translation! :laugh4:
Totally anachronic but the Catullus reference makes it somewhat on topic I believe. Neyzen Tevfik (d. 1958) was a musician, poet and over all a satyr. Here's only the opening stanza of his famous curse-in-verse, "Sahne-i Ömrümden Nefs-i Emmâreme Hitâbım", which may even buy me warning points ~D:
sikeyim is the f-word, while the rest is high poetic language.
.
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Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tellos Athenaios
Actually, over here in the Netherlands... Catullus is part of the Latin curriculum at "highschool"...
Usually, it's about 'birds' though. ~;)
Wouldn't you be sad, if you're loved one's pet died?
Poor bird... ~:(
(na die lessen latijn moest ik wel zeggen dat ik enigzins geschokt was toen de volgende les, de wiskunde juf vroeg onze passers boven te halen! :sweatdrop: )