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Thread: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

  1. #1

    Default 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!

    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.

    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!

  2. #2

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Ne ton kuna! = Dammit!

    (Nu Eta - Tau Omikron Nu - Kappa - Upsilon - Nu - Alpha)
    - Tellos Athenaios
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    ὁ δ᾽ ἠλίθιος ὣσπερ πρόβατον βῆ βῆ λέγων βαδίζει” – Kratinos in Dionysalexandros.

  3. #3
    Professional Lurker Member Bava's Avatar
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    Default 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
    Last edited by Bava; 10-04-2007 at 19:47.
    "Well, whenever I'm confused, I just check my underwear. It holds the answer to all the important questions." - Grandpa Simpson

  4. #4

    Default 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.
    Last edited by artavazd; 10-04-2007 at 20:44.

  5. #5
    Guest Boyar Son's Avatar
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    Default 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?

  6. #6

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Say in what languages youre talking, plz.

    merda
    That stills being the portuguese word for it

    pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo
    aureli patice et cinaede furi
    qui me ex versiculis meis putastis
    quod sunt moliculi parum pudicum.
    Latin?



  7. #7
    Krusader's Nemesis Member abou's Avatar
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    Default 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.

  8. #8
    Guest Boyar Son's Avatar
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    Default 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.
    pm? plz?

    for latin class

  9. #9
    Krusader's Nemesis Member abou's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Quote Originally Posted by K COSSACK
    pm? plz?

    for latin class


    No high school Latin class is going to teach that!

  10. #10

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    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

  11. #11
    Member Member kambiz's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    I think your "kunem" is the same "Konam" in Parsi ,Right???

    Forgotten Empire

  12. #12
    Come to daddy Member Geoffrey S's Avatar
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    Default 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.
    Catullus is absolutely brilliant. We did translate him in highschool, but not that one.
    "The facts of history cannot be purely objective, since they become facts of history only in virtue of the significance attached to them by the historian." E.H. Carr

  13. #13
    Guest Boyar Son's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Quote Originally Posted by abou


    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....

  14. #14

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Quote Originally Posted by abou


    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.
    - Tellos Athenaios
    CUF tool - XIDX - PACK tool - SD tool - EVT tool - EB Install Guide - How to track down loading CTD's - EB 1.1 Maps thread


    ὁ δ᾽ ἠλίθιος ὣσπερ πρόβατον βῆ βῆ λέγων βαδίζει” – Kratinos in Dionysalexandros.

  15. #15
    EB Nitpicker Member oudysseos's Avatar
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    Default 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
    οἵη περ φύλλων γενεὴ τοίη δὲ καὶ ἀνδρῶν.
    Even as are the generations of leaves, such are the lives of men.
    Glaucus, son of Hippolochus, Illiad, 6.146



  16. #16

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Quote Originally Posted by kambiz
    I think your "kunem" is the same "Konam" in Parsi ,Right???

    In Armenian kunem actualy means f*** isnt konam in parsi meaning ass but has the meaning of f***

  17. #17
    FC2 烏 Member Kurulham's Avatar
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    Default 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.
    ...et Boston delenda est.

  18. #18

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    ...And of course the crippled-classic-cliche:

    Mater tua malus sus est.
    - Tellos Athenaios
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    ὁ δ᾽ ἠλίθιος ὣσπερ πρόβατον βῆ βῆ λέγων βαδίζει” – Kratinos in Dionysalexandros.

  19. #19
    Βασιλευς και Αυτοκρατωρ Αρχης Member Centurio Nixalsverdrus's Avatar
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    Default 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.

  20. #20
    Lover of Toight Vahjoinas Member Bootsiuv's Avatar
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    Default Re: AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    LOL @ oudysseos

    Your mamas so fat that when she comes to Rome it has 8 hills...

    Fantastic.
    SSbQ*****************SSbQ******************SSbQ

  21. #21
    Poll Smoker Senior Member CountArach's Avatar
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    Default Re: AW: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    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!
    Rest in Peace TosaInu, the Org will be your legacy
    Quote Originally Posted by Leon Blum - For All Mankind
    Nothing established by violence and maintained by force, nothing that degrades humanity and is based on contempt for human personality, can endure.

  22. #22
    Member Member EasternScourge's Avatar
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    Default 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.

  23. #23
    Clear the battlefield... Member Tarkus's Avatar
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    Default 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...
    I have seen the future and it is very much like the present, only longer -- Kehlog Albran, The Profit

  24. #24
    FC2 烏 Member Kurulham's Avatar
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    Default 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.
    Last edited by Kurulham; 10-05-2007 at 02:43.
    ...et Boston delenda est.

  25. #25

    Default 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).
    "He who throws his shield away, lives to fight another day!"

  26. #26

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Caput capitis = dick head.

  27. #27

    Default 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!
    Quid ais, homo levior quam pluma, pessime et neqissime, flagitium hominis, subdole ac minime preti?
    -Plautus, Menaechmi

    Alexandros Syriakos in WOTB

  28. #28

    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Veni Vidi Veni identidem

    I came, I saw, I came again and again and again....lol.

  29. #29
    Urwendur Ûrîbêl Senior Member Mouzafphaerre's Avatar
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    Default Re: The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

    Quote Originally Posted by Rhipsaspis
    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).
    .
    I love the links in the translation!

    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 :

    Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 
    Âlemin bâğızârını sikeyim
    Sünbül ü verd-i hârını sikeyim
    Andelîb-i nizârını sikeyim
    Hâsılı nev-bahârını sikeyim.


    sikeyim is the f-word, while the rest is high poetic language.
    .
    Ja mata Tosa Inu-sama, Hore Tore, Adrian II, Sigurd, Fragony

    Mouzafphaerre is known elsewhere as Urwendil/Urwendur/Kibilturg...
    .

  30. #30
    Speaker of Truth Senior Member Moros's Avatar
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    Default 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! )

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