The Ancient Swear-Words Challenge!

[Intrepid Adventurer]

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! )

Ik snap hem niet!

So, any good Greek ones out there? ;D

OMG, I just read that poem from Catullus... lol. So much for decent antiquity...

[Tellos Athenaios]

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! )

@Intrepid:

"Musje, Musje van mijn meisje..."
"Het musje van mijn meisje is dood"

(Musje heeft in het Latijn een tamelijk aparte bijbetkenis. De laatste opmerking van Moros moet nu toch echt genoeg zijn.)

[Baldrick]

Bollocks do I feel inadequate 'cos I only speak English

I guess Gaelic classes as ancient so:

Tha thu cho duaichnidh ri Šarr …irde de a' coisich deas damh

youswear.com is a marvellous resource

[Maeran]

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.

Cricetus is the generic name for the European hamster. I'd make a reasonable guess that this is Latin.

When I was looking at the "What do units say?" thread, I did notice that 'tuas matres!' was there as a taunt. Though personally I doubt Legionaries shouted "yo' mommas!"

[Bava]

Seems like Catul has some new fans

Btw, we did translate that poem in school (our teacher loved catul and hey - we´re all over eighteen^^), and one of the - rather shy, mind you - girls tried
to translate the first sentence. After a lot of stuttering, she went red as beet and ended with : "...your mouth will loose its virginity". It still makes me smile when i think about it.

Me dedo. Hic nemo est quin Romam amet. Vos non victores sed liberatores salutamus. Si quid videtis quo delectamini, agite, capite sine mora!

hehe, nice

But one (perhaps stupid) question. If "Me dedo" means something like "I surrender(ed)" shouldnt it be "Me dedi" or "Me do"?

[The Celt]

Bollocks do I feel inadequate 'cos I only speak English

I guess Gaelic classes as ancient so:

Tha thu cho duaichnidh ri Šarr …irde de a' coisich deas damh

youswear.com is a marvellous resource

God I love swearing in Gaelic! Mostly because I'm usually the only Irishmen who knows what it means.(Here in Texas that is.)

[keravnos]

Ik snap hem niet!

So, any good Greek ones out there? ;D

OMG, I just read that poem from Catullus... lol. So much for decent antiquity...

Πορνη... "Porne" or prostitute. I guess the word "porn" would have to come from somewhere. Must have been the lowest of the low, so far as prostitutes were concerned.

Εταιρα... "Hetaira" was one step up, in the level of a geisha or something. She could engage in clever conversation and whatever, besides her obvious work.

Also in Plutarch there is this passage which talks of " Horns shooting up one's backyard" meaning his wife is having an affair. In present day greek "Κερατας" or "the guy with horns on" means the guy whose wife is f*cking left and right.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
Aye! Interesting choice of my teacher I guess, το κέρατο/ο κέρατας are of the first set of nouns I've learned. The charm is, it -almost- exactly lives in Turkish: kerata
.

[nick_r]

No high school Latin class is going to teach that!

I was Googling "irrumabo" and "putastis" since neither are in my dictionary. And yes, Catullus is taught in high schools. We have an assignment to choose a Catullus poem and give a literal translation, and much to my teacher's dismay I chose Catullus 16. It's a pretty interesting poem. It's like the Peyton Place of ancient Rome...only a million words shorter.

[Kurulham]

I don't have my Aristophanes out here - it's something like 7,000 miles away and I really don't feel like sifting through a Perseus text - but he's chock full of good stuff. Make sure you don't get a Bowdlerized translation, though, of which there are way too many, or you'll miss everything. One I read turned "be set on fire and have a radish shoved up his arse" to "be singed and prodded with the adulterer's rod". Slight difference in connotation there.

(That was The Clouds, by the way, but several of his others are equally wonderful.)