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How do you say swear words in Greek?
With gusto?
*Look at his stats*
*Finds that his most popular answer ever is Nick Nicholas’ answer to What does the Greek word “malaka” mean?*
*Breathes in*
Let’s go with Lenny Bruce’s 9 dirty words, the predecessor to George Carlin’s Seven dirty words .
- ass
- κώλος. Cognate with colon. Is used for both arse and arsehole.
- balls
- αρχίδια. From Ancient Greek ὄρχις, and thus cognate with orchid (which someone thought looked like testicles). The only body part used to characterised someone as disagreeable.
- cocksucker
- Is not invective in Greek. But cock is a dirty word: πούτσος. Etymology uncertain: Turkish puç and Italian puzzo have been suggested.
- cunt
- μουνί. Etymology uncertain; maybe Venetian monna, maybe an Ancient word for fluff.
- fuck
- γαμώ. The verb meant “marry” in Ancient Greek. It doesn’t now. The verb that means “marry” now is παντρεύομαι, which means “go under a man”. Men do it as well though; noone realises the etymology. As indeed they shouldn’t.
- motherfucker
- Not a taboo that gets used in invective in Greek; the closest I’ve ever seen is σκυλοπηδημένη, “screwed by a dog”.
- piss
- κατουρώ (verb), κάτουρα (noun). From the Ancient οὖρον “urine” (cognate); it just means “pissing down”.
- shit
- σκατά (noun), χέζω (verb); both with impeccable Ancient pedigree. σκατά is old enough that its original singular is σκώρ, following the old wetar-wetenas paradigm like ὕδωρ-ὕδατος
- tits
- βυζιά. Late Greek, possibly cognate with bosom.
I could expand into the niceties of collocation, blasphemy, and cultural taboos, but that should be enough for now.
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