I’m Dutch. Our insults generally aren’t that long but many of them don’t directly translate to English. They’re also rather crude in comparison. I’ll link to Wiktionary for these words so you can listen to them being pronounced (thanks, Wikipedia contributors!).
Graftak — either a pessimist that always manages to ruin the mood, or an insulting word for an elderly person. Literally means “grave twig”, a type of plant you put on someone’s grave. Very satisfying to say (Dutch g is pronounced like a harder version of ch in “Loch Ness”, the k at the end makes for a nice and hard ending sound for an insult).
Dutch is also one of the few languages cussing with diseases. “Krijg de klere” (get cholera) means “fuck off”. “Klerelijer” (cholera sufferer) is used as an insult. Other common diseases used for cussing include “tyfus” (typhoid) and “kanker” (cancer), though cussing with cancer is generally looked down upon more, probably because typhoid and cholera aren’t the devastating diseases they once were around here anymore. “Tyf op” is derived from typhoid and means “fuck off”. Some rare insults also feature pokken (smallpox) like “pokkenweer” (“smallpox weather”, very bad weather) but I don’t hear those very often.
“Kut” as a prefix for a word is not something I think English has. It means “cunt” but is generally interpreted somewhere between “shit” and “cunt” in terms of severity, depending on where you are in the country.
A thing that frustrates you is a kutding. A door that you just ran into is a kutdeur. An app that makes you mad is a kutapp. Then there’s “kutwijf”, an insult only directed at women, meaning essentially the same as “cunt” in American context, literally translated as “cunty woman”. “kut” can also be used as a replacement for diseases (“kut op” instead of “tyf op”). It can also be a separate word, but calling someone a kut is generallt only done in certain (southern, I believe?) parts of the country.
There are also many kut-derived insults (huppelkut, kuttenkop, sufkut) but many of those words are almost exclusively used for women so I consider them to be in bad taste, unless there’s a male equivalent of equal vulgarity.
The male equivalent for “kut” would be “klote”, “kloten” being a vulgar way to reference the male balls. Klote is considered less crude than kut, and can be an expression by itself (like how some English speakers will shout “balls!”). Derived words often have the same effect as calling someone an asshole in English, like klootzak (ballsack), kloothommel (“ball drone” with “drone” as in “male bee”), and klootviool (“ball violin”).
“Eikel” is somewhat equivalent to “asshole”. The word means either “acorn” or the glans of a penis.
You can call some one a lul or lullo directly but the many compound insults are as varied as the ones available in English. There are a bunch that don’t have direct English equivalents, though.
Other penis-related insults are things like lulhannes (lul meaning dick, hannes meaning “a dumb person”), lulkoek (bullshit, literally meaning “dick cake”), and various uses of the verb “lullen” (“to dick”, meaning “talking bullshit” or just “talking”).
Then there’s the recurring character of Jan lul, Jan being a common first name. Doing something “for Jan lul” means something like wasting your time, doing something for no reason. “Voor Jan lul staan” means standing around doing nothing, “Er voor Jan lul staan” (standing there for Jan dick) means being around for nothing.
Though the Dutch aren’t very religious anymore, I still like “godvergeten” (forgotten by God) as a modifier in a compound swear. Very satisfying to say.
You can of course combine these into phrases like “krijg de klere, godvergeten kutgraftak” if you’re very angrily telling some elderly person to fuck off. The variety of insults available in Dutch cussing language allows for some quite poetic or rhythmically interesting cussing using exclusively crude words, like a poem mostly consisting of “fuck” and “shit”.
Heya. I’m an American, and I’ve got to say thank you. I seriously look forward to calling someone a “ball violin” in English, but if fully intend to add klootviool and and klootzak to my day to day swear bank. Those are so satisfying to say!
Just don’t forget that the “oo” is pronounced as the “oh” in “oh shit” and not like the “oo” in “cool” or “mood”.
Same for the “a” in “zak”. It’s closer to “ahhh” as in “oooohh and ahhh” or “pasta” than it is to the “a” in “back”
Nice overview! I do not have any proof of this, but I think “Godverdomme”, which is still very common, is a bit unique because rather that God damning it or -you, it translates to God Damn Me.
Godverdomme pretty much directly translates to goddamn so I didn’t include it. It’s derived from either “God verdoeme me” (“(may) God damn me”) or “God verdoeme” (“God damn”) but I don’t think its origins are known for sure; there are to explanations according to the etymology textbooks as far as I can tell.
In its original context a similar set of words was used to say “may God damn me (to hell) if it wasn’t so”, expressing how truthful one is being. However, there have been so many derivations through dialects and other uses that it’s hard to tell when stressing the fact you’re telling the truth was dropped from the common phrase.
Dutch very rarely uses the subjunctive anymore except for in a few common phrases (lang leve, het zij zo, koste wat het kost, and a few others) so I don’t think most people realise it’s not based on the imperative of “verdoemen”, but rather a request or desire.
I’m Dutch. Our insults generally aren’t that long but many of them don’t directly translate to English. They’re also rather crude in comparison. I’ll link to Wiktionary for these words so you can listen to them being pronounced (thanks, Wikipedia contributors!).
Graftak — either a pessimist that always manages to ruin the mood, or an insulting word for an elderly person. Literally means “grave twig”, a type of plant you put on someone’s grave. Very satisfying to say (Dutch g is pronounced like a harder version of ch in “Loch Ness”, the k at the end makes for a nice and hard ending sound for an insult).
Dutch is also one of the few languages cussing with diseases. “Krijg de klere” (get cholera) means “fuck off”. “Klerelijer” (cholera sufferer) is used as an insult. Other common diseases used for cussing include “tyfus” (typhoid) and “kanker” (cancer), though cussing with cancer is generally looked down upon more, probably because typhoid and cholera aren’t the devastating diseases they once were around here anymore. “Tyf op” is derived from typhoid and means “fuck off”. Some rare insults also feature pokken (smallpox) like “pokkenweer” (“smallpox weather”, very bad weather) but I don’t hear those very often.
“Kut” as a prefix for a word is not something I think English has. It means “cunt” but is generally interpreted somewhere between “shit” and “cunt” in terms of severity, depending on where you are in the country.
A thing that frustrates you is a kutding. A door that you just ran into is a kutdeur. An app that makes you mad is a kutapp. Then there’s “kutwijf”, an insult only directed at women, meaning essentially the same as “cunt” in American context, literally translated as “cunty woman”. “kut” can also be used as a replacement for diseases (“kut op” instead of “tyf op”). It can also be a separate word, but calling someone a kut is generallt only done in certain (southern, I believe?) parts of the country.
There are also many kut-derived insults (huppelkut, kuttenkop, sufkut) but many of those words are almost exclusively used for women so I consider them to be in bad taste, unless there’s a male equivalent of equal vulgarity.
The male equivalent for “kut” would be “klote”, “kloten” being a vulgar way to reference the male balls. Klote is considered less crude than kut, and can be an expression by itself (like how some English speakers will shout “balls!”). Derived words often have the same effect as calling someone an asshole in English, like klootzak (ballsack), kloothommel (“ball drone” with “drone” as in “male bee”), and klootviool (“ball violin”).
“Eikel” is somewhat equivalent to “asshole”. The word means either “acorn” or the glans of a penis.
You can call some one a lul or lullo directly but the many compound insults are as varied as the ones available in English. There are a bunch that don’t have direct English equivalents, though.
Other penis-related insults are things like lulhannes (lul meaning dick, hannes meaning “a dumb person”), lulkoek (bullshit, literally meaning “dick cake”), and various uses of the verb “lullen” (“to dick”, meaning “talking bullshit” or just “talking”).
Then there’s the recurring character of Jan lul, Jan being a common first name. Doing something “for Jan lul” means something like wasting your time, doing something for no reason. “Voor Jan lul staan” means standing around doing nothing, “Er voor Jan lul staan” (standing there for Jan dick) means being around for nothing.
Though the Dutch aren’t very religious anymore, I still like “godvergeten” (forgotten by God) as a modifier in a compound swear. Very satisfying to say.
You can of course combine these into phrases like “krijg de klere, godvergeten kutgraftak” if you’re very angrily telling some elderly person to fuck off. The variety of insults available in Dutch cussing language allows for some quite poetic or rhythmically interesting cussing using exclusively crude words, like a poem mostly consisting of “fuck” and “shit”.
I also quite like the word ‘droeftoeter’, meaning a sad/depressing person. The closest thing would be the word ‘loser’ in English.
Damn, that’s a good one, can’t believe i missed it!
For context: pronounced “drooftooter” in English, literally means “sadness trumpet”.
‘Sad trombone’ would be an apt translation, as the sound of refers to is exactly like the meaning of the insult.
Heya. I’m an American, and I’ve got to say thank you. I seriously look forward to calling someone a “ball violin” in English, but if fully intend to add klootviool and and klootzak to my day to day swear bank. Those are so satisfying to say!
Just don’t forget that the “oo” is pronounced as the “oh” in “oh shit” and not like the “oo” in “cool” or “mood”. Same for the “a” in “zak”. It’s closer to “ahhh” as in “oooohh and ahhh” or “pasta” than it is to the “a” in “back”
Bravo! A perfect write-up. You’re making us proud.
Mieren neuker
I’m American, but isn’t the Brit insult “bell-end” similar to this?
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Nice overview! I do not have any proof of this, but I think “Godverdomme”, which is still very common, is a bit unique because rather that God damning it or -you, it translates to God Damn Me.
Godverdomme pretty much directly translates to goddamn so I didn’t include it. It’s derived from either “God verdoeme me” (“(may) God damn me”) or “God verdoeme” (“God damn”) but I don’t think its origins are known for sure; there are to explanations according to the etymology textbooks as far as I can tell.
In its original context a similar set of words was used to say “may God damn me (to hell) if it wasn’t so”, expressing how truthful one is being. However, there have been so many derivations through dialects and other uses that it’s hard to tell when stressing the fact you’re telling the truth was dropped from the common phrase.
Dutch very rarely uses the subjunctive anymore except for in a few common phrases (lang leve, het zij zo, koste wat het kost, and a few others) so I don’t think most people realise it’s not based on the imperative of “verdoemen”, but rather a request or desire.
A go-to for me has recently, for some reason, become godverdekut, so do with that one as you please.
I do agree that curse words/expressions based on diseases seem very unique