Language / Harmless old-fashioned Polish swear words/phrases [159]

Some of those may be *a bit* old fashioned, but none is harmless.

The difference is simple, literally nobody will be offended by "O jeny...", but you risk a broken nose by saying "Chujaj się" around the wrong people. ;)

Language / Harmless old-fashioned Polish swear words/phrases [159]

There is "Pieronie" or "Pierunie" (literally meaning something along the lines of "You lightning") used in regional dialects, it could mean anything though, something like "You dog!" - you could use it to offend or to approve, paise. You could pretty much use it instead of "Wow" too. You can sometimes hear it used with some other words, like "Pieruńskie szczęście" - meaning great luck.

My uncle often used something I'd call a "gem of a phrase" - although it probably is still used in Silesia or Kaszuby regions (I'm not quite sure of how to write it, but here it goes) - "Nasermater" - which also could mean a lot. It can be used identically as "Cholera" - so, just a short "Damn!". It could be used in a phrase "On wszystko robi nasermater." ("He does everything poorly/carelessly"). I'd risk an assumption that most poles not only wouldn't be offended by the word, but also would have no idea what it means. :P But some, I'd guess at Kaszuby region, could actually regard it as a strong curse, since "sermater" means (I think!) "devil" or "evil spirit" there. So it'd be "Na sermater" then. ;)

Language / Polish nationality insults in Polish? [67]

Someone here had doubts that everything with added "Ruski" (bit pejorative for "Russian", it lost its historical meaning in common usage) had pejorative meaning - well, I heard a lot of examples to that. People sometimes say things like "Jakiś ruski ten zegarek..." - sorry, I can't translate it properly, it sounds really bad in English. It could be something along the lines of "This watch is 'somehow Russian'..." - not really meaning it was made in Russia, but that it's probably inferior, badly made, etc.

"Raz na ruski rok" ("Once a Russian year") - it'd mean that something happens rarely, once in a long time, also "Ruski miesiąc" ("Russian month") also means "a long time" and is commonly used in a threat "Ruski miesiąc popamiętasz!" ("You'll remember it for a Russian month!") - meaning something (probably a sever punishment) will be remembered for a long time. ;)

But more generally if something was called "Ruski" it was meant to diss, to call something primitive, inferior. Our two nations have a long history of wars and occupation, so it really isn't something surprising. ;)

But it's also true that sometimes "Ruski" or "Radziecki" ("Soviet") meant "sturdy" and "long-lasting". If it was so because of the quality of a given product or propaganda is a totally different topic. ;)

Nowadays I think "Ruski" lost a lot of the pejorative meaning, but it still is used this way.

Rarely used now, although I heard it on several occasions: "Tu nie Ukraina!" (more or less "We're not in Ukraine!", "It's not Ukraine here!") meaning "We've got laws here!" - which would refer to the times when Ukraine was a part of the Commonwealth. It also could refer to the origins of the word "Ukraina" which would probably be "U krańca" or something like it, more or less about a land away from here, somewhere "close to the border". ;)