I am a published author writing about Polish-American immigrants in midwest America during the 20s and 30s. I would like to know some simple AND HARMLESS Polish swear words/phrases that an older man might use in anger. I remember my grandfather's, which is not that harmless.I can only spell it phonetically:"Pshaw-clef," which I think means, literally, "dog's blood." But it translates, certainly, into something more coarse.
psia mać psia jucha psia dupa I also remember my grandfather saying something like: - jasny gwint - do diaska - cholera jasna - choina [ this was my grandfather's brother favourite - I liked it because he always said that instead of 'cholera' when children were around:-) ]
There's an old chap at work whose swearword of choice seems to be cholera. He was off work today seeing the doctor. I imagine the doctor telling him that, no, he isn't actually suffering from cholera. He doesn't exhibit a particularly choleric character.
Cholera was once considered quite rude so it was replaced by the euphemism choroba. Go figure. Just as do diaska replaced do diabła, regarded as a very strong oath.
Sorry, I misphrased things. I did not intend to suggest that choroba has replaced or displaced cholera which is very much alive. I wanted to say choroba was once used by those who felt cholera was too strong. Mea maxima culpa for my lack of clarity!
I like this one: kurdzibąk (although I'm not sure if this should be spelled kurdzi bąk or kurdzibąk), means the same as kurcze pieczone, psia krew, and so on.
Davey What does Pshaw-clef mean? This is so weird.... I never saw it spelled out before, I only heard it. My father used to say it a lot when he got angry, but he said "Pshaw-chef oletta.
in southern poland very useful unharmless swear is: "ty pierunie" which means in enlglish: "you lightning". or "ty giździe", or even "ty ciućmoku" and even more even "ty ćmiylu".
outcome is that, "W szczebrzeszynie chrząszcz brzmi w trzcinie" is not so hard to spell :)
I remember hearing a phrase used by the old Polish ladies in my neighborhood (Buffalo, NY) that sounded something like, "oh, helleda!" Does anyone know it, what it means, how to say it, how to spell it correctly?
"-Cholera jasna." or: "-Do jasnej cholery!" are my favourite. "Cholera mnie bierze" - "I can't stand it any longer" "Kurza twarz" (hen's face) is nice too. "Do diaska", "do diabła", and plenty others.
How about: "do kroćset" (doh krotch-set)? I'm not even trying to translate it... ;)
But my all-time favorite old-fashioned phrase is KRUCAFUKS. Spell it: "krootza-fookhz", with an accent on the second part. I don't know how to translate it (because it means totallty and absolutely nothing), but it reminds me of english "oh, bloody hell". Probably
To be perfectly clear - no one talks like that in Poland nowadays. But my grandpa probably used that phrase often. :)
