Harmless old-fashioned Polish swear words/phrases

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.

Thank you!

Psia krew

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:-) ]

Cholera

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.

I still hear 'cholera' used

Cholera is very much used today. P3, you don't even live in Poland, do you?

A niech to gęś kopnie!
Motyla noga!
Do jasnej anielki!
Kurcze pieczone/blade!

- kurcze pióro (chicken's feather)
- kurka wodna (water hen)
- psia kość (dog's bone)
- kuchnia (kitchen)

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.

do stu diabłów
niech to piorun trzaśnie


my grandma still uses this one

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.

Psia krew? "dog's blood" ~ damn it!
Not sure about the last word?

Never mind, just saw the first post explaining it...

my fathers:
jasna cholera
and, of course, psia krew.
Never heard my mother or any of my grandparents curse.

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 :)

Some samples of Polish swearing and a funny video.

kurde

Kurde, open your PM box, plk123 ;)

you can email me, no? or give me some time so i can read all the bitchin' PMs i got. :D

Well, if the Mods permit this to stay up til you finish work on it ;) ;)

youtube.com/watch?v=_AnwwMxJqvk&NR=1
I can't make out what is said here. Sth like 'if you need help, come to the pub??' (or come to papa??)

Oh, spieprzyć is old and harmless despite the stem.

it's just over peppered. :)


i can't tell.. i don't have any head phones with me here. sorry

Over-peppered, LOL. Or screwed up ;)

Then please listen without ;) ;)

i did and i can't tell one thing.. that's why i mentioned head phones.. those would help tremendously..

Aha, thanks for trying, kurde ;) ;)

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?

Jen-kooya!

Tom

O, Cholera - Oh, horrible bacterial infection

Można uzyskać od uderzenia pioruna

May you get struck by lightning.

"-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. :)

Wife's grandad used to say 'do jasnej holendry' a lot...