6 ms·

Rare and Amusing Insults, Volume 2

59 points by vsnf 2y ago

throwanem 2y ago
I don't buy "cacafuego" as a real name any empire would give its ships. HMS Spitfire was real enough, but who'd ever take seriously HMS Sh...
- defrost 2y ago
  Nuestra Señora de la Concepción a 120-ton Spanish galleon that sailed the Peru–Panama trading route during the 16th century. This ship has earned a place in maritime history not only by virtue of being Sir Francis Drake's most famous prize, but also because of her colourful nickname, Cagafuego ("fireshitter") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_la_Concepci%C3%B3n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_la_Conc... > but who'd ever take seriously a vehicle officially named Pajero ? https://www.drive.com.au/showrooms/mitsubishi/pajero-sport/ https://www.drive.com.au/showrooms/mitsubishi/pajero-sport/ https://tureng.com/en/spanish-english/pajero https://tureng.com/en/spanish-english/pajero
  - throwanem 2y ago
    Okay, but in entire fairness, I did say "any empire would give". If she wasn't actually commissioned under the name as the Merriam-Webster blog suggests, I believe this qualifies as having successfully weaseled out. Certainly it makes a lot more sense as a nickname! Those have vastly broader range than commissioned names typically do. In any case, I appreciate your effort in finding a more reliable reference, especially one that adds such color and provenance to a swear I grew up around and have favored since earliest childhood.
    - defrost 2y ago
      No drama, I was curious myself and looked up the ship in question. It was a close call for the RRS Sir David Attenborough although at least the world now has the ALR Boaty McBoatface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
- AlbertCory 2y ago
  I can tell you haven't read Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. Cacafuego is the name of a much bigger ship that Jack Aubrey captures. Of course, that's fiction, and the speculation is that POB chose that name as a sort of inside joke.
  - throwanem 2y ago
    I regret to report I have not, though they've been on my list for some years. But the joke sounds, by reputation at least, very much of the sort O'Brian would enjoy.
- treetalker 2y ago
  Definitely something that Beavis and Butthead would murmur repeatedly. Huh huh.
- lkuty 2y ago
  "caca" in french means "shit". It is the common word for "shit" used by kids, the other one being "merde" (more vulgar).
  - dieselgate 2y ago
    My family always uses it when talking about the dog going caca. It used to confuse me when I was a kid but we’d say shishi for pee. Family is mixed so it’s not really pidgeon but more just mixed. A Korean friend heard me say shishi once and said they say the same in Korean, which was surprising to learn but like caca it’s probably a fairly universal word Don’t have any Korean or French heritage myself
    - emptiestplace 2y ago
      https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin
    - deleted 2y ago
      [deleted]
    - thaumasiotes 2y ago
      > but like caca it’s probably a fairly universal word It's not a universal word. It's derived from the Greek word for "bad".
- dieselgate 2y ago
  Spitfire is a pretty common for vessels/planes. It’s a name for a type of headsail/jib
blast 2y ago
Here was volume 1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/top-10-rare-and-amusing-insults-vol-1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/top-10-rare-an...
- Aloisius 2y ago
  And volume 3 https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/rare-and-amusing-insults-volume-3 https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/rare-and-amusing-in...
  - dspillett 2y ago
    All that, and no mention of wazzock, probably my favourite mild insult and relatively unheard it would appear (it was was quite popular in parts of the UK's north in the 80s & early 90s but I don't think it travelled internationally and has since largely fallen back out of use even here). It works particularly well with the common extension "great steaming" as a phrase of exasperation: "you great steaming wazzock" (for full effect: say slowly, in one sighing breath, emphasising each word more than the previous, and take a deep disappointed breath after).
    - TeMPOraL 2y ago
      > for full effect: say slowly, in one sighing breath, emphasising each word more than the previous, and take a deep disappointed breath after I tried that and saying the last word made me exhale enough to force me to immediately take a disappointed-sounding breath, so I guess it works as designed?
      - dspillett 2y ago
        If you don't feel the final breath feels intentional enough, too much like you are just out of breath, add a head nod. Though I find that sort of exasperation gets the message across better if looking directly at the subject of it.
tasty_freeze 2y ago
I didn't know "crepehanger" was rare or unusual. My mother used often enough that it seems like a ordinary, but lower frequency, word to me. Although in my head I thought it was two words. To place it a bit more, my mother was born in 1931, and both of her parents immigrated from Ireland to Chicago around 1920. I assume she got the phase from her parents, who presumably brought it with them. "Gobshite" is another word that I'm 99% sure came over on the boat with my grandparents. Although it seems like the root words are something like "mouth shitter", the invective tended to be used more like "idiot" or "jerk".
- kolp 2y ago
  Gobshite, while it might appear to be "mouth shitter", isn't used to describe a braggard bullshitter or liar, as the components might suggest. It's more commonly used to describe a person who's both stupidly incompetent and contemptible, as in: "Why is the system down?" "Dave pushed the updates to the production server again." "F*king gobshite." Gobdaw is a less offensive variation, typically used by those who say fe_k instead of fu_k.
- BelleOfTheBall 2y ago
  I didn't realize "gobshite" is supposed to be rare, but I guess all the British shows I've seen are to blame. Thinking about it, I probably couldn't name a single person in real life that I've heard say that word.
  - arrowsmith 2y ago
    Isn't it Irish? I'm British and the only people I've ever heard say "gobshite" we're from Ireland.
    - jdub 2y ago
      You probably deserved it.
    - BelleOfTheBall 2y ago
      I think it is but there's plenty of Irish characters in British shows.
dijit 2y ago
Unfortunately the best insults are universally going to be ones that do not need to be looked up. Bonus points if you can insult someone without swearing, i.e. “you exhibit all the virtues and characteristics of dipping your toes into wet cabbage”.
- lethologica 2y ago
  Agreed. My newest favourite one is “You’re inconvenient to be around”
  - dijit 2y ago
    That is excellent. I will have to remember that one!
  - sokoloff 2y ago
    “Wisdom has chased you, but you’ve always been faster…”
  - latentsea 2y ago
    In my case, I think this actually just true, so it's not so much an insult as it is a general description haha.
  - delichon 2y ago
    It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here https://www.amazon.com/Would-Nice-You-Werent-Here/dp/0688088732/ https://www.amazon.com/Would-Nice-You-Werent-Here/dp/0688088...
- lelanthran 2y ago
  "You are exactly as smart as I expected" "If you practice, very very hard, for many many months, and do a lot of work, you might end up being merely mediocre"[*] [*] Paraphrasing someone famous, I forget who.
  - arrowsmith 2y ago
    "Mediocrity is something you'd have to aspire you." (Said to a couple:) "Neither of you could do better."
eesmith 2y ago
Huh. I only know loblolly via loblolly pine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda
surfingdino 2y ago
I like "mediocrist".
Aeolun 2y ago
I’m fairly certain the Dutch word slubber(en) is not obsolete. So much mud here at any time of the year it’d be very hard to.
DoingIsLearning 2y ago
As much as I dislike the character, Boris's "great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies" will forever be up there in the insults hall of fame.
- ImageXav 2y ago
  I think the best insult I ever read actually related to him, describing him as a bloviating buffoon, making for a very pleasant alliteration.
ptsneves 2y ago
I really think Anglo Saxonic insults are a notch below the ones from Latin languages. An Italian or Spanish person insulting another is almost like a song because the words are often intoned as part of a sentence of insults and thus sound poetic. In”casa del papel” it is possible to hear it[1]. Also notice the insult is almost like a small story and told with lots of energy. I think Dr Cox from the series scrubs touches a bit what I mean but he is bounded by the family rating of the show. I am confident that character going all in would be hilarious. One thing I miss while in Poland is Insulting and being insulted freely and humorously for the laughs and filling awkward moments. In Portugal you only get insulted by friends and it is a sign of friendship. Very Cordial conversations make the opposite very clear. In my previous work in Poland people learned to enjoy releasing a “puta que te pariu” because you could vocalize it mostly with consonants that released air in bursts and left you out of air and thus expelled the anger. My favourite insult for something fancy is that something is made of “pele de cona de Andorinha”, or “skin from the pussy of a swallow bird”. Many of these are remnants of colonial war era bravado, but the imagination is incredible. Hope the comment does not offend anyone, but if it does, think of all the things in the world that do more harm than words and enjoy the human experience for all its planes. https://youtu.be/KnYTEk-YGNo?si=YYf9lJZdLqaa5rB_ https://youtu.be/KnYTEk-YGNo?si=YYf9lJZdLqaa5rB_
- stavros 2y ago
  Being Greek, I can definitely agree. We have such phrases as "scratch your balls with a pickaxe" for when someone is telling tall tales, or "flowers on my dick and bees all around" for when you don't care. "Blatherskite" somehow pales in comparison.
  - eythian 2y ago
    I dunno, perhaps watch The Thick of It, then you'll get some phrases beyond a list of words that a dictionary puts on a website.
  - strogonoff 2y ago
    I’d love a book of cool Greek insults.
RecycledEle 2y ago
I prefer to invite the other party to perform an autoerotic copulation in any location that is not their present one.
beryilma 2y ago
Insults you can produce in Turkish involving your mother and genital parts are at a different level. Insults involving f*ck do not even come close.
- iLemming 2y ago
  Turkic languages - Tatar, Uzbek, Uighur, Turkish, etc. are on some crazy level when it comes to insults. You can never translate them to another language literally - they sound so bizarre and disturbing. Yet, the natives use them like pistachios - they often don't bear the same literal meaning in their language.

59 points by vsnf 2y ago

I don't buy "cacafuego" as a real name any empire would give its ships. HMS Spitfire was real enough, but who'd ever take seriously HMS Sh...

defrost 2y ago
Nuestra Señora de la Concepción a 120-ton Spanish galleon that sailed the Peru–Panama trading route during the 16th century. This ship has earned a place in maritime history not only by virtue of being Sir Francis Drake's most famous prize, but also because of her colourful nickname, Cagafuego ("fireshitter") https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_la_Concepci%C3%B3n https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuestra_Se%C3%B1ora_de_la_Conc... > but who'd ever take seriously a vehicle officially named Pajero ? https://www.drive.com.au/showrooms/mitsubishi/pajero-sport/ https://www.drive.com.au/showrooms/mitsubishi/pajero-sport/ https://tureng.com/en/spanish-english/pajero https://tureng.com/en/spanish-english/pajero
- throwanem 2y ago
  Okay, but in entire fairness, I did say "any empire would give". If she wasn't actually commissioned under the name as the Merriam-Webster blog suggests, I believe this qualifies as having successfully weaseled out. Certainly it makes a lot more sense as a nickname! Those have vastly broader range than commissioned names typically do. In any case, I appreciate your effort in finding a more reliable reference, especially one that adds such color and provenance to a swear I grew up around and have favored since earliest childhood.
  - defrost 2y ago
    No drama, I was curious myself and looked up the ship in question. It was a close call for the RRS Sir David Attenborough although at least the world now has the ALR Boaty McBoatface. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boaty_McBoatface
AlbertCory 2y ago
I can tell you haven't read Patrick O'Brian's Master and Commander series. Cacafuego is the name of a much bigger ship that Jack Aubrey captures. Of course, that's fiction, and the speculation is that POB chose that name as a sort of inside joke.
- throwanem 2y ago
  I regret to report I have not, though they've been on my list for some years. But the joke sounds, by reputation at least, very much of the sort O'Brian would enjoy.
treetalker 2y ago
Definitely something that Beavis and Butthead would murmur repeatedly. Huh huh.
lkuty 2y ago
"caca" in french means "shit". It is the common word for "shit" used by kids, the other one being "merde" (more vulgar).
- dieselgate 2y ago
  My family always uses it when talking about the dog going caca. It used to confuse me when I was a kid but we’d say shishi for pee. Family is mixed so it’s not really pidgeon but more just mixed. A Korean friend heard me say shishi once and said they say the same in Korean, which was surprising to learn but like caca it’s probably a fairly universal word Don’t have any Korean or French heritage myself
  - emptiestplace 2y ago
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pidgin
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - thaumasiotes 2y ago
    > but like caca it’s probably a fairly universal word It's not a universal word. It's derived from the Greek word for "bad".
dieselgate 2y ago
Spitfire is a pretty common for vessels/planes. It’s a name for a type of headsail/jib

blast 2y ago

Here was volume 1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/top-10-rare-and-amusing-insults-vol-1 https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/top-10-rare-an...

Aloisius 2y ago
And volume 3 https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/rare-and-amusing-insults-volume-3 https://www.merriam-webster.com/wordplay/rare-and-amusing-in...
- dspillett 2y ago
  All that, and no mention of wazzock, probably my favourite mild insult and relatively unheard it would appear (it was was quite popular in parts of the UK's north in the 80s & early 90s but I don't think it travelled internationally and has since largely fallen back out of use even here). It works particularly well with the common extension "great steaming" as a phrase of exasperation: "you great steaming wazzock" (for full effect: say slowly, in one sighing breath, emphasising each word more than the previous, and take a deep disappointed breath after).
  - TeMPOraL 2y ago
    > for full effect: say slowly, in one sighing breath, emphasising each word more than the previous, and take a deep disappointed breath after I tried that and saying the last word made me exhale enough to force me to immediately take a disappointed-sounding breath, so I guess it works as designed?
    - dspillett 2y ago
      If you don't feel the final breath feels intentional enough, too much like you are just out of breath, add a head nod. Though I find that sort of exasperation gets the message across better if looking directly at the subject of it.

tasty_freeze 2y ago

I didn't know "crepehanger" was rare or unusual. My mother used often enough that it seems like a ordinary, but lower frequency, word to me. Although in my head I thought it was two words. To place it a bit more, my mother was born in 1931, and both of her parents immigrated from Ireland to Chicago around 1920. I assume she got the phase from her parents, who presumably brought it with them. "Gobshite" is another word that I'm 99% sure came over on the boat with my grandparents. Although it seems like the root words are something like "mouth shitter", the invective tended to be used more like "idiot" or "jerk".

kolp 2y ago
Gobshite, while it might appear to be "mouth shitter", isn't used to describe a braggard bullshitter or liar, as the components might suggest. It's more commonly used to describe a person who's both stupidly incompetent and contemptible, as in: "Why is the system down?" "Dave pushed the updates to the production server again." "F*king gobshite." Gobdaw is a less offensive variation, typically used by those who say fe_k instead of fu_k.
BelleOfTheBall 2y ago
I didn't realize "gobshite" is supposed to be rare, but I guess all the British shows I've seen are to blame. Thinking about it, I probably couldn't name a single person in real life that I've heard say that word.
- arrowsmith 2y ago
  Isn't it Irish? I'm British and the only people I've ever heard say "gobshite" we're from Ireland.
  - jdub 2y ago
    You probably deserved it.
  - BelleOfTheBall 2y ago
    I think it is but there's plenty of Irish characters in British shows.

dijit 2y ago

Unfortunately the best insults are universally going to be ones that do not need to be looked up. Bonus points if you can insult someone without swearing, i.e. “you exhibit all the virtues and characteristics of dipping your toes into wet cabbage”.

lethologica 2y ago
Agreed. My newest favourite one is “You’re inconvenient to be around”
- dijit 2y ago
  That is excellent. I will have to remember that one!
- sokoloff 2y ago
  “Wisdom has chased you, but you’ve always been faster…”
- latentsea 2y ago
  In my case, I think this actually just true, so it's not so much an insult as it is a general description haha.
- delichon 2y ago
  It Would Be So Nice If You Weren't Here https://www.amazon.com/Would-Nice-You-Werent-Here/dp/0688088732/ https://www.amazon.com/Would-Nice-You-Werent-Here/dp/0688088...
lelanthran 2y ago
"You are exactly as smart as I expected" "If you practice, very very hard, for many many months, and do a lot of work, you might end up being merely mediocre"[*] [*] Paraphrasing someone famous, I forget who.
- arrowsmith 2y ago
  "Mediocrity is something you'd have to aspire you." (Said to a couple:) "Neither of you could do better."

eesmith 2y ago

Huh. I only know loblolly via loblolly pine. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda

surfingdino 2y ago

I like "mediocrist".

Aeolun 2y ago

I’m fairly certain the Dutch word slubber(en) is not obsolete. So much mud here at any time of the year it’d be very hard to.

DoingIsLearning 2y ago

As much as I dislike the character, Boris's "great supine protoplasmic invertebrate jellies" will forever be up there in the insults hall of fame.

ImageXav 2y ago
I think the best insult I ever read actually related to him, describing him as a bloviating buffoon, making for a very pleasant alliteration.

ptsneves 2y ago

I really think Anglo Saxonic insults are a notch below the ones from Latin languages. An Italian or Spanish person insulting another is almost like a song because the words are often intoned as part of a sentence of insults and thus sound poetic. In”casa del papel” it is possible to hear it[1]. Also notice the insult is almost like a small story and told with lots of energy. I think Dr Cox from the series scrubs touches a bit what I mean but he is bounded by the family rating of the show. I am confident that character going all in would be hilarious. One thing I miss while in Poland is Insulting and being insulted freely and humorously for the laughs and filling awkward moments. In Portugal you only get insulted by friends and it is a sign of friendship. Very Cordial conversations make the opposite very clear. In my previous work in Poland people learned to enjoy releasing a “puta que te pariu” because you could vocalize it mostly with consonants that released air in bursts and left you out of air and thus expelled the anger. My favourite insult for something fancy is that something is made of “pele de cona de Andorinha”, or “skin from the pussy of a swallow bird”. Many of these are remnants of colonial war era bravado, but the imagination is incredible. Hope the comment does not offend anyone, but if it does, think of all the things in the world that do more harm than words and enjoy the human experience for all its planes. https://youtu.be/KnYTEk-YGNo?si=YYf9lJZdLqaa5rB_ https://youtu.be/KnYTEk-YGNo?si=YYf9lJZdLqaa5rB_

stavros 2y ago
Being Greek, I can definitely agree. We have such phrases as "scratch your balls with a pickaxe" for when someone is telling tall tales, or "flowers on my dick and bees all around" for when you don't care. "Blatherskite" somehow pales in comparison.
- eythian 2y ago
  I dunno, perhaps watch The Thick of It, then you'll get some phrases beyond a list of words that a dictionary puts on a website.
- strogonoff 2y ago
  I’d love a book of cool Greek insults.

RecycledEle 2y ago

I prefer to invite the other party to perform an autoerotic copulation in any location that is not their present one.

beryilma 2y ago

Insults you can produce in Turkish involving your mother and genital parts are at a different level. Insults involving f*ck do not even come close.

iLemming 2y ago
Turkic languages - Tatar, Uzbek, Uighur, Turkish, etc. are on some crazy level when it comes to insults. You can never translate them to another language literally - they sound so bizarre and disturbing. Yet, the natives use them like pistachios - they often don't bear the same literal meaning in their language.