Favorite slang

Discussion in 'Linguistics' started by sowhatifit'sdark, Apr 3, 2008.

  1. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    what about bupkis? Like "You don't know bupkis"
     
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  3. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    I know some French cusses, thanks to an exchange student in my past from Nouvelle Caledonie.

    sale bâtard = dirty bastard
    cona = cunt
    pédale = dirty old man/(paedophile...?)/queer
    cochon = pig/slut
    lèche = lecher/bootlicker

    Ah, those French, what can you say, eh? Romantic swearwords.

    Also, here in Nouvelle Zelande, Maori swearwords are often adapted from English, there are quite a lot of "modern" Maori terms that are examples of English words that've been "maorified".

    pukuru (pronounced "puck- ooroo") = buggered
    I'll have to do better than this with the Maori, eh bro?
    The only other curse I know about is part of a haka - the "ka mate!" bit (pronounced "ka ma-tay"), which I think means something like: "unto death!"
     
    Last edited: Apr 19, 2008
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  5. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    Bubkes is a Yiddish word that first showed up in American English in the 1960s. It's the plural of bubke, the diminutive ending -ke on bub, "bean," which is of Slavic origin. Figuratively, "virtually nothing," a reference to their low price making beans the staple food for poor families. We say the same thing in English: "You don't know beans."
     
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  7. Fraggle Rocker Staff Member

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    You'll find that a quick way to get off on the wrong foot with any foreign community is to learn ONLY their profanity.
     
  8. MacGyver1968 Fixin' Shit that Ain't Broke Valued Senior Member

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    Wow...that's cool. I always thought the word was Buttkiss....shows you where my mind is.

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  9. Spud Emperor solanaceous common tater Registered Senior Member

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    Ka mate! ka mate!..kora, kora?

    Please enlighten me Vkothii.
    I have a couple of impressions of the Haka that I dag around with ( when pissed). One is a macho/totally gay rendition, you know, SSSlapp the left forearm, thwack!!, then a pansy limp-wristed effete slap on the right and on for the whole routine.

    Not surprisingly, all my Maori mates have refused to give away the secrets of the Haka to a disrespectful, white chump like me.

    I'd love to know the words.
    BTW, I've met some awesome Maori folk in my time.
     
  10. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    K, this is my version of what most, probably most of our neighbours too, think a "haka" is.

    The Maori are very tribal. One of their chiefs (a Tainui bloke, by the name of Te Rauparaha) was holed up somewhere, and knew his enemy lay in wait - he was in some cave somewhere, apparently. Anyways, when he finally came out, he spoke the following, as a kind of prayer, or thanks to the gods maybe, that he remained alive:

    "Ka mate! Ka mate!
    Ka ora! Ka ora!
    Tenei te tangata
    Puhuru huru..

    .. and so on, I only understand the last stanza, in what is a Maori poem, composed by this Tainui chief, on the spot, remembered and adopted to a "haka", or battle-dance-for-warriors - this one gets done by our national rugger team the All-Blacks, before the kick-off. So, it ends:

    "E houpane! E koupane!
    E houpane! Koupane, whiti Te Ra!"

    ..which means: "I step forward! I step back! I step forward! The Sun (still) shines!"

    (The first two lines, which are repeated, were probably added later, maybe it means something like: "unto death we cry!", or somesuch...). The next two are about some man (te tangata means "the man"), probably the enemy chief. I really don't know much Maori.
    The whole thing is a giving of thanks, to Ra, the Sun, for still shining on him, and for the grace of his enemy, for not killing him ("I step forward..."), as he emerged from his hideout.

    P.S. I understand the Waikato (Tainui) Maori Battalion, who were in the ANZAC forces at Gallipoli, used to scare the shit out of enemy troops (and possibly a few Diggers) with a dawn haka. Something the Maori troopers also did at the Western Front, and in WWII in N. Africa, natch.

    P.P.S. Found a link to the very thing we seek (I've gone all native for some reason), and whaddaya know, there's a whole heap of haka. Waiata is maori for "singing and dancing". Check out the translation and the official Tainui version of the above haka here.

    A comment on the use of certain Maori terms and my initial translation:
    In Maori, many words have a broad linguistic range. Ka can mean "go", or "towards", it's kind of an imperative, but also a locative, like nga (here), and wha (there) are generally used in a locative sense.
    There's a sort of complementary word: kia, which can mean "come", or "with". So kia ora, which translates as "welcome", literally means "come and live". Ka ora means "go and live", or "I/we/you go and live", or just "I live"; mate means "death", so ka mate - "to death" or "I die".
     
    Last edited: Apr 21, 2008
  11. Michael 歌舞伎 Valued Senior Member

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    "she's no bigger than a bee's peter"

    - Aussie security guard
     
  12. Spud Emperor solanaceous common tater Registered Senior Member

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    Thanks Vkothii.

    It's still a bit of a mystery but a bloody good one.
     
  13. Orleander OH JOY!!!! Valued Senior Member

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    I say stupidhead a lot. I picked that up from Lilo & Stitch. And tarter sauce from SpongeBob.
    I don't swear much.
     
  14. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    I like the phrase 'raped in the ear', used when someone is playing music you can't stand.

    I use the word 'eviscerate' a lot, to mean generally destroy, demolish, or beat someone at something, eg, 'He's going to eviscerate the rest of them at the downhill race.'
     
  15. shichimenshyo Caught in the machine Registered Senior Member

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    When something is stupid or just lame my friends and I tend to say:

    "this place is full of fail"
    or
    "This place is fail and aids"
     
  16. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    "Bottle of valium" - a bummer situation.
    A downer, or a "drag, man". Also: "not much happening".

    As in: "How is it?" (one pub-goer to another)
    "Bottle o' valium, mate."
     
    Last edited: Apr 22, 2008
  17. Vkothii Banned Banned

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    My native instincts have compelled me to note that I haven't been as accurate with my Maori as I should have.

    Just to give a heads-up, the word ka, also serves as an affirmative ("it is the case", or "it is so"), you see this in the Maori the Government insists be displayed on tobacco products for sale (Maori have been enthusiastic users of tobacco or cigarettes - hikareti, and figure large in death stats from smoking-related cancer). It reads: Ka mate koe i te kai hikareti.
    Ok, so mate means 'death', kai means 'food' or 'eat', and hikareti is 'cigarettes/tobacco'. It translates: "It is death to eat/consume cigarettes". Or: "smoking cigarettes causes death".
    So another way to say ka mate, or think in English what you're saying in Maori, is: "it is death".
     
  18. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    I know a pretty cool French phrase: 'Va te faire enculer. A sec. Avec des gravillons.'

    It literally means: Go fuck yourself up the ass. Dry (meaning without lubricant.) With fine gravels. (sounds better in French)
     
  19. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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  20. OilIsMastery Banned Banned

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  21. clusteringflux Version 1. OH! Valued Senior Member

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    "Cut the cord": removing one from the wants of a mother or wife.
    "Bang juice" : coffee or Gasoline/petrol.
    "loopy" : Crazy
    "Shit faceted" : Drunk ( IFAIK, I made that up in my parts, Combining wasted a and shit faced. Also, it comes out quite often as "schvasted")

    I call my guitars "guit-fiddles" which always gets a sneer from the metal/rock crowds.
    "black wine"or "Barley wine": Dark beers, stouts etc:
    "barley" for regular beer.
    I call my pets "rodents" no matter what make or model.

    Oh and anything at all can fall in the category of "Apparatus(i)".

    Japanese motorcycles are "rice rockets".
    ATVs are "flies"

    It goes on and on.Just like here, people rarely know what the hell I'm saying.
     
  22. Cellar_Door Whose Worth's unknown Registered Senior Member

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    Blindo

    adj.
    Very drunk.

    The word suggests a severely diminished awareness of one's surroundings - something often associated with intoxicated individuals. The word 'blind' also explores the inability to see yourself and how you are being perceived by others. Overall it captures that feeling of being helpless, at the mercy of others and temporarily disabled by alcohol.
     
  23. visceral_instinct Monkey see, monkey denigrate Valued Senior Member

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    'What's in your bloodstream?' is one I use for someone who is behaving out of character.

    (implies they are using a drug which makes them not their usual self)
     

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