To continue the swears topic. Someone has posted a link to "swearing in other languages". Deleted?
Some examples of Russian swear-words. Just read and see how may senses there are of the same root. Hope I won't be banned
All the following words are oaths, used in swearing or in a speech of, well..., low cultural level. You don't want to speak so with women, especially with mother/girlfriend/wife/daughter (if you are a normal average man) or to say on TV, or to write this in a newspaper or in the LFS official translation - in these cases this is like taboo. In most internet forums this is prohibited and persued, though few of these words have become so widely used that are not noticed by readers.
In general, if you are average or above average, you don't speak so with some kind of persons. Among men-friends or women-friends this can be accepted to some extent or completely, being normal way of expressing ideas - this depends a lot on your social circle..
I would say, if you are a complete oather, you speak with few roots, using all the rich Russian word formation toolset - suffixes and prefixes, figurative meaning and context understanding. So, if you are low social status (low-qualified hard work like marketplace or street-cleaning), you may dispense with narrow vocabulary of words' roots (no need to strain your brain
). If you are educated, you better call things with their own names and speak rich language in everyday speech - but when you need to swear, ...you swear.
Of course, I've seen some educated persons swearing a lot in a normal speech, some even when speaking with girls. Good girls dislike that.
Somehow, swearing is more a grammatical event and a sign of your social circle, it has no sacred meaning as in mentioned above examples (if you don't swear at god or something sacred
, but to really punch one's sacred feelings you need to be a very good speaker, and this can be said without taboo lexics). The grammatical richness, I guess, must be the same for all the Slavic languages.
Here are some derivatives of
just one root. There are few other oath roots and numerous derivative words carrying many semi-tones of sense. Moreover, all the listed verbs seem to be irregular.
pizdà -
noun,
femminile, c**t
Can also be used in figurative meaning, applying a negative attitude to the person/object that is substituted. The sense is carried by the context:
Dormitory guard pisses me off! We were having a party, but then this c. came and told everyone to go to their rooms and that she'd report us to the dean's office. - (c. stands for "terrible/annoying/troublemaking woman").
pizdà - II -
n,
f - abstract term, means in general troubles (narkyt'sya pizdoy - lit.
to cover oneself with c. - means to become out of order (a device), to be cancelled (a project, an event). Used together with
dat' (give) or poluchit' (receive) verbs makes: give
pizdy (*accusative case) - beat or punish, receive
pizdy - to be beaten or punished (by chief, parent, etc.)
pizdàtiy -
adjective (here in
masculine gender) - very cool
pizdàto -
adverb - very cool
bez pizdy (*acc. case) - without c. = "no bullshit".
pizdets -
n,
m - abs. term, means a bad, terrible situation which is impossible to change (in fact any unpleasant situation can be called this way).
pìzdit' -
v,
imperfect, to beat somebody
otpizdit' -
v,
perf - to have beaten somebody (this verb has a set of derivatives (participles, adjectives) which I don't list here)
pìzdit' - II -
v,
imp - to steal something (equal to English indefinite and continuous tenses)
spìzdit' -
v,
imp - to have stolen something. There are some popular euphemisms of this verb. Eg. scommunizdit' (from "communism", hinting that communism is when everything is for free).
spizzhenniy -
adj - stolen
pizdovàt' - (note the "-ova-" suffix)
v,
imp - to go. Eg.
pizdooy! (imperative) - go! (go away!),
popizdovàlee! (imper., note "po-" prefix, which makes the verb be in perfect case) - let's go!
pizdit'sya -
v,
imp, to fight.
pizdìt' (accent on the other syllable) -
v,
imp - to bullshit
pizdét' - the previous or "to chat"
napizdét' -
v,
perf, to have told (a lot of) bullshit
pizdobòl (pronounced
piece-door-ball) -
n,
m - bullshitter
popizdét' -
v,
perf to have had a talk, a speech
dopizdétsya (pref. "do-", reversive suffix "-sya") -
v,
perf - to have talked/lied much/long enough (so that it has lead to negative consequences)
ruspizdyày -
n,
m (
f: ruspizdyàyka) - poorly organized person that does his/her job/study badly
ruspizdyàystvo -
n,
neuter - disorganization, bad work/study, debauch
ruspizdyaystvovat' -
v,
imp - to be disorganized (permanently or temporarily because of bad mood, parties, etc. - depending on the context)