Polish profanity

The Polish language, like most others, has swear words and profanity. Some words are not always seen as very insulting, however, there are others that are considered by some greatly offensive and rude. Words that might be considered most derogatory based on multiple sources.,[1][2][3] are not necessarily a general and have not been decided upon in a more definite manner.[4]

There are different types of swearing (as coined by Steven Pinker): abusive, cathartic, dysphemistic, emphatic and idiomatic.[5][6]

The Polish language uses all types of swearing mentioned. Research has shown that "Polish people hear profanity more often in a public space than in a private space".[7] 65% of surveyed adults said they have sworn due to emotions and only 21% claimed they never swore.[7]

The CBOS (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej; The Center for Public Opinion Research) has done surveys to examine the use of profanity. In the research report, it was pointed out that information given about the private sector might not be accurate, as it is a protected and idealized space, meaning that the subjects of the survey could be downplaying or changing their answers providing a false report.[8]

Most commonly used vulgarisms

Linguist Jerzy Bralczyk calculated that there are only five basic vulgarisms in Polish. These are "cock" (chuj), "cunt", (cipa) "fuck" (pierdolić, jebać) and "whore/shit/fuck" (kurwa). The rest are combinations of these five, derived words and phraseological relationships. New vulgarisms appear when new word configurations are created or their semantic context changes.[9] The dictionary of real Polish gives four words in 350 configurations, including the word "shit" in 47 functions.[10]

Sex related obscenities

Vagina

Cipa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕipa]

1. Literally vagina. Another form of the word is “cipka” and usually is not considered as crude.
2. An insult towards a female.
3. A person that is considered incompetent.

Chuj

Sometimes incorrectly written as "huj".

Pronunciation: IPA: [xuj]

1. Penis (vulgar). Another form of the word is "chujek".
2. A rude person, mostly used towards males.
3. A disliked male.

Chujnia

Sometimes incorrectly written as "hujnia".

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈxujnia]

1. A bad situation.
2. A bad place.

Chujowy

Sometimes incorrectly written as "hujowy".

Pronunciation: IPA: [xuˈjɔvɨ]

1. An adjective derived from "chuj", literally meaning "dick-like". "Chujowy" is the masculine form, the feminine form is "chujowa" and the neuter form is "chujowe".

Chujowo

Sometimes incorrectly written as "hujowo".

Pronunciation: IPA: [xuˈjɔvɔ]

1. An adverb derived from "chuj".
2. Used to describe a bad way of doing something (rarely).
3. Used to describe a bad state of being.

Kutas

Pronunciantion: IPA: [ˈkutas] Same as "chuj" but less vulgar.

Sexual intercourse

Pierdolić się

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡sɛrtɔlit͡ɕ ˈɕɛ]

1. To have sex.
2. To be overly cautious with something.[11]

Jebać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjɛbat͡ɕ]

1. To smell bad
2. “To fuck”/have sex with someone. This word has many derivative words as well.

Pieprzyć

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpjɛpʂɨt͡ɕ]

1. “To fuck” or to have sex.
2. To lie, talk nonsense.
3. To disregard something or someone as unimportant (similar to the English expression “fuck this”/“fuck you”). In a non-vulgar instance it means to add pepper.

Pierdolić

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpjɛrdɔlit͡ɕ]

1. To have sex, “to fuck”.
2. To regard something as irrelevant, not worth attention.
3. To lie, talk nonsense.

Robić loda

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈrɔbit͡ɕ ˈlɔda]

To “give a blowjob”. Literally translates to “do an ice lolly / a popsicle”.

Ruchać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈruxat͡ɕ]

To have sex with someone, to “fuck someone”.

Rżnąć

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈrʐnɔɲt͡ɕ]

To have sex or “to fuck”. Also has multiple non-vulgar meanings.

Wypierdalać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvɨpjɛrdalat͡ɕ]

1. To kick someone out.
2. To get away from somewhere.
3. To throw something away.[12]

Racial euphemisms

Ciemno jak w dupie (u) Murzyna

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕɛmnɔ ˈjak v dupjɛ u muʐɨna]

Very dark. Literally "as dark as inside a Negro's ass".

Murzyn

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈmuʐɨn] A Negro.

Czarnuch

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈt͡ʂarnux] Nigga.

Skośny

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈskɔɕnɨ]

1. Euphemism for an Asian person.
2. In a non-vulgar context: diagonal.

Żółtek

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈʐuwtɛk]

1. Euphemism for an Asian person, literally "yellowie".

Insults

Cipa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕipa]

(See above)

Chuj

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈxuj]

(See above)

Ciota

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕɔta]

1. Period, menstruation.
2. An insulting way to call a homosexual, usually one behaving in an overly feminine way.[13]

Cwel

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡sfɛl]

1. A male providing sexual services to homosexuals[14]
2. An insult towards a male.

Do dupy

Pronunciation: IPA:[dɔ ˈdupɨ]

For something or someone tone no good, useless.

Dziwka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈd͡ʑifka]

1. A prostitute.
2. An insult towards a female.

Frajer

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈfrajɛr]

1. A naive person.
2. A loser.

Matkojebca

Pronunciation: IPA: [matkɔˈjɛbt͡sa] Same as english "motherfucker".

Menda

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmɛnda]

1. A policeman.
2. A greedy or clumsy person.

Męska kurwa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmɛ̃ska ˈkurva]

A male prostitute.

Skurwiel

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈskurvʲjɛl]

An insult towards a male.

Skurwysyn

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈskurvɨsɨn]

An insult towards a male. Similar to English “son of a bitch”.

Suka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsuka]

1. An insult used towards females. Same as “bitch” in English.
2. Non vulgar: a female dog.
3. A male sexually submissive to another male.

Świnia

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɕfiɲa]

1. A person behaving in a way that is seen as obscene. Same as calling someone a pig in English.
2. Non-vulgar: a pig.

Zdzira

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzd͡ʑira]

1. A female prostitute.
2. An insult towards a female.

Discriminative terms

Ciota

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕɔta]

(See above)

Cwel

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡sfɛl]

(See above)

Pedał

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpɛdaw]

An insult towards a gay man or a male perceived as gay.

Others

Dojebać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdɔjɛbat͡ɕ]

1.To beat someone up, give someone a beating.

2.To add something to something else in high amounts. Pepper to soup for example.

Dopierdalać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdɔpjɛrdalat͡ɕ]

1. To beat someone up, give someone a beating.
2. To talk nonsense.

Dopieprzać

Prononciation: IPA: [dɔˈpjɛpʐat͡ɕ] Same as "dopierdalać" but less vulgar.

Dupa

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈdupa]

1. Ass.
2. A scaredy cat.
3. Insult towards a man.
4. A vulgar way to call an attractive woman.
5. Girlfriend.

Gówno

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɡuvnɔ]

1. Feces, literally “shit”.
2. Used as an insult towards a person seen as someone not worthy of attention.
3. Something useless, worth nothing.
4. Can also literally mean “nothing”, similar to "jack shit" or "fuck all".

Japa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjapa]

Used to refer to someone’s face.

Jasna cholera

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjasna ˈxɔlɛra]

A word to express frustration. About the same as “holy shit” in English.

Kiblować[15]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈkiblɔvat͡ɕ]

1. To be serving a sentence in prison.
2. To repeat a grade in school.

Kurwa[16][17]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈkurva]

1. A female prostitute.
2. A immoral, unethical person.
3. An expression of frustration, like “fuck!” in English.
4. A word used in-between other words, similar to the word “fucking” in an English sentence, e.g. “I hate this fucking show”.
5. Used after a word to emphasise it.

Kurestwo

Pronunciation: IPA: [kuˈrɛstvɔ]

1. A broken object.
2. A bad tasting dish/drink.
3. A substance that is unpleasant to touch or smell.

Kurwiarz

Pronunciation: IPA: [ˈkurviaʐ]

1. A man frequently who frequently engages in sex with prostitutes.
2. A man cheating on his wife.

Kurwidołek

Pronunciation: IPA: [kurviˈdɔwɛk]

1. A brothel.
2. Any place where prostitutes can frequently be encountered.
3. The flat of a man who frequently invites multiple women over to have sex with them.

Mieć nasrane w głowie[18]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmiɛt͡ɕ naˈsranɛ v ˈɡwɔvjɛ]

To behave weirdly, illogically, with no sense.

Morda w kubeł

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmɔrda f ˈkubɛw]

Used to tell someone to be quiet, to stop talking, to shut up.

Na odpieprz/odpierdol

Pronunciation: IPA:[na ˈɔdpiɛpʂ/ɔdpiɛrdɔl]

To do something without much care or thought.

Najebać

Pronunciation: IPA:[naˈjɛbat͡ɕ]

1. To be drunk/have had too much to drink.
2. To add too much of something.
3. To beat someone up.

Niech to szlag trafi

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɲɛx tɔ ˈʂlak ˈtrafi]

An expletive used to express frustration. Similar to “dammit” or “shit” in English.

Opierdalać

Pronunciation: IPA: [ɔpjɛrˈdalat͡ɕ]

1. To be lazy.
2. To quickly peel something.
3. To perform fellacio.

Obesrać[19]/obsrać[20]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɔbɛsrat͡ɕ/ɔpsrat͡ɕ]

To dirty someone or something with feces.

Pierdolić

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpjɛrdɔlit͡ɕ]

1. To have sex, “to fuck”.
2. To regard something as irrelevant, not worth attention.
3. To lie, talk nonsense.

Robić w chuja

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈrɔbit͡ɕ ˈkɔɡɔɕ f ˈxuja]

To fool someone.

Samojebka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsamɔjɛpka]

To take a picture of yourself, to take a selfie.

Srać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsrat͡ɕ]

1. To defecate, “to (take a) shit”.
2. To regard something as irrelevant, not worth attention.

Sometimes it is followed by "taśma" to create the word "srajtaśma". The literal translation is "shit-tape" and it refers to toilet paper.

Srać w gacie

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsrad͡ʑ v ˈɡat͡ɕɛ]

To be very afraid, nervous. Literally "to be shitting your pants."

Szajs

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈʂajs]

1. Feces, literally “shit”.
2. Something worthless, of bad quality.

When the word "papier", meaning paper, is added after it makes "szajspapier". Literally, it means "shitpaper" and is used to refer to toilet paper.

Szczać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈʂt͡ʂat͡ɕ]

To release urine, to pee. Literally: "to piss".

Walić konia

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvalit͡ɕ kɔnia]

To jerk off, to masturbate. Literally: ”to beat a horse”.

Wkurwiać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈfkurviat͡ɕ]

To annoy someone or to “piss someone off”.

Wpaść po uszy w gówno

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈfpaɕt͡ɕ pɔ ˈuʂɨ v ɡuvnɔ]

To be in a lot of trouble. Literally translates to “fall into shit to the ears”. Similar to the English phrase “to be in deep shit”.

Wyglądać jak pół dupy zza krzaka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvɨɡlɔndat͡ɕ jak puw 'dupɨ zza ˈkʂak]

To look strange, weird.[21] Literally translates to “look like half an ass from behind a bush”. Similar to the English phrase “to look like shit”.

Zabrać dupę w troki[22]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzabrat͡ɕ ˈdupɛ f ˈtrɔki]

To get away, to run away. Usually referring to running away from something problematic.

Zapieprzać[23]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzapjɛpʂat͡ɕ]

1. To be going very fast.
2. To be working hard.

Zawracać dupę

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzavrat͡sad͡ʑ ˈdupɛ̃]

To distract someone, to take their attention away from what they are doing.

Use of profanity

Numerous studies have been done to examine the way that profanity is used in everyday life situations as well as online. No studies give a definite answer as to whether vulgarity is more common online or not and has proved to be a difficult topic to study as it can change with time as well.[24] One such study looked at different internet forums: one that was an open discussion, a closed discussion, and a social networking site. An open discussion allowed for the most amount of anonymity while the other two conditions required some form of the users identifying themselves. The study found that users often used vulgar expressions criticized other users arguments in the discussions, attacked the users directly or used that language to insult a larger group. At times it is also just used as a way for users to express their general frustrations.[24]

It is said that profanity started being used in songs around the late 1970s and into the 1980s in Poland. It was a response to the state of the country at the time. The youth used vulgar expressions to show their frustrations.[25] Though songs that used such language would not be presented in the mass media, works with profanities more often circulated within communities.[25] This censorship caused for more creative ways of expressing frustrations which lead to a faster development of Polish rock in the 1980s, which became quite popular and influential. Nowadays profanity is also used in more mainstream media at times. Polish pop music does not appear to have as much use of profanity as Polish rap music does. Movies of different genres also use profanity at times.

Word borrowing

A number of words in the Polish lexicon have been borrowed from foreign languages and used with similar meanings. There are several profane words or expressions that have been borrowed from other languages. One such word would be MILF. Borrowed from the English language, it means exactly what it does in its original context. The use of the abbreviation "WTF", as in "what the fuck" can also be used in Polish profanity. The noun "swołocz" is a borrowing from the Russian "сволочь". Some profanities, such as "szajs" have been borrowed from German and transcribed phonetically according to how they are pronounced. It was derived from the German word "scheiße" which carries the same meaning as the Polish word. The appearance of this word in the Polish lexicon could be attributed to the historical partition of Poland where the country was occupied by its neighbors which tended to suppress the use of Polish language and enforce the use of theirs.

References

1. Grochowski, Maciej (1948- ). (2008). Słownik polskich przekleństw i wulgaryzmów. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. ISBN 9788301156534. OCLC 297671369.
2. janKomunikant (Organization) (2011). Słownik polszczyzny rzeczywistej (siłą rzeczy-fragment). Primum Verbum. ISBN 9788362157174. OCLC 767863631.
3. Dokowicz, Agnieszka. (2015). Wulgaryzmy w języku kibiców polskich, czyli "Polska grać, k... mać!". Wydawnictwo Naukowe Silva Rerum. ISBN 9788364447532. OCLC 939912647.
4. University of Rzeszów, Poland; Mormol, Paulina (2016). "The correlation between the high offensiveness of swear words and their productivity: A comparison of selected Polish and English examples". Studia Anglica Resoviensia. 13: 44–54. doi:10.15584/sar.2016.13.5.
5. "Profanity", Wikipedia, 2019-06-09, retrieved 2019-06-09
6. Pinker, Steven, 1954- (2007). The stuff of thought : language as a window into human nature. New York: Viking. ISBN 9780670063277. OCLC 154308853.CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
7. Zbróg, Piotr; Zbróg, Zuzanna (2017-12-01). "Reprezentacja społeczna wulgaryzmów w świetle wypowiedzi polskich internautów". Socjolingwistyka. 31: 205–230. doi:10.17651/SOCJOLING.31.13.
8. Fundacja Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej (October 2013). "Wulgaryzmy w Życiu Codziennym" (PDF). Komunikat Z Badań.
9. Polen curse as like Rej
10. A dictionary of real Polish language, as the Polish street says. All vulgarisms.
11. "WSJP, certolić się". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
12. "WSJP, wypierdalać". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
13. "ciota – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
14. "cwel – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
15. "WSJP, kiblować". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
16. "kurwa – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
17. "WSJP, kurwa". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
18. "mieć nasrane w głowie – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
19. "obesrać – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
20. "WSJP, obsrać". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
21. "wyglądać jak pół dupy zza krzaka – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
22. "zabrać dupę w troki – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
23. "zapieprzać – Wikisłownik, wolny słownik wielojęzyczny". pl.wiktionary.org. Retrieved 2019-05-12.
24. Tereszkiewicz, Anna (January 2013), Do Poles flame? Aggressiveness on Polish discussion groups and social networking sites (PDF), 1, pp. 221–236, doi:10.7592/ep.1.tereszkiewicz, ISBN 9789949490226, retrieved 2019-06-09
25. Gajda, Krzysztof (2017). "Profanity in songs. Seeking the limits of freedom of speech, and the reproduction and sanctioning of contemporary linguistic tendencies". Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica. 45 (7). doi:10.18778/1505-9057.45.14. hdl:11089/24801.