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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p>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.<p><a href="https://youtu.be/KnYTEk-YGNo?si=YYf9lJZdLqaa5rB_" rel="nofollow">https://youtu.be/KnYTEk-YGNo?si=YYf9lJZdLqaa5rB_</a>
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.<p>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.<p>"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".
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.
Here was volume 1 <a href="https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/top-10-rare-and-amusing-insults-vol-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/top-10-rare-an...</a>
Unfortunately the best insults are universally going to be ones that do not need to be looked up.<p>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”.
I don't buy "cacafuego" as a real name any empire would give its ships. HMS <i>Spitfire</i> was real enough, but who'd ever take seriously HMS <i>Sh...</i>
Huh. I only know loblolly via loblolly pine. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinus_taeda</a>