Data I Guess

FORK THIS SHIRT!

As promised, I have now examined the gender-neutral curse words in more detail.

NOTE - This post contains strong language

ftwd

Remember the Profanity project?

Short recap: turns out cursing is a gender-neutral act! My hypothesis that cursing is a sexist practice aimed at women was (without sadness) rejected!

Maybe less surprising, sex and the human body represent the most frequent ways of expressing oneself. Poop words/phrases hold a solid second place! Being a Swede, I find it especially interesting that religion is such a big part of profanity in the Nordic countries compared to others. Shouting the devil! [fan!] or Satan! [satan!] just isn’t that weird to me… On the other hand, using animals or plants would be really awkward!

This is what I did

I used a thematic approach to cluster curse words/phrases that shared similarities. I identified 8 themes!

Poop
  • Shit
  • lort [poop]
  • Je t'emmerde [I cover you in shit]
  • Agzina sicayim [I shit in your mouth]
Illness and IDD (Intellectual developmental disorder)
  • Carallot [simpleton]
  • Kwasia mpani [good for nothing fool]
  • Tering [tuberculosis]
  • Gilipollas [idiot]
An act of religion
  • Helvetti [hell]
  • Jävlar [small devils]
  • Farbandet [cursed/damned]
Ethnic and social slurs
  • Kümmeltürke [caraway Turk]
  • Kürtaj Gazisi [Abortion Veteran]
Sex and the Human body
  • Hlandbrenndu [may you burn from your own urine]
  • Fuck
  • Stronzo [Asshole]
  • Хуй тебе́ [Fuck You]
  • Kozel [goat]
  • 狗日 [Dog fucks]
  • As [carcass]
  • Desvirga gallines [chicken deflower]
  • cap de carbassa [pumpkinhead]
  • pixapins [pine tree peer]
  • Khak to saret [Soil on your head]
Miscellaneous profanity

The words/phrases that did not fit any theme just yet like

  • Boulet [Ball and chain]
  • 二百五 [250]
  • pannekoek [pancake]
  • slet [rag]
  • doos [box]

A reminder on how the words are coded

Firstly, the words are translated to their literal meaning, not how they were used or their if grammatically gendered rules. For example, the Catalan word pixapins literally means pine tree peer and is used as the following “outdoorsie people call that to city people when they go to the countryside and you can tell they are inexperienced” (person who sent in the phrase).

Secondly, the languages are bundled together, i.e., there is no distinction between regional differences within our outside countries. Spanish is counted as Spanish regardless if it is spoken in Mexico, Argentina, Chile, etc. Secondly, some languages have more curse words than others. Of course, everything is presented in relative numbers, but it might still be good to know this unbalance.

Lastly, some (6 in total) are counted twice since they fit both themes. Like, Sex and the Human body and An act of religion

  • Jebem ti lebac [fuck your bread]
  • Jebemti Isusa [I fuck your Jesus]
  • Allahini kitabini sikeyim [fuck your god and book]
  • Fututi Crucea [fuck the cross (tombstone)].

I recon you see the pattern :)

Curious about the dictionary?

Find the dictionary and the code here. :)

Want to contribute?

Is your language not represented? Or do you feel that this is completely wrong and you, in your language, curses deviate from what this graph portrays? If you want to contribute to this - you’ll find the Project page here. Do you feel like you could make the code/graph cooler? Well, welcome to contribute!