Animals can be dirty too, and are used in many insults, but animals are not normally near the morality-based social control structures, so they’re not usually what we think of as swear words – except when they come from veiled references, as with Mandarin guītóu (turtle’s head, standing in for penis).

D Ne znam kako funkcionišu psovke po svetu, niti me to specijalno zanima, uzela sam ovo čisto da vidim kako je predstavljen region.Just remember to check under the sofa cushions, in the fridge, and in every handbag you own before you give up hope.

But men are also attached to their nurturing mothers (let’s just take the Freudian stuff as read, shall we? Finance is provided by PayPal Credit (a trading name of PayPal UK Ltd, Whittaker House, Whittaker Avenue, Richmond-Upon-Thames, Surrey, United Kingdom, TW9 1EH). I must say I didn't read all of it because when I saw what they did to the Czech language, I stopped thinking I could actually get anything real from this book. Funnily written and funnily organized, this little booklet is an amusing (and informative) read for the language enthusiasts out there.The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products. If you would like to comment on this story or anything else you have seen on BBC Culture, head over to our Facebook page or message us on Twitter .

Sex, though desired, is – in the angry, aggressive part of the mind – a dominating act, something performed upon a weaker recipient. Some of the most useful expressions include wishing an enemy a painful death, insulting a person’s grandmother and accusing someone’s mother of having intimate relations with bears in the forest. But I appreciated it for the sake of information and because is the only accurate part, regarding Italian.Much of the Dutch strong language makes use of cancer, cholera, and typhus; if you want to make something offensive in Dutch, just add kanker to it. Social control structures differ somewhat from country to country, but they are, after all, developed by the same human animal on the same planet. For more infomation please review our use of cookies in our Cookie Policy and then Accept and Close this bar. Each rude entry contains a rating indicating the degree of offensiveness of the word, along with its country of origin, translation, and language information. Bought this as a present for a glob-trotting relative who is always on tour as lighting director with his rock band.

I get the feeling this started as a "fun" idea for a project which rapidly became more work than the author expected. This essential phrasebook collects the most colourful, explicit and outrageous ways to tell people off in different languages from all around the world. A loosely curated collection of swear words around the world, with little to no cultural context to make it interesting, and no indication of pronunciation guide. Perfect for the international traveller who may need to wish an enemy a painful death, insult a person's grandmother, or accuse someone's mother of having intimate relations with bears in the forest. I bought this as a gift for my son who loves travelling and likes to try and pickup some of the language in the country his visiting.Thus the most transgressive language in many cultures involves sexual acts on a person’s mother (sometimes specifying her genitalia). Similar direct evidence of church control shows up a little in English (centuries ago, swearing by various parts of Christ’s body was as bad as you could get; now “damn” and “hell” are still iffy). The mistakes in my native language made me doubt of the other translations of languages I'm not familiar with. With over 200 languages and dialects to discover, there are English translations and definitions provided in the handy key.