While these are not "strong" generic plant/animal-related and disease/disability-related curses come to mind. Vegetable, cabbage, potato, dog, bitch, ass, donkey, pig, swine, leper, spastic, retard, cripple. It was pointed out to me that the word "nigger," commonly used to describe the politically and socially disenfranchised, is also used by rapsters to refer those who are trying to "get ahead." Subtle but interesting variation.
I always turn to http://www.urbandictionary.com/ for inspiration. It is a wonderful resource. Arjun. On Sat, Apr 14, 2012 at 1:35 PM, Giancarlo Livraghi <[email protected]> wrote: > ashok <[email protected]> wrote (about "blasphemy" declining in > Italy): > > > Are you sure? A couple of years ago i was fishing > > in the north east .. and everyone of the men > > (without exception) used a variation of 'dio cane' > > > or 'dio porco' or 'dio maiale'... the creative ones > > would mix some bizarre toilet or sexual allegory > > with blasphemy e.g. 'la stronza della madonna'. > > I also noticed that these expressions were generally > > the monopoly of men ...and when the women were around > > it would change to a disguised form ... > > I didn't mean to say that traditional "blasphemies" have totally > disappeared - but they are definitely declining. It isn't surprising that > "fishermen in the north east" are continuing with some oldfashioned jargon, > especially when they are disappointed. > > Also... some "disguised forms" have a way of surviving, such as "Maremma > maiala" (instead of "Madonna" being called pig) used mainly by people who > live (or used to live) in Maremma. > > One of the peculiarities of the current trend is that women are frequently > using male-oriented "sexual" expressions. For instance, while "cunt" in > English or "con" in French means stupid, "figa" in Italian means > "attractive" - now used by women as often as men and even turned into > "figo" to define a good-looking male. And there are lots of other such > examples. > > Giancarlo > >
