91 Taboo Words and Expressions

N

A

DL

G

24

I

V

This chapter uses words and expressions some people might consider offensive.

There are several words that are often heard, but they are considered taboo outside younger people, when communication with their friends; they refer to sexual organs and sex. The most important verb is:

jebati (jebe) fuсk (vulgar!)

Take care: this verb is considered extremely impolite and vulgar in most circumstances. This verb is actually rarely used in its literal meaning.

Its pass. adjective jeben is sometimes used as an intensifier, exactly like English fuсking (but observe it’s an adjective, unless used as an adverb, i.e. you have to change its case, gender etc.):

Taj mobitel je jebeno skup. That mobile phone is fuсking expensive.

There are two quite common phrases with this verb, something like ‘emoticon-words’ (sometimes seen in abbreviation in colloquial writing, e.g. on Internet forums):

jebo te / jebote (abbr. jbt) = amazement
jebi ga / jebiga (abbr. jbg) = resignation

The most common verb pair derived from this verb is:

zajebavati («) ~ zajebati (zajebe) screw up

This verb is considered much less vulgar than the verb it’s derived from, and you can even hear it in less formal meetings at work.

With an optional object in A, this verb corresponds to English make mistake, spoil:

Zajebao sam. I’ve screwed up. {m}

However, it’s more common to use this pair with se². There are two meanings then. First, it’s make a mistake, such that affects the subject. Next, the impf. verb with se² has the additional meaning screw around.

This is the most important impolite/vulgar noun:

kuraс (kurс-) penis, diсk (vulgar!)

Besides its obvious meaning, it’s often used in a number of very colloquial (but considered nevertheless vulgar!) expressions with completely unexpected meanings:

boljeti (boli,...) + A + kuraс (kurс-) not give a fuсk
biti (je² +) + DL + pun kuraс (kurс-) (+ G) be fed up (with...)

The first expression, of course, literally means someone’s diсk hurts, but it’s a metaphor. For example:

Boli ga kuraс. (vulgar!) He doesn’t give a fuсk.

The second expression must be used with a person in DL. It literally means my dick is full (of...), but it’s used when you can’t stand something anymore:

Pun mi je kuraс političara. (vulgar!) I’m fed up with politicians.

Since these expressions are metaphors, you’ll often hear women using them for themselves, despite having a bit different anatomy.

Next, kuraс (kurс-) can be used as a metaphorical destination or location, which describes that something is failing completely, or is in a very bad shape, kind of similar to English hell, but considered much more vulgar:

Sve ideići u kuraс. (vulgar!) Everything is going to hell.

Ivan je u kurсu. (vulgar!) Ivan is in a very bad shape.

Since the word kuraс (kurс-) is quite a taboo, it’s often replaced in such metaphorical locations and destinations with banana (I hope you get a shape-based metaphor):

Država je u banani. (colloq.) The country is in a very bad shape.

The statement is no longer considered vulgar, merely colloquial, so you can hear it on TV.

Then, it’s used in very colloquial communication as a replacement for thing, like English shit. The usual phrase is:

neki kuraс (kurс-) some thing, some shit

For example:

Unutra je neki kuraс. (vulgar!) There’s some shit inside.

Of course, female parts are taboo as well:

рička сunt (vulgar!)

It’s also used in various imaginative ways, but it’s meaning varies a bit less than for kuraс (kurс-). The main use of if is a fixed expression:

рička materina (vulgar!)

This expression is a bit archaic: the possessive materin mother’s comes always after the noun in it, and the possessive has been derived from the noun mati (mater-) f mother, a word which is today not used anymore in many parts of Croatia (majka is used instead). Some people today even feel the word mati (mater-) f vulgar a bit, since they use it only in this expression!

The expression is used in various ways, these are the most common ones:

U рičku materinu! (vulgar!) Fuсk!

Somehow, this was considered not strong enough, so there’s also a triple version:

U tri рičke materine! (vulgar!) Fuсk! Fuсk! Fuсk!

Both expressions are sometimes shortened (and a bit censored) by using only initial letters:

U p.m.!

U 3pm! (and like variants)

You can also curse someone, my adding him or her in DL, splitting the phrase:

Рička ti materina! (vulgar!) Fuсk you! (to a person you’re familiar with)

Be careful when using this expression, as you might get a violent response from the other side, since this is considered extreme.

There are other interesting language taboos in Croatia. One of the most common is not mentioning a disease specifically. For example, when someone dies, the reason is usually stated, but it’s not expressed in plain words. Common euphemisms are:

nakon duge i teške bolesti after a long and grave illness

nakon kratke i teške bolesti after a short and grave illness

iznenada suddenly

tragično tragically

(the rest is coming soon)

↓ Something Possibly Interesting (click to show)

Although all words derived from jebati (jebe) fuсk are taboo to some degree, you will hear a pop song playing in large supermarkets on Sunday morning with zajebavat clearly audible, and nobody will get offended. Editing songs and movies is seen in Croatia as destroying integrity of a piece of art, and censorship is virtually never done.

The choice of songs played in Croatian supermarkets is very wide – from current Croatian and international hits to alternative all-time favorites like Love Will Tear Us Apart. Unfortunately, I’ve never heard iieee.

Expressions used in cursing sometimes conserve older forms, like mater, A of mati f mother, a quite irregular noun which is today rare in Croatia (compare it with the English word and Latin māter).

↓ Examples (click to show)

For example, this hand-written message on a page from a book, glued to a post in Zagreb, by Antonella Šantek, a Croatian artist, activist and advocate for homeless, says kad malo bolje razmislim... jebite se svi. on second thought... screw you all:

(The photo courtesy of A. Šantek)

Priroda i društvo Nature and Society is a song by Elemental – a quite popular leftist and feminist hip-hop/rock band from Zagreb, headed by vocalists Luka Tralić and Mirela Priselac, known by their stage names Shot and Remi.

The song features a number of words considered vulgar and semi-vulgar; none of these words is used in their basic, sexual meaning. The name of the song is the name of a basic subject in Croatian primary schools, where students learn about... the nature and the society they live in (e.g. about planets, animals, eating healthy, but also about traffic rules).

The lyrics are long (as usual for their songs), but the interesting parts start here:

Al pitaj bilo koga	But ask anyone
u penziju bi išoići past-m odmah	He’d like to retire immediately
[da možemoći nešto smuljat]	[If he could cook up something]
[da komisija to potpišepotpisati]	[So that the medical commission signs it]
iz firme bi odmah	He’d immediately get out of firm
pun mu je kuraс više	He’s fed up

The second line uses the past-m išao, colloqually shortened. The verb pair used in the 3rd line is:

muljati ~*/~ s- cook up, do something illegal

The song continues:

Bog i domovina	God and homeland
sve je [što imamo]	Is everything [we got]
kršno tijelo, malena dušo	A sturdy body, o small soul
priroda je lijepa	The nature is beautiful
al zajebano društvo	But the society is screwed up

In the second line, the relational clause [što imamo] is still attached to the adjective-used-as-pronoun sve everything, but the verb je² is placed in a bit unusual place. The relative clause starts, as it should, with što (due to being attached to a neuter pronoun). In the last line, the verb je² has been omitted, since it’s the same as in the previous line. This is less common in speech, but sounds expressive in writing. The chorus follows:

To je naša priroda i društvo	That’s our nature and society
nek se rodi dijete	Let the child be born
al neka bude muško	But may it be male

This is a bit of overstating, as people in Croatia aren’t unhappy when they get a daughter. The words rodi and bude are imperatives, and nek is a colloquially shortened form of neka, a particle used for 3rd person imperatives. Likewise, ak is colloquially shortened ako, usually corresponding to English if.

Žalimo se rado	We like to complain
„za sve je kriv Balkan”	“The Balkans are guilty for everything”
oni [što vrijedili su	The ones [who were worth
neki kuraс] bježali su van	Some shit] were escaping abroad

The third line contains a relative clause with što instead of koji, which seems to be frequent in poetry. The last line has neki kuraс in meaning some thing, some shit. The word van is, of course, a destination adverb, simply meaning out, but the colloquial meaning here is outside of the country, i.e. abroad.

Šutimo i trpimo	We stay silent and go through
a svi žive u strahu	And everyone lives in fear
to je ostalo od Juge	It has remained from Yugoslavia
[di vagali su riječ svaku]	[Where they weighted each word]
(Mirela Priselac, Erol Zejnilović, Luka Tralić, Davor Zanoški, Ivan Vodopijec, Konrad Lovrenčić & Vida Manestar)

The first line contains a kind of phrase, verbs šutjeti/šutiti be silent and trpjeti/trpiti suffer, endure frequently used together: the meaning is go through something without complaining.

The word Juga is a colloquial short form of Jugoslavija.

The last line contains the word di, a very frequent colloqual word for where in Zagreb (and some other cities, including Split and Rijeka). The order of adjective and noun is inverted in riječ svaku.

You can watch the song on YouTube™ (look for live performances).

This is a live performance on a pedestrian street leading from the main square in Zagreb, next to a scale model of downtown Zagreb:

The song is ambitious and offers some interesting observations about the Croatian society, but it also reveals some stereotypes. First, everyone agrees the country is beautiful (many even think it’s rich), but it’s very easy to find garbage heaps and quite ugly industrial landscapes in Croatia.

Second, there’s a tendency in liberal/left-oriented parts of the Croatian society – which completely dominate in central parts of Zagreb, where Elemental is from, and in some other cities, notably, ones with the ‘western’ pronunciation, like Varaždin, Rijeka and Pula – to think “symmetrically”. An example are these lines:

Slušamo savjete	We listen to advices
hodže, popa i prote	From a ‘hodža’, a priest and a ‘prota’
pa štancamo djecu...	So we mass-produce children...

The word hodža, a Turkish loan, means Islamic preacher; the word prota – a shortened form of protojerej – is a higher priest in the Serbian Orthodox Church. However, in Croatia, any influence of Islam is basically non-existent, and the Serbian Orthodox Church is marginal. Mentioning the three religions side by side is a stereotype, inherited from the days of Yugoslavia. The only region where all three religions maybe had a comparable influence was and is Bosnia-Herzegovina; even there, these three religions had and have different roles and influence. Finally, the last line is simply wrong – the birth rate in Croatia is quite low, below the replacement rate; having more that 3 children is very rare, and having only one kid is quite common. (The verb štancati is colloquial, it means mass-produce, from German stanzen, press, punch in manufacturing.)

Having a quite negative view of any (local) religion is very common in liberal parts of the Croatian society; interestingly, the same people sometimes can have a more positive view of less common religions in Croatia, such as Buddhism.

The song also echoes an important debate in Croatia: why isn’t Croatia as developed as Germany, Switzerland, France or the Netherlands? Who is to blame? Tko je kriv? Some say Yugoslavia, others say general ‘eastern’ influences (usually summed up as Balkan the Balkans, as in this song). Or are we to blame (as implied by this song)?

Note that this question implies another stereotype: Croatia should be, and maybe should have been already as developed as Germany or France.

Unfortunately, that’s far from obvious, especially for a country where in 1880 about 70% of people were illiterate (Dalmatia was even worse: almost 90%). Croats have always compared themselves against the richest and most developed countries in Europe and in the world. You can get in your car (or on a bus) in Zagreb in the morning – you’ll have to refuel somewhere in Germany – and reach the other side of Europe, the North Sea shore near Amsterdam in the evening of the same day, without breaking speed limits: very developed countries are quite close to Croatia. The Netherlands had a higher literacy rate in 1630 than Croatia in 1900.

Maybe... it simply takes some time?

Search Post

Label :