Polish profanity

Swearing in the Polish language

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The Polish language, like most others, contains swear words and profanity. Although some words are not always seen as pejorative, others are considered by some to be highly offensive. There is debate amongst scholars regarding the language's swear words that are considered to be the most derogatory.[1][2][3][4]

In the Polish language, there exist different types of swearing (as coined by Steven Pinker); these include abusive, cathartic, dysphemistic, emphatic and idiomatic.[5]

Research has suggested that Polish people perceive profanity differently depending on context, for example, swearing in public versus swearing in private.[6] 65% of surveyed adults said they have sworn due to emotions and only 21% claimed they never swore.[6]

The CBOS (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej; The Center for Public Opinion Research) has conducted surveys to examine the use of profanity. In the research report, it was pointed out that information given about the private sector might not be accurate, as it is a protected and idealized space, meaning that the subjects of the survey could be downplaying or changing their answers, thus making the report potentially inaccurate.[7]

## Vulgar words

[edit]

Linguist Jerzy Bralczyk calculated that there are only five basic vulgarisms in Polish. These are "cock" (chuj), "cunt" (pizda), "fuck" (pierdolić, jebać) and "whore/shit/fuck" (kurwa). The rest are combinations of these five, derived words and phraseological relationships. New vulgarisms appear when new word configurations are created or their semantic context changes.[8] The dictionary of real Polish gives four words in 350 configurations, including the word "shit" in 47 functions.[9]

### Vagina

[edit]

Cipa
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕipa]

1. Literally "pussy". Another form of the word is the diminutive "cipka", which is usually not considered as crude.
2. An insult towards a female.
3. A person that is considered incompetent.

Pizda
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpizda]

1. Like "cipa", only more vulgar. Similar to the English "cunt". This is the same in Russian mat.
2. A black eye.
3. A coward.[10]

### Penis

[edit]

Chuj[a]
Pronunciation: IPA:[xuj]

1. "Dick" or "cock". The diminutive form of the word is "chujek".
2. A rude person, mostly used towards males.
3. A disliked male.

Chujowy[b]
Pronunciation: IPA:[xujɔvɨ]

1. An adjective derived from "chuj", literally meaning "dick-like". "Chujowy" is the masculine form, the feminine form is "chujowa" and the neuter form is "chujowe".
2. Often used to describe an object (or situation) of a rather deplorable or otherwise undesirable quality, e.g. "Chujowy samochód" meaning "A vehicle that broadly fails in its utility to be of use (breaks down often, looks like crap, etc.)"

Chujowo[c]
Pronunciation: IPA:[xujɔvɔ]

1. An adverb derived from "chuj".
2. Used to describe a bad state of being.
3. Used to describe a bad way of doing something.

### To copulate

[edit]

Pierdolić się
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpʲɛrdɔlʲit͡ɕ ˈɕɛ]

1. To have sex.
2. To waste time on something
3. To be overly cautious with something.[11]

Jebać
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjɛbat͡ɕ]

The literal meaning is "to fuck"/have sex with someone. This word has many derivative words and figurative meanings, and is in fact one of the most versatile words in the Polish language. Examples include:
Term | Meaning | Example (PL) | Translation

|
|
|

Odjebać | Break off/Screw up | Co ty odjebałeś!? | What did you do?!
Rozjebać | To break/destroy | Rozjebałem samochód na drzewie | I wrecked the car driving it into a tree
Przejebać | To screw up/be in trouble | On ma przejebane | He's in a world of shit
Wyjebać | Throw away | Wyjebałem telewizor przez okno | I tossed the TV out of the window
Najebać | To beat someone/get wasted | Chłopaki się najebali jak żule pod Biedronką | The boys got drunk like bums in front of Biedronka
Zajebać | To kill/to steal | Gościu zajebał mi gorzałę! Zaraz go zajebię! | The dude stole my vodka! I'm gonna kill him!
Ujebać | Get dirty | Ujebałeś się jak świnia! | You're dirty like a pig!
Przyjebać | To hit | Wkurwił mnie, to mu przyjebałem. | He pissed me off so I hit him.

Pieprzyć
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpʲɛpʂɨt͡ɕ]

1. "To fuck" or to have sex.
2. To lie, talk nonsense.
3. To disregard something or someone as unimportant (similar to the English expression "fuck this"/"fuck you").
4. To waste time on something.

In a non-vulgar instance it means to add pepper.

Pierdolić
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpʲɛrdɔlit͡ɕ]

1. To have sex, "to fuck".
2. To regard something as irrelevant, not worth attention.
3. To lie, talk nonsense.

Wyruchać
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvɨruxat͡ɕ]

1. To have sex with someone, to "fuck" someone. A variation of "ruchać," often used in the past or future tense.[citation needed]
2. To deceive someone.[12][unreliable source]
3. To steal from someone.

Rżnąć
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈrʐnɔɲt͡ɕ]

To have sex or "to fuck". Also has multiple non-vulgar meanings, e.g. "to saw".

Wypierdalać
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvɨpʲɛrdalat͡ɕ]

1. To kick someone out.
2. To get away from somewhere.
3. To throw something away.[13]

### Anti-LGBT slurs

[edit]

Anti-LGBT protesters holding a sign that translates to "a fag's place is under the boot".

Pedał
"Pedaling forbidden" anti-gay logo

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpɛdaw]
Faggot (a gay man). The literal meaning is "pedal".

### Other

[edit]

Dupa
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdupa]

1. Ass.
2. A scaredy cat.
3. Insult towards a man.
4. A vulgar way to call an attractive woman.
5. Girlfriend (preferably when discussed in her absence, unless she's a ździra).

Gówno
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɡuvnɔ]

1. Feces, literally "shit".
2. Used as an insult towards a person seen as someone not worthy of attention.
3. Something useless, worth nothing.
4. Can also literally mean "nothing", similar to "jack shit" or "fuck all".

Jasna cholera
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjasna ˈxɔlɛra]
A word to express frustration. Similar to "holy shit" in English.

Kurwa[14]
Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈkurva]

1. A female prostitute.
2. An immoral, unethical person.
3. An expression of frustration, like "fuck!" in English.
4. A filler like "fucking" in an English sentence, e.g. "I hate this fucking show".

## Context and function

[edit]

Numerous studies have been done to examine the way that profanity is used in everyday life situations as well as online. No studies give a definite answer as to whether vulgarity is more common online or not and has proved to be a difficult topic to study as it can change with time as well.[15] One such study looked at different internet forums: one that was an open discussion, a closed discussion, and a social networking site. An open discussion allowed for the most anonymity while the other two conditions required some form of the users identifying themselves. The study found that users often used vulgar expressions criticized other users arguments in the discussions, attacked the users directly or used that language to insult a larger group. At times it is also just used as a way for users to express their general frustrations.[15]

It is said that profanity started being used in songs around the late 1970s and into the 1980s in Poland. It was a response to the state of the country at the time. The youth used vulgar expressions to show their frustrations.[16] Though songs that used such language would be presented in the mass media, works with profanities more often circulated within communities.[16] This censorship paved the way for innovation in the way of expressing emotion and frustration, which streamlined the development of Polish rock in the 1980s (which would become popular and influential). Profanity has not been censored as heavily in Polish music in recent years.[citation needed]

## Lexical borrowing

[edit]

A number of words in the Polish lexicon have been borrowed from foreign languages and used with similar meanings. There are several profane words or expressions that have been borrowed from other languages. One such word would be MILF. Borrowed from the English language, it means exactly what it does in its original context. The use of the abbreviation "WTF", as in "what the fuck" can also be used in Polish profanity. The noun "swołocz" is a borrowing from the Russian "сволочь". Some profanities have been borrowed from German and transcribed phonetically according to their pronunciation, e.g. "szajs" was derived from the German "Scheiße" which carries the same meaning as the Polish word.

## See also

[edit]

* Mat (profanity)
* Seven dirty words

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ Sometimes incorrectly written as "huj". Same as in Russian mat.
2. ^ Sometimes incorrectly written as "hujowy".
3. ^ Sometimes incorrectly written as "hujowo".

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Grochowski, Maciej (1948- ). (2008). Słownik polskich przekleństw i wulgaryzmów. Wydawnictwo Naukowe PWN. ISBN 9788301156534. OCLC 297671369.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
2. ^ janKomunikant (Organization) (2011). Słownik polszczyzny rzeczywistej (siłą rzeczy-fragment). Primum Verbum. ISBN 9788362157174. OCLC 767863631.
3. ^ Dokowicz, Agnieszka. (2015). Wulgaryzmy w języku kibiców polskich, czyli "Polska grać, k... mać!". Wydawnictwo Naukowe Silva Rerum. ISBN 9788364447532. OCLC 939912647.
4. ^ University of Rzeszów, Poland; Mormol, Paulina (2016). "The correlation between the high offensiveness of swear words and their productivity: A comparison of selected Polish and English examples". Studia Anglica Resoviensia. 13: 44–54\. doi:10.15584/sar.2016.13.5.
5. ^ Pinker, Steven, 1954- (2007). The stuff of thought : language as a window into human nature. New York: Viking. ISBN 9780670063277. OCLC 154308853.`{{cite book}}`: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
6. ^ a b Zbróg, Piotr; Zbróg, Zuzanna (2017-12-01). "Reprezentacja społeczna wulgaryzmów w świetle wypowiedzi polskich internautów". Socjolingwistyka. 31: 205–230\. doi:10.17651/SOCJOLING.31.13.
7. ^ Fundacja Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej (October 2013). "Wulgaryzmy w Życiu Codziennym" (PDF). Komunikat Z Badań.
8. ^ "Polen curse as like Rej". 29 March 2008. Archived from the original on 2017-10-25. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
9. ^ "A dictionary of real Polish language, as the Polish street says. All vulgarisms". 8 January 2011. Archived from the original on 2018-09-12. Retrieved 2020-03-13.
10. ^ "cipa | Synonimy i analogie dla słowa cipa w języku polskim | Reverso Słownik". synonyms.reverso.net.
11. ^ "WSJP, certolić się". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
12. ^ "Wyruchać - Miejski słownik slangu i mowy potocznej". www.miejski.pl.
13. ^ "WSJP, wypierdalać". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
14. ^ "WSJP, kurwa". www.wsjp.pl. Retrieved 2019-06-11.
15. ^ a b Tereszkiewicz, Anna (January 2013), Do Poles flame? Aggressiveness on Polish discussion groups and social networking sites (PDF), vol. 1, pp. 221–236, doi:10.7592/ep.1.tereszkiewicz, ISBN 9789949490226, retrieved 2019-06-09
16. ^ a b Gajda, Krzysztof (2017). "Profanity in songs. Seeking the limits of freedom of speech, and the reproduction and sanctioning of contemporary linguistic tendencies". Acta Universitatis Lodziensis. Folia Litteraria Polonica. 45 (7). doi:10.18778/1505-9057.45.14. hdl:11089/24801.

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