Via, of all people, Ace‘s Genghis, a NOT SUITABLE FOR WORK overview of Spanish profanity at Wikipedia, which is most useful since it compares meanings across countries.
You learn something new every day.
Don’t try your new vocabulary in front of your Spanish-speaking mom or you might get to taste the Lifebuoy:
Compare and contrast Spanish profanity with Portuguese profanity, for an even wider lexicon.
It’s Sunday, it’s August, go out and enjoy it.
Funny we never learned those words in my Spanish or Portuguese classes. 😉
Bar of soap for repeating those words? Ni de vainas, more like getting whacked with a chancla!
I had HS Spanish for three years taught by a native Spanish speaker, from Spain. So to this day whenever I try to make myself understood I’m usually looked at like I asked for the Dijon mustard. However, years later, I went to Mexico several times and found that everyonetalkedlikethisat100milesperhour and I had no idea what some of those adverbs and adjectives were until I wrote them done and looked them up. I am proud to say that even I hadn’t ever heard of some of the English translations.
BTW, my mom used Lava which I can still taste as I type.
Here is a very practical Spanish lesson: Spanish for communicating with your maid.
I put my foot in it in my first months in Argentina. I was introduced to some college coeds, and was asked which I preferred. I replied, “No puedo escoger.” I can’t choose. Unfortunately, I found out, “coger” is used in Argentina for sexual intercourse. I was politely informed that in this instance the proper phrase was, “No puedo elegir.”
That reminds of something I ran across once: in a Spanish-English dictionary I came across a word that in Argentina meant “Christmas present,” while in Honduras it meant “prostitute.” (Or vice-versa) I can’t remember the word, but one of those lands has an interesting concept of “the season of giving.” 😉
I’m a native from Honduras and have often visited other parts of Central America. One such visit to Guatemala, I encountered on of these “regionalisms”. In Honduras, with sometimes use the term “maje” (jerk/idiot) between friends. In Guate, it is one of the worst things to call some one. I was informed that their equivalent is “pisado”. Of course “pisar” in Honduras means to have intercourse, so the said person would have just gotten lucky.