Roman swear words ,oaths, and insults

[Caballo]

My wife, whose next book is set in first century Britannia, wants her legionaries and auxillaries to swear and generally insult each other authentically.

Would welcome suggestions, no matter how strong?

Cheers

Caballo

[D B Campbell]

pelusia magna! ("big girl's blouse")

[Rumo]

Examples of single words (nouns, adjectives): cinaede, pathice, sceleste, perfide, barbare, inepte, etc You can make up some short phrases, too. Some insults are relative. Words suggesting cowardice, weakness, slowness, effeminacy, lack of skills, etc can be used for insults among professional soldiers.

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

From Catullus:

Line Latin text English translation[14][15][16][17]
1 Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo, I will sodomize you and face-fuck you,
2 Aureli pathice et cinaede Furi, Cock-sucker Aurelius and catamite Furius,
3 qui me ex versiculis meis putastis, You who think, because my verses
4 quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum. Are delicate, that I am a sissy.
5 Nam castum esse decet pium poetam For it's right for the devoted poet to be chaste
6 ipsum, versiculos nihil necessest(necesse est); Himself, but it's not necessary for his verses to be so.
7 qui tum denique habent salem ac leporem, Verses which then have taste and charm,
8 si sunt molliculi ac parum pudici If they are delicate and sexy,
9 et quod pruriat incitare possunt, And can incite an itch,
10 non dico pueris, sed his pilosis And I don't mean in boys, but in those hairy old men
11 qui duros nequeunt movere lumbos. Who can't get their flaccid dicks up.
12 Vos, quod milia multa basiorum You, because you have read of my thousand kisses,
13 legistis, male me marem putatis? You think I'm a sissy?
14 Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo. I will sodomize you and face-fuck you.

Sexual terminology

Latin is an exact language for obscene acts, such as pedicabo and irrumabo, which appear in the first and last lines of the poem. The term pedicare is a transitive verb, meaning to "insert one's penis into another person's anus",[18] and derives from an analogous Greek word, ???????, itself derived ultimately from the Greek word ????, ?????? (child). The term cinaede in line 2 refers to the "bottom" person in that act, i.e., the one being penetrated.[19] The term irrumare is likewise a transitive verb, meaning to "insert one's penis into another person's mouth for suckling",[20] and derives from the Latin word, ruma meaning "teat". A male who suckles a penis is denoted as a fellator or, equivalently, a pathicus (line 2).[21] Thus, there is an elegant poetic chiasm (a "criss-cross" rhetorical structure) in the first two lines. Each line has two obscenities; the first of the first line, pedicabo, matches the second of the second line, cinaede, whereas the second of the first line, irrumabo, matches the first of the second line, pathice.

The central pun of the poem occurs in line 4 with quod sunt molliculi, parum pudicum. The word molliculi refers to Catullus' verses and means "soft and tender little verses", as in love poetry. However, mollis can also mean "effeminate fellator", as well as "soft" in the sense of "flaccid penis". Likewise, parum pudicum refers to Catullus, and can mean "wanton" or "fellator". Thus, in explicit modern English, the pun suggests that "just because my verses are little and soft, doesn't mean that I'm the same, that I'm some hussy cock-sucker who can't get it up". This may be translated more delicately with the analogous English pun, "that I've gone all soft".

The rest of the poem plays upon that pun. On the contrary, says Catullus, although my verses are soft (molliculi ac parum pudici in line 8, reversing the play on words), they can arouse even limp old men. Should Furius and Aurelius have any remaining doubts about Catullus' virility, he offers to fuck them anally and orally to prove otherwise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_profanity

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Curse_tablet


Mater tua tam obesa est ut cum Romae est urbs habet octo colles
Your mama is so fat when she goes to Rome it has 8 hills!

Futue te ipsum.
Go F--- yourself

Mande merdam et morere.
Eat sh-- and die

Velim caput tuum devellere deinde in confinium gulae cacare
I'm gonna rip off you head and crap down your neck.

Te fututo, gaudeo
You having been f---d, I rejoice. (ablative absolute! Amaze your Latin teacher!)

Sentite aciem acrem ensis mortiferi, o larvae putidae, o bustirapi nefandi!
Feel the keen edge if the sword of doom, no-good stinking corpse-eating tomb-ghouls!

Caput capitis = dick head.

Cacator = shitter

Hope that helps !! :twisted:

M.VIB.M.

[Justin of the New Yorkii]

I know it's Wikipedia, but this is interesting:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Latin_profanity

[Sean Manning]

On the politer end of things, "mehercule" (by Hercules) was about the equivalent of "damn," "by god," or "hell" in modern English. Cicero used it freely in his letters.

I think that Wikipedia has reference to some of the Latin writers who used rough language.

[mcbishop]

14 Pedicabo ego vos et irrumabo. I will sodomize you and face-fuck you.

Somehow the 'bustirape' and 'furcifer' I learned in school Latin now seem redundant, but I can see how this could well come in useful for correspondence with, say, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs (always admirers of a good classical education).

Mike Bishop

[MARCvSVIBIvSMAvRINvS]

BRILLIANT !!!!!!

ROTFLMAO!!

M.VIB.M.

[Epictetus]

Although it is not profanity, Ovid's Ibis could be useful. It is a long and rather nasty curse of sorts.

May the earth refuse thee her fruits and the river his waters,
may wind and breeze deny their breath.
May the sun not be warm for thee, nor Phoebe bright,
may the clear stars fail thy vision.
May neither Vulcan nor the air lend thee their aid,
nor earth nor sea afford tehe any path.
Mayst thou wander an exile and destitute,
and haunt the doors of others, and beg a little food with trembling mouth.
May neither thy body nor thy sick mind be free from querulous pain,
may night be to thee more greivous than day, and day than night.

There are hundreds of lines, each more nasty than the last.

[Gaius Julius Caesar]

Not really profanity either, but the phrase I have in my signature seems apt for soldiers,
if the translation it correct!

[Caballo]

Wonderful stuff, guys- many thanks. Keep it coming! D

[Longovicium]

Regarding the wiki post referenced earlier, I came across this interesting definition:

P?dere: fart

P?d?, p?dere, pep?d? (or pepid?), p?ditum is the basic Latin word for fart.

As my main interest is in the later Roman military, I wonder if the title/rank 'Magister Peditum' now carried a hidden meaning . . . hock:

Can anyone clear this up for me - if 'peditum' as in 'fart' also allowed punning insults to carry over into military slang that would be quite a useful find . . . Or have I smelt the wrong end of the 'cack' here, I wonder?

[Crispvs]

"I wonder if the title/rank 'Magister Peditum' now carried a hidden meaning . . . hock: "

That reminds me of the fact that the present, and rather weasly Minister of Defence in Brown's 'government' is called Bob Ainsworth, but many soldiers I have met cynically morph that into 'Bob Ain't-Worth-It'.

Sorry to be a little OT.


Crispvs