What English words do you use to insult somebody?

[Alan]

Hi,

Back in the old days and I mean some hundreds of years ago people when they wanted to be rude used to call each other names to show their contempt for them. Nowadays apart from using a few rather revolting and unpleasant adjectives the average insult is pretty tame and unimaginative. What has made me bring up this topic is a word I've just come across to describe someone you don't think much of: a slubberdegullion druggel. Now that's what I call style.

Alan
_________________
English as a Second Language
You can read my ESL story A Rhapsody of Words

[spencer]

That looks like a funny word, but I couldn't translate it at all.
What do you think about bublehead, though?
(It sounds funny to me at least)
I noticed in Hungary we use a lot more variations of cursing words than in Canada.(And more vulgar too)
In Hungary you can cursing for minutes and not repeating yourself.
I like the way people are cursing in (American) movies of old times, those times when prisoners had worn striped clothes and been chained to each other and to a ball made of IRON.
I love the way they talking as well, not only when they cursing.
Spencer

[Yankee]

slubberdegullion druggel

Oh, my! Now, THAT'S what I call an insult!!!

There's an interesting write-up on the www.worldwidewords.org website for the word 'slubberdegullion'. There are also lots more creative insults listed there, all dating from 1653.

Spencer, I'm not sure I can agree with you. When it comes to impressive insults in English, the market seems to have been cornered on the other side of the pond.

How would you translate some of the more "interesting" Hungarian insults?

The Swabians (here in southern Germany) do a pretty good job with insults as well. One of my favorites translates as "half-dachshund" --- which I'm told is MUCH more insulting than if someone simply calls you a "dachshund". I've never really understood this insult fully since I find dachshunds to be such cute little critters.

Amy

[Jamie (K)]

One of the worst things you can call a person in Chinese is a "turtle egg". Very insulting.

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi!

As funny as it sounds, it?s better not to be a slubberdegullian Druggel. The german term "schleimausstossender Sonderling" means the same!

Then i might be better to be a "Laberkopp"

Michael

[Yankee]

The song "Yankee Doodle" was sung by British soldiers as an insult to American colonists during the time of the American Revolution. However, the colonial soldiers began singing the song themselves in a defiant effort to annoy the British. And today it's the "state song" of Connecticut.

Amy

[spencer]

I CAN'T translate slubberdegullian Druggel!!!!
I've got the "slubber", but the rest aren't in my dictionary, and even for slubber I found 20 different meanings, so I have no clue whichone of them I should take for SLUBBERdegullian
Amy, actually you are right, I'm reading a book from Horward Stern, and this fact helped me to drop my opinion about cursing in English. He's so creative, when it comes to being vulgar he's unbeatable, he speaks as nasty as a Hungarian who just smashed his fingernail with a hammer.
We don't really have funny but not vulgar words for insulting people, like turtle egg, I've been thinking for hours, but there are only old words I could find and they are not even funny anymore, never mind insulting.
Somebody please tell me what SLUBBERDEGULLIAN DRUGGEL is!
Everyone's laughing but me.

[Conchita]

Apart from the actual meaning, it's often a matter of how it sounds: to me, an insult bellowed in Dutch or German, for instance, sounds more of an insult than in, say, Italian.

One of the worst names you can call a man in Spanish is 'cabr?n' (literally, billy goat!).

[Conchita]

[Fan of Arabian horses]

Hi conchita, hi spencer!

I?m not really sure if my translation is correct but if i seperate the syllables this way: slubber- de- gullian- druggel i come to this definition:
-slubber as the same than slobber or slabber in the sense of what runs out of the nose if you?ve got a cold
-de in the meaning of against
-gullian turned off gully in the sense of flowing off
- druggel turned of drug in the sense of to be a crank
So it means a slobber absorbing crank. Have you ever seen the movie "Alien"? Like the extraterrastrial lifeform i imagine a slubberdeguliian druggel! In this sense i heard it often in a hilarius curse.

Conchita, did you mean "Laberkopp"? That is more a moniker in westfalian dialekt than really an insult!
-labern is talking much without saying anything
-kopp is the westfalian translation of head
So it?s used to people who talks much senseless! If you do it too often you can rise up to an old "oller laberkopp"!

What would you say about this solution?

Michael

P.s.; Do you know Michael? Sometimes he is an oller Laberkopp

[Yankee]

Hi Michael

So, you claim to be an "old babble-head"?

Hi Spencer

Oh oh... You're reading Howard Stern?!? He can be quite shocking and provocative. I have to admit, his style isn't always my cup of tea.

Amy

[Conchita]

[spencer]

SNOT SLURPER!
There you go!
DISGUSTING!

I personally like Horward, he's honest, he writes exacty what he thinks, that's all.
He doesn't care what people think about him, I could appreciate it in a person.
And he's funny as hell too.
SNOT SLURPER is his style,it could've been him who made it up.
Spencer

[Yankee]

[spencer]

It IS a good subject, but if you take a look at the number of topics you'll realise it's not only succes of the topic, we could talk just about anything for hours.