Kurva, was: Re: Bulgarian Phrases

James C. Mullan james at MULLAN.UK.COM
Wed Oct 11 13:55:55 UTC 2000


At 21:43 10/09/00 -0400, Steve K wrote:
[snip]
>> >KURVA--A slang word for prostitute that seems to be widely used in
>> >all the Eastern European countries.
[snip]
>This reminds me of the Czech word skurveny' (I think, I've never seen it
>written) which translates roughly as 'fucking' -- "To je mi skurveny kosa"
>--that is "It's fucking cold" which I learned in December of '93. Anyhow,
[snip]

When we lived in the CR in '95-7, we picked up most of our Czech "swear"
words from Czech subtitles in US-made movies. Each time the actor used the
"F" word, as either expletive or adjective, it was translated as "Kurva" in
the subtitles.

Which perhaps raises an interesting cultural possibility - the use of the
"C" word in Czech as having more "shock" value than the "F" word.
Any comments from Czechs or better speakers of the language than me?
Just my 2¢, or, if you prefer, 2 heller ;-)
Jimmy



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