Comments | potc_universe: Authentic insults? (as stated in the comm info :p)

mjkt_ in potc_universe

Authentic insults? (as stated in the comm info :p)

Sep 11, 2007 03:39

Yup, I've been wondering what offensive and vulgar words would mostly fit into the mouths of the PotC characters -- ( (I guess I should label this post PG-13 or something in case there are more sensitive people around :p )

slang

Comments 26

sheebeen September 12 2007, 17:56:32 UTC

Prick pre-dates Chaucer, and it's fairly consistently popular.

Swive/swyve would be alternatives to fuck, as well, although they might be a bit archaic by 18th C standards. I have seen it used, though, so not too out of date.

And that's about as useful as I can be on the subject. Although, if you like, I can give you an ancient Greek insult that the well-educated navyboys would know.

mjkt_ September 13 2007, 06:26:06 UTC

Swive/swyve I think I've heard somewhere, yes...

As for that ancient Greek insult, fire away ;) Got me curious..

classics_lover September 13 2007, 17:54:47 UTC

Oloio; that is, omicron lamda omicron iota omicron.
It is the optative imperative of the verb meaning to destroy, and translates as "would you go and destroy yourself", which was a deadly insult to the Athenians. I've used it myself. Of course I've also used "the ship is in Byzantium" because it sounds impressive.

It's still me, sheebeen is my fic journal

classics_lover September 13 2007, 17:57:37 UTC

Oh! and www.hiberno-english.com is an archive of Hiberno English words, where you can find any number of quite impressive sounding insults that sound like they came straight out of the 18th Century. I reccommend Langer, myself, but you have to really mean it (just like with avada kedavra, lolz)

Thread 5

weather_eyes October 2 2007, 22:12:41 UTC

I find dictionary.com to be a useful resource. It gives the date of origin of each word with its definition. I will happily use any words that have their origin before 1800.

However, there were a few anachronistic words such as 'Okay' and 'git' that appeared in the movies. The occasional use of a modern word in a fic is no great sin. If Disney can get away with it... ;)

komandant_krech October 3 2007, 16:54:20 UTC

Thanks for the link, it looked good! Thesaurus in general is what I've been needing too as I'm not a native English speaker...

Heh, so true about the films and how 'historically correct' they are in general... ;)

(this is still mjkt_, this is just my fic account)

soubie April 23 2008, 02:22:56 UTC

A note on the word 'cunt'- it goes back to before Chaucer as a word for vagina or female genitalia, but only around the end of the 18th century did it become considered obscene (well, more obscene than just saying 'vagina'). (There was a narrow alley frequented by prositutes in London which appeared on maps as 'Gropecunt Alley' until around this period.)