Comments on: Italian Swear Words – Jessica’s 8 Favorites

By: .

Sat, 14 Jan 2012 08:21:32 +0000

It is!

By: Charles LoPresto

Charles LoPresto — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:40:15 +0000

A shorter but less colorfull version of Chiara’s would be the Sicilian, ‘cornuto che è tu padre’ (pronounced patre), which calls your father a cuckold, your mother a whore and you a bastard, all at the same time. Also vaffanculo is not va fan culo as Bernie states, but va fa in culo. Literally go do it in your ass. As far as his sound changes for sicilian american speakers, I agree with most of his except that the p sounds more like a b as in picciotti (guys or boys) pronounced biccotti, as well as the v in vaffanculo sounds like baffangulo

Cialuzzo

By: chiara

chiara — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 02:06:50 +0000

i’m italian i never heard “fare i gattini”…maybe it is used just in the south..
u can learn… porca di quella maiala di tua madre baldracca che ti ha messo al mondo schifosa mignotta che ama farsi chiavare da delle teste di minchia come tuo padre!!!..learn this!!!..very Swear Words

By: Thom

Thom — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:01:23 +0000

I’ve head a similar phrase, “capo di legna” translated to “head of wood”. I guess it’s like us calling someone a Blockhead.

By: Bernie Bierman

Bernie Bierman — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 19:38:19 +0000

The expression written here as “:vaffanculo” is actually “Va fan culo” (lit, “make it to go up the ass”). In southern Italian, including Sicilian speech, the “v” often becomes a “p”; the “c” becomes a “g” and ending vowels are plainly dropped. Thus, to many who heard Italian spoken in the streets of New York, Boston and Philadelphia, the expression “Va fan culo” came out “Pafangul”. Likewise the word “citrullo” (blockhead, knucklehead, dumbhead) came out “shidrul” (or “shidrool”). And pasta fagiola morphed into “pastafazul”. And with “c’s” becoming “g’s”, “p’s becoming “b’s” and ending vowels dropped everywhere, the meat known as capicola became…(hold onto your memories) “GABANGUL”, as did “cazzo in culo” become “gatzingul”.

By: Jessica

Jessica — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 18:01:55 +0000

Well, “basilico” is just the Italian word for “basil” – and I’ve never heard that used as a swear word.

By: catherine verrilli

catherine verrilli — Mon, 22 Aug 2011 02:34:08 +0000

Ah, so funny! My aunt and I were just talking on the phone about this–all the different swears we heard growing up–she from my grandparents, and me from everyone. We were laughing so hard. I definitely have to say that Porca miseria came up, along with the porca Madonna, and sp: vaffanculo! We also heard bruta simia, too. I know I shouldn’t, but I’m sorry–this is funny stuff! My husband is just learning these, even though he’s married into this Italian family 25 years. Sometimes saying these words, in fun, bring back a lot of memories from being a kid. In my family, a lot of these swears always had a smirk, too.

But hey, I do have a question. My cousin married a Sicilian and he says something I’m not understanding. Basilico? Is that remotely familiar to you? Maybe my spelling is off.

Ciao, amici. )

By: Alex

Alex — Fri, 24 Jun 2011 12:18:44 +0000

I’m an italian guy, I noticed a misunderstanding about “Fuck” in this blog. The italian version of this word is not “cazzo” (that mean “cock” in english). The correct translation is ” ‘fanculo” in the shortes version, and ” vaffanculo” for the longest. In english litterally mean “You have to do an ass job”…

so:
fuck = ‘fanculo’
fuck you = ‘vaffanculo’ or ‘vai a fare in culo’
cazzo = ‘cock’
All clear?

By: Jessica

Jessica — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 16:32:57 +0000

It’s “culo” – and you’ll see the definition for that in #3 above. Yes, it’s a bit vulgar.

By: Pat

Pat — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 02:49:23 +0000

All 4 grandparents came from Italy, my parents are first generation Americans.

They always used to say that someone that parked crooked in a space or just did a bad job of parking all around “parked like a ch-drool (phonetic),” which they always told me meant parked like a cucumber. After reading this website, and others, and finding out that the fact we called the hell of the loaf of bread a “coolie” – which I believe to be a close approximation to “cula” – I am now wondering if it could be another vulgar slang expression. Have you ever heard of anything close to it? Thanks!