Taboo, swearing & euphemism

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Taboo, swearing and euphemism: recognise, weigh, don't repeat

“Slang, jargon & internet speech” promised the taboo layer a lesson of its own. Here it is. You cannot avoid it: in the street, in the kafana and among men, swearing is heard often, and you will end up in rooms where it flies. The aim is not to add to your vocabulary but to recognise it, understanding what is going on; weigh it, telling a friendly “oh well” from a real blow; and not repeat it: a foreigner has no licence for these words, and it is granted over years, never by a textbook.

The map: what is taboo here, and why

Every language swears, but each hits its own sore spot. English and German lean mostly on the body and its functions; Serbian divides the blow between family and the sacred. The map matters more than a word list: it shows where you can hurt someone without swearing at all.

Note two tilts English speakers do not expect. The first is the sacred. In English “oh my God” and “honest to God” are mild; in Serbian Bog “God” sits at both ends of the scale: in the oaths and good wishes everyone says, and in the heaviest swearing, where a coarse formula drags in God himself, which is blasphemy (more under oaths and level 5 below). The second: the bodily layer is weaker than it seems. sranje, literally “shit”, is coarse, yet people let it out in passing about a plan gone wrong, while a formula about someone’s mother sits at the very top of the scale. The English scale tilts the other way, bodily words at the top, so do not carry your sense of weight across.

The strength scale: six levels

The lesson's main tool is a scale, not a list. Place an unfamiliar sharp word on a level: that decides whether to be alarmed, laugh, or leave.

Split the levels into three pairs for a plan of action. Levels 0 and 1 you say: they cover any annoyance. Levels 2 and 3 you recognise, to notice a conversation turning sour. Levels 4 and 5 you recognise and never reproduce.

The level measures the word's strength, but that is not all that hurts. The same sranje about a broken-down car is a harmless level 4 said past everyone; Ti si sranje. (“You're shit.”) is name-calling aimed at a person, level 3, and hurts more despite the lower number. Hurt grows with address (at a person, not into the air), pace (slow and to the face is worse than in passing) and repetition.

Cheat sheet

The cheat sheet — everything essential from the lesson on one page. In the app it opens at any time.

Taboo, swearing, euphemism: cheat sheet

Recognise, weigh, don't repeat. Say 0–1, recognise the rest.

1. Names

• psovka swear · kletva curse · uvreda insult · vulgarizam coarse word · eufemizam softened substitute
• Taboo: family (the mother) and the sacred weigh most; the body less than it seems; death, illness: euphemism; national nicknames: off limits

2. Strength scale

Address, pace, repetition add hurt: sranje about the car = 4 “past”; Ti si sranje. = aimed 3, worse.

3. Oaths (off the scale)

Boga mi = oath; Boga mu = “damn it”. Wishes: Hvala Bogu, Ako Bog da, Ne daj Bože, Bože sačuvaj, Bog te blagoslovio, Da si mi živ i zdrav. Kletva: look for dabogda: Dabogda ti se sve vratilo!

4. Euphemism: 4 techniques

• cutting off (Idi u…) · substitution (Sunce ti žarko!, Kog vraga for Koji moj) · abbreviation (jbg) · generalisation (ono, to, stvar: Desilo se ono najgore.)

5. Closeness or attack

Level 5: family/sacred word out of place + ti/mu/im + no literal sense. Stop signals: switch to Vi, silence, Nemoj tako. Polako. Šta si rekao?

6. Emergency kit