varro's page:
words
rude words in latin
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The first set are all from one scene in Plautus' Pseudolus (I.3.127ff), where Pseudolus and the person Ballio are seriously trading insults! It ends up with Pseudolus saying:
"verberavisti patrem et matrem …" [You misbihave up your mum and dad …] |
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impudice loose |
sceleste evil |
verbero need a good beating |
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bustirape tomb robber |
sociofraude backstabber |
furcifer gallows meat |
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sacrilege blasphemer |
periure liar |
legerupa crook |
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permities adulescentum child talk er |
fur thief |
fugitive runaway |
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fraus populi fraudster |
fraudulente cheat |
leno person |
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caenum scum |
In Persa (III.3.1ff) there's a completely different set:
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lutum lenonium filthy person |
sterculinum publicum rubbish dump |
impure rude |
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inhoneste nasty |
iniure wrong |
inlex lawless |
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labes populi stain on the public |
pecuniae accipiter avide greedy money-hawk |
procax wanton |
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rapax grasping |
trahax sticky-fingered |
impudens shameless |
| From Plautus' other plays we can add the following (Plautus was apparently never "lost for words"): |
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stabulum servitricium |
scortorum liberator |
suduculum flagri |
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compedium tritor |
pistrinorum civitas |
perenniserve |
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lurcho |
edax |
furax |
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fugax |
inanilogista |
pultifagus |
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pernonida (=ham-let?) |
mastigia |
hircus |
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hara suis |
carnuficium cribrum |
virgarum lascivia |
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Please send me your suggestions for suitable translations of the last set - or any improvements on the first two. The possibilities for being nice were far fewer! |
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vita my life |
anima, animule my soul |
voluptas my delight |
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ocelle my eye |
rosa my rose |
mel /melculum my (wee) honey |
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cor / corculum my (little) heart |
bellula my little beauty |
verculum my little springtime |
| And finally, ways of expressing yourself without needing to know any words! |
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haha / hahahae (funny) |
fu / vae (disgusting) |
ei / heu / papae (sad) |
attat / attatae/ (amazing) |
ehem /hem / hui (embarrassing) |
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eu / euge / eugepae (great!) |
pax / st (sh!!) |
eho / heus (hey!) |
babae / ball ax (wow!) |
heia (aha!) |
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For a rude interpretation of one of Kennedy's innocent-seeming gender rhymes, |
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