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Comment by Kosirich | Hacker News Reader

I do find it that I reach for an English swear word far easier and with less effort even in the context I should perhaps refrain from saying it. Especially in work context when expressing dissatisfaction. Funny enough whenever I hit my self I will always reach for my mother tongue (Croatian) swear expression. For the shear ability to to be creative when swearing, Croatian/Serbian beats English and so does Italian. A professor of mine 'swears' that for him Portuguese is the best or at least 'juiciest' for swearing.

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I'm a Polish expat in English speaking country and have the same experience. When I screw something up at work I just swear in Polish as it's not as obvious to people around me as it would be had I used a profanity in English.

Also, love to listen to heated, swearing-heavy exchanges from Italians or Spaniards. Don't understand a word but it sounds awesome :)

French living in non-french countries for many years here.

My conscious swear words have switched to English now, for small things.

When I'm hurt or really in trouble though, French kicks in unconsciously.

What I like about French way of swearing is that it can be infinite since the words are linked together. Most French swear words are descriptive, which means you can almost postpone the subject indefinitely and continue swearing:

"^putain de bordel de chiotte de saloperie de merdasse mal foutue de... [<insert description>]* de merde$"

love that your hn handle is so creative with an english swear word :)

Well, the premise was bit-charmer but too late did I realise most people would read it like you did :)

However I, too, would like to see more dogs bear arms.

Does that overlap, I wonder, with the LISPers who would like to arm bears?

Long ago, when I was eradicating casual swearing from my speech, I began by swapping the swear words for innocent words like "yowza", "geepers" and non sequitur foreign phrases like "un deux trois!" or "Cinco de Mayo!" (try it, said forcefully they work). This has evolved to non-existent words... "Jinkers" being my casual favorite as it has no sound-alike swear words the way "fudge" does. However, when something unexpected and shocking happens, such as mashing a thumb with a hammer or such, a string of implosive nonsense erupts from my mouth that would make Yosemite Sam proud. Normally this happens in private or only around folks who know me. But once it happened when I was buying some car tires & thwacked one of my fingers. Out it came. When I realized what I was doing and stopped, I looked over at the sales person. They had this shocked and confused expression. They had no idea what I had said, but I had clearly conveyed something. Perhaps this is how language began?

I was born in Croatia but grew up in Amsterdam and have been living for 20+ years in the US. In Holland swearing involves a lot of diseases.. for example klerelijer (cholera sufferer) kankerlijer or krijg de kanker (cancer sufferer, get cancer) In Croatia it's more like fuck your mother (jebem ti mater) God fucks your mother (jebo ti Bog mater)

In Istria we have a nicer version of telling someone to fuck God (jebi Boga) Marry God (idi Boga ženit)... you would say that to family members when you don't want to be vulgar but the message is still more or less the same :-)

Haha, as a fellow Istrijan I agree with you on the differences in regional swears between Istrians and other Croats. This swears are also some of those that I use and I think you described the use well, as in these are tolerated around "family table". Usually I use combination of Porco/a (pig) + relevant religious icon pronounced in a badly Italian accent when properly upset.

p.s- sritno Novo Lito (using my father side ikavica, found in Karojba town region)

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