Discussion Groups / English Usage / January 2007

At 14:36:04 on Sun, 7 Jan 2007, Achim Richter <ricach@web.de> wrote in
<enqt03$m9o$1@online.de>:

What a very narrow subject.  It's amazing, the degree of specialism
these days...

Most of them will not have modern English equivalents.  However, none of
the terms which you cite are curses.  They are insults;  there is a
distinct difference.  Of those which still convey any meaning to me (and
those with dictionaries to hand will be able to come up with more), the
majority are impugning either the addressee's courage or his
intelligence:

Stupid

Cowardly

Cowardly

Stupid

Hope this helps.

(To ucle and aeu, with FU to ucle only, since the original was
cross-posted to a load of groups which don't look right at all)

You need to know the cultural/phonetics of a language to understand a
curse, for instance my daughter uses "Oh! Sugar" as an expletive.  I leave
it up to the reader to work out what she is *not* saying, because it may be
considered rude ;-)

Not any help - but I did find this when looking on the web -
thought they were cute.

Shakespearean Insulter: Randomly generated insults.
http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/index.html?

and this one (which code looks similar to a Magic 8-Ball sayings
page that I made this holiday).

Shakespearean Insult Generator
http://www.mainstrike.com/mstservices/handy/insult.html

and yet another;

Elizabethan Curse Generator
http://www.trevorstone.org/curse/

Martin

If you can find it, you might try this book:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/0091809916/thebritishthe-21

From http://www.thefreedictionary.com/

This comes up with the meaning sale or selling, doubtful if that would
be Shakepeare's meaning though.

Gross; lubberly

Nothing for this one, but perhaps something to do with fainting?

Cruel; pitiless; malicious

White-livered; cowardly; timorous.

Nothing for this one, but perhaps someone whom even the devil would
hate?

Dull, stupid

This one does not come up with anything useful - It says it's an
American Hickory tree or a hickory nut.

A magpie. [Obs.] Shak  I take this is a crow?  Not sure how it was
used in Shakepeare's plays though.

Which group?  You posted to 5 groups.

--
Dorothy

There is no sound, no cry in all the world
that can be heard unless someone listens ..

The Outer Limits

If you were teaching them curses found in Shakespeare, it might be. But
using http://www.rhymezone.com
suggests:

vended - isn't in Shakespeare. It usually just means "sold"
dizzy - eyed - is not a curse - it appears in:

But when my angry guardant stood alone,
Tendering my ruin and assail'd of none,
Dizzy-eyed fury and great rage of heart
Suddenly made him from my side to start

pignut - is not an insult. Appears in:

I prithee, let me bring thee where crabs grow;
And I with my long nails will dig thee pignuts;

(pignut is the tuber of Bunium flexuosum OR, in some versions, an acorn)

maggot pie - also not an insult, assuming you're looking at the bit in
Macbeth where he says:

Augurs and understood relations have
By magot-pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
The secret'st man of blood.

It's just another word for a magpie.

I like "pignut".