lost in translation
Hungarian Dickhead Stands Tall as American Douche Peters Out
Earlier this afternoon, while bantering with a Budapest-based blogger for the oh-so-hip American media group Gawker (yes, they have an office here) the topic somehow turned to douches, and why Hungary doesn't have any, at least compared to America. The answer is intriguing: In Hungarian, a douche is actually a dickhead.
For our non-American readers, I should probably first point out that in American slang a "douche" doesn't mean the liquid concoction ladies use for spritzing out the inner bits of their naughties, but a very obnoxious person who is usually male, a good example being underage soft-core smut peddler/alleged rapist Joe Francis, whom Gawker recently anointed the "Douche of the Decade." Among Americans of a certain age and background, "douche" is one of today's most common slurs, so worn-out that the trend-setters at Gawker designed their contest in part to encourage retirement of the term, at least its use as an insult.
Now, whenever trendoids in places like New York decide that something they have previously validated is no longer valid, it usually ends up with places like Hungary suffering. Can you believe they are still calling people "douche" in Budapest? What dickheads!
But not this time!
As it turns out, we never had douches in the first place. And no great surprise here, as "douche" in Hungarian is either hüvelyzuhany (literally: vaginal shower), or the more common - and even less abusive - intimzuhany, or "intimate shower." As my friend put it, "If you tell a guy he's the intimzuhany of the évtized (douche of the decade), he'd just laugh in your face."
Instead, it seems that when you want to express in Hungarian the same sentiment that Americans are expressing when they say "douche," it is more than likely that faszfej, or "dickhead," will be the first thing to pop into the speaker's mind.
Anyway, nice to know we're ahead of a global trend for once! Now if only we can do something about all these faszfejek…
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COMMENT!They (or you) were surprised we never used 'douche' as an insult? It's a silly insult.
Dickhead is a far better insult than douche. Only Californiated TV-zombies say 'douche' as an insult, probably due to the fact that you can just about say 'douche' with a mouthful of processed cheese and chocolate hotdog (or whatever the latest coronary causing blood vessel burster fastfood extravaganza is the big thing at the time) without spraying it all over the place like a bursting zit.
Not possible if you say 'dickhead'. I know, I've experimented.
The rest of the civilised world, as well as further afield places, prefer a good dickhead or faszfej anyday. Much, much more descriptive and cathartic when said.
Thanks for the explanation - I'd not previous realized what the word "douche" meant at all in English (and I am English). For me it's just the French word for "shower"...
Actually, Douchebag sort of summed up dickhead for my crowd. Dickhead is sort of 80's, but Douchebag is certainly 60's ish.
@All: Just so you add some variety to your expletives, you should also consider gyökér, fasz, faszkalap, faszparaszt, paraszt, seggfej...
@Sophist: Seems like centuries since he last called me a 'douchebag'. Never thought I'd miss that!
If there's anyone out there who understands some German, there's a dictionary called "Wörterbuch der ungarischen Umgangssprache" ISBN: 3-87548-167-4 by Thomas Dahn.
I ordered it thinking it would be on "Slang" in general but found out that it really contains all swear words including sources (Slav, German, Jewish, Roma words, also juvenile language).
My wife said: This is full of csúnya words when I showed it to her (but she uses some of these herself as any self-respecting Hungarian would).
Still my favorite expression : Kutya fasza!
faszfej, faszkalap, faszverö, faszopó, fasztarisnya, and more ...
BTW: I found a list for "faszfej" translated into English by http://szotar.sztaki.hu/english-hungarian
Really recommendable!
asshole
bugger
cocksucker
crapbrain
dick
dumbshit
fuckhead
jerk
motherfucker
To an English-English speaker, "douche" or
"douchebag" always sound really corny, like guys
called Randy or Chuck. Plus as far as I know no
woman I've ever been personal with actually used any
kind of "vaginal shower" product - I suspect such
things don't do much for the natural balance of the
female internals. As for "gyökér", thanks for the
new slang word. In the slang sense does this mean
"root" like the English noun, or "root" as a verb
which is sometimes also a slang for fucking in
English?
Benny,
"I suspect such things don't do much for the natural balance of the female internals"
I had a girlfriend once who swore by yoghurt.
Since when does "root" act as slang for "fuck"?
I have never heard it used that way.
As for the Hungarian gyokor, I would say it was akin to telling someone they had their head stuck in the ground ie. stupid.
My (German) dictionary of Hungarian slang has this for "gyökér":
- faragatlan
- becsapható
- ellenszenves ember
- elégtelen (school)
The source for this seems to be the Austrian "Wurzen" which sounds similar to Wurzel i. e. gyökér
Now I think about it, rooting in that sense is an
Aussie term, made more famous worldwide (some long
years ago) by a singer called Kevin Bloody Wilson.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MMEj8Tc_SmY
Hey, this guy Wilson is bloody famous - even has an entry in the German wiki!
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kevin_Bloody_Wilson
"Your Average Australian Yobbo" was a collection of his songs - any connection to our jobos on politics.hu ?
I seem to remember one of them parachuted into Hungary from Australia, strange, really strange ...
"Rooted" in that sense has been Australian usage for many decades at least. As in the nickname "Wombat" - "eats roots and leaves." The past participle "rooted" usually just means "exhausted" or "worn out" though.
The Americanism of "rooting" for a sports team sounds very amusing to Aussies (although there was a football team sponsored by a brothel recently - in Tasmania, which should help put Tassie on the map).
"Dickhead" has been around "down under" as long as I can remember too. There used to be a New Zealand racehorse called "Richard Cranium" ...
