How to say “curse” in 35 languages
Every one of these is a word that turns up in ordinary speech, not a dictionary curiosity — the number beside it is where it ranks in that language.
It is commonest in Telugu, where తిట్టు is the 203rd most used word.
- Afrikaans vloek curse, oath #741
- Albanian mallkim #1,594
- Arabic لعنة curse, anathema, an instance of malediction #1,416
- Armenian անեծք curse, damnation, imprecation; anathema #726
- Basque madarikatu to damn, to curse something or someone #607
- Bengali গালি curse, abuse, swearword, profanity #1,604
- Bosnian kunem to curse #717
- Bulgarian кълна to curse, to damn #838
- Catalan maleït to curse #697
- Croatian kunem to curse #767
- Danish forbandede to curse #1,127
- Dutch vloek #2,471
- Esperanto malbeno #1,504
- Galician maldición #2,260
- Greek κατάρα #2,085
- Hindi लानत #713
- Icelandic bölvun #1,528
- Italian maledizione curse, spell, malediction, bane #1,253
- Korean 저주 #2,129
- Malayalam ശാപം #1,127
- Norwegian forbanna to curse #1,808
- Persian لعنت curse, execration #370
- Portuguese maldição #1,776
- Serbian kunem to curse #735
- Slovak kliatba #1,762
- Slovenian prekletstvo #1,024
- Spanish maldición #884
- Swedish svär to swear, to curse; to use offensive language #1,094
- Tagalog sumpa curse; wishing of evil #1,069
- Tamil சாபம் #605
- Telugu తిట్టు a curse #203
- Turkish lanet curse, malediction, damnation #215
- Ukrainian прокляття curse, malediction, perdition, execration,… #1,311
- Urdu لعنت curse, anathema, imprecation #412
- Vietnamese chửi to insult; to abuse; to curse; to scold #2,174
Knowing the word is the easy half.
Using it with someone who speaks the language is the half that sticks.