Oh, Kurwa! Reflection about bad words in Polish. Is it really possible to translate?

First of all, it is not an article about bad words. To find a list of bad words you can try on Google, I am pretty sure you will find it.

My question is: Is really possible to translate things from another language? Well, some kind of things are easy… Like, Hallo in German can be associated with Hola in Spanish… But think with me… What if I say to you the Portuguese word: Janela? What does it mean? Window? Sure. Right? Maybe… Janela comes from Janua, wich means, a small door. Window comes from old norse, vindr and auga. wind and eye. They have exactly the same meaning? I am not sure.

So, let’s take a look on the Polish language and some bad words?

Bad words?

Yes. Just keep your mind open and think with me. Let’s see the word Kurwa!

Oh! Kurwa! I can use it like: Oh, it is amazing! but what will happen if I put Kurwa on a translator like Google? For G translator, Kurwa means prostitute. Simple? No!

One Polish friend of mine once told me if you call a woman Kurwa! It is a terrible way to offend her! It is not a simple bad word, it is very offensive! So, you can use the same word for an amazing thing and to a heavy offense against a woman. How to translate that? End? Not even close.

Let’s go for more examples derivating this word.

wkurwiony – to use with some angry person.  Nakurwiony – to use when someone is drunk.   pokurwiony – meaning  insane. 

Or, you can use: jest KUREWSKO zimno. (did you see the word Kurwa again?) Well, this time we are just saying something like: It is f*cking cold!

So, it is a very rich word, don’t you think? Actualy, just saying Kurwa in different tones can change completly the meaning (it’s not a tonal language? Ok, but tones are very important in all languages)

With just one word you can go very very far in Polish. But the interesting point is… if you take a lot of Polish words and put in a translator, they will show you always: F*ck, F*cking and variations of it, but in fact, there are a lot of other meanings! It is a little confusing but also one of the most beautiful parts of languages, if we didn’t have this plurality, we could use just a dictionary to learn!

The truth is to learn a new language you need to think in ethnolinguistic. Each country has an unique way to express your culture with words, and sometimes is very hard to translate things, that’s why I think that it is completly important to jump inside a culture when learning a new language.

So, where this word came from?

If you take a look, Kurwa had the meaning of chicken and was used to name prostitutes. so, aparently, it has the worst meaning in the origin, remember the words from my friend? one heavy way to offend a girl, or could meaning simple a mature woman, from kourūs  but, if you look carefully, this same word with this bad meaning is used like a not so heavy expression, like I said on Oh, Kurwa!

So, to learn a new language is not simple just translate words to reach new meanings. If you want to really learn, just get in touch with other cultures. As I always say, Culture comes first and to learn the language is just a consequence.