When two very different cultures come together, your mind might go to food or clothing or maybe wondering what their bathrooms are like. When you’re immersed though, one of the very first things you might pick up is slang. Specifically, insults and profanity. In my case, I have kids from 1995 America meeting up with people of all ages in New Kingdom Egypt. Yeah, they’re gonna trade some jabs.
The kids living in Egypt (all Hebrew slaves in my novel) start saying “dude” a lot but what can the America kids learn from their counterparts? Let’s start with modern Egyptian Arabic.
One of my favorite set of insults is the references to shoes. Because they’re low and dirty. You can be the son or daughter of a shoe. Or have a mind like a shoe. You can also be the son or daughter of a bitch (female dog), a donkey, a whore, or a lioness. This source is a single page and very worth reading.
Arabic isn’t Egyptian though, and Ancient Egypt had not only its own language but multiple cultures and ways of speaking (in a time period that spanned thousands of years). We have Hieroglyphics and other writing systems to go on, mostly found in tombs (because they’re better preserved), though there are other documents.
If you’ve watched American horror movies, you might think tombs were chock-full of colorful and detailed curses towards would-be grave robbers. Alas, they are not. One reads: “As for he who covers it [the tomb] in its place, great lords of the west will reproach him very very very very very very very very much.” (The eighth “very” is the scariest.)
Hieroglyphics in general have have a multitude of useful phrases, as translated here by Angela McDonald. They run from the familiar (“don’t be daft” and “just talking to you is exhausting”) to the unusual (“you’ve made a home for yourself in the brewery” and “you’re acting like a mosquito after wolves”).
I’ve pulled out the insults from McDonald’s long and excellent book, along with a few assorted extras. Now you can swear like an (ancient) Egyptian!
Insults:
- Fool! Idiot! Spouter of water!
- Don’t be smart, mate!
- Don’t be daft!
- You foul-mouthed pipsqueak!
- Just talking to you is exhausting!
- What’s with this attitude?
- Your heart is disturbed and your senses scattered!
- Your silence is better than your blathering!
- Straighten your tongue!
- You’re acting like a mosquito after wolves
- You’re worse than the Nile goose of the river-bank that abounds in mischief!
- You’ve made a home for yourself in the brewery!
- You’re like a boat without a captain!
- Your mind’s like an empty room!
Laments:
- My heart’s not in my body.
- My eye is faint through looking.
- My words are upside down.
- That’s heavy.
- Have mercy!
Terms of endearment:
- One who fills the heart.
- One who enters the heart.
Greeting/goodbyes/etc:
McDonald, Angela. Write Your Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs. United States, University of California Press, 2007.
- May joy and delight cling to you.
- May you multiply happy years!
- May you be established like the hours!
- May you see well and hear happily!
- May a torch be lit for you in darkness until the sun shines on your breast!
References:
- Egyptian Arabic insults and crude language. Arabic learning resources.
- Ancient Egyptian tomb warnings, curses and ghosts. June 23, 2024. Dr. Dan Potter, Assistant Curator, Ancient Mediterranean. National Museums Scotland.
- McDonald, Angela. Write Your Own Egyptian Hieroglyphs. United States, University of California Press, 2007. You can find the full text at Archive.com (you need to sign up for a free account then “borrow” the book).
- Swearing in Ancient Egyptian. Mini Grey. October 30, 2014.
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