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Schweinehund - please explain! | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| pmiller Account terminated Groupie Canada Joined 5674 days ago 99 posts - 104 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 1 of 14 13 May 2009 at 8:35am | IP Logged |
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I'm told this is the worst thing to call someone in German, but why? Translated into English (pig-dog), it sounds merely silly (and nonsensical - what, pray tell, might a pig-dog be anyway?) It's hard to understand how such an insult came about in the German language. I could understand if this were an insult in Muslim lands, where the Koran teaches people an obsessive hatred of pigs and dogs ("ritually unclean animals", or whatever). But in Germany? Germans love eating pork as much as they love their dogs! Edited by Fasulye on 18 April 2010 at 5:18pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6821 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 2 of 14 13 May 2009 at 11:42am | IP Logged |
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Buddy, obviously you do not understand Islam and Muslim countries much, so I hereby ask you politely to stop talking about them in such an insulting way. Please.
Schweinehund used to be a bigtime insult, but now it is not that anymore, it has been replaced by way more insulting words. I can't tell you why it is insulting though, but being called animal names is an insult in a lot of countries. And yes, you might wonder about that, but even though Germany is not a Muslim country, dog and pig are insults there, too. And I guess schweinehund is a combination of both, so an even bigger insult. Regards, Ilhan 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| LanguageGeek Triglot Senior Member GermanyRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 6107 days ago 151 posts - 159 votes 4 sounds Speaks: German*, English, Hungarian Studies: French, Russian | Message 3 of 14 13 May 2009 at 2:50pm | IP Logged |
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You really went out on a limb with your questionable remarks pertaining to Muslims and their dogs. Why not suspend judgement about things you don't know anything about? I have been to Turkey recently and met a nice guy who had several well trained and well groomed dogs who he obviously loved very much. So please avoid blanket statements like these.
As to your question about "Schweinehund". It is a relatively old-fashined insult. My grandma would have used it. But it hasn't fallen completely out of use even today. It denotes a person with no morals, no spine. Someone who behaves in a characterless fashion. Edited by LanguageGeek on 13 May 2009 at 2:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6821 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 4 of 14 13 May 2009 at 3:26pm | IP Logged |
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Sorry, I think I kind of overreacted on my first post.
Well, I find this to be a pretty interesting question. Because Germans (as far as I know) do like their dogs and have nothing against pigs, but still "hund" and "schwein" are used as insults. Other insults going into that directon would be "dreckiger Hund" (dirty dog) und "Kameradenschwein". Telling you the truth, I don't know why. But obviously, the combination of both makes an even worse insult. And yes, it is pretty old-fashioned. Regards, Ilhan 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bao Diglot Senior Member Germany tinyurl.com/pe4kqe5 Joined 5766 days ago 2256 posts - 4046 votes Speaks: German*, English Studies: French, Spanish, Japanese, Mandarin | Message 5 of 14 13 May 2009 at 4:22pm | IP Logged |
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The word Schweinehund or Sauhund stands for dogs that are/were used in boar hunting. Students in the 19th century used the word as an allegory to insult mean or nagging people. Over time the meaning changed from a specific insult to a general insult to a metaphor for - ironically - laziness in somebody's character.
(from the German wikipedia page on "Innerer Schweinehund", I can't guarantee that it's correct) 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Volte Tetraglot Senior Member Switzerland Joined 6439 days ago 4474 posts - 6726 votes Speaks: English*, Esperanto, German, Italian Studies: French, Finnish, Mandarin, Japanese | Message 6 of 14 13 May 2009 at 4:22pm | IP Logged |
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Oddly enough, Italian has the same construct, "porco cane", but it's used more as an exclamation than an insult.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6011 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 7 of 14 13 May 2009 at 4:28pm | IP Logged |
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Dogs fall into a nice ambiguous category. They're part of human society by association, but as they're not really people, they're the lowest rung on the social ladder. The lowest of the low. Worse than estate agents and paparazzi.
1 person has voted this message useful | |
| !LH@N Triglot Senior Member Germany Joined 6821 days ago 487 posts - 531 votes Speaks: German, Turkish*, English Studies: Serbo-Croatian, Spanish | Message 8 of 14 13 May 2009 at 4:31pm | IP Logged |
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Telling you the truth, and not trying to offend anybody myself, I consider dogs being above paparazzi on the social ladder :P
Regards, Ilhan 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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