يا جزمة يا ابن الجزمة (ya gazma yibn ig-gazma)
When someone from Arkatrash calls you "ya gazma", they are saying you are a shoe. People who were not born into the tongue understand the words, of course, due to the gift of one hundred tongues, but the meaning escapes them.
The shoe is associated with dirt and the ground in Arkatrash and by extension the unclean and sullied. You can be sure you have been seriously insulted when called a shoe in Arkatrash. The above line, in its entirety, means "You shoe, you son of a shoe.", so whoever is throwing that at your head is out to cut deep.
Interestingly, however, the word "gazma" is actually used ironically by inhabitants of the western side of Arkatrash where the Sullied Ones live. They often call each other shoes as a form of showing affection and criticizing society's view of them.
''Why don't you get your pots somewhere else, ya gazma!'' Hapat spat on the ground and Yillep's eyes widened.
The tourist from Aquaris looked nonplussed at the lank boy that had just yelled at him for bumping into his side while viewing Yillep's inventory. ''Ya... did you just call me... a shoe?''
''Out! Out, Hapat! You naughty boy! Do not curse in my house, you hear me! Out!''
Hapat spat again and left.
''I am so sorry, dear customer,'' Yillep apologized, his eyes downcast.
''I still don't get the shoe bit.''
"It is... not a nice thing to say here. Please, cast it out of your mind; the boy is young and knows not what he is saying."— From 'One Hundred Brittle Tongues' by Nahib Jorgesbrödl
Quite a fun article! I love me some obscure insults.
glad you enjoyed it ^-^ don't forget to hit that like button :P Also, I'll trade you obscure insults for obscure words anytime, if you know any :D
There's a like button? Sorry, I'm brand new to the site. Liked! Obscure words? Hang on, I'm sure I had a list somewhere... How about Thaumaturgy? Sough is another pretty good one.
Hoh boy, you'll have to do a lot better than that xD Offers in my court start with fernticled, quizzacious, and cyclopian architecture. :P And thank you very much ^-^
Dang! I had a feeling I would be outclassed. :P I'll have to see if I can dig up some good ones and get back to you.
Looking forward to it ^-^
I wager you already know phantasmagorical, and propitiate is probably too easy, but I feel like I might have a chance with hemolymph.
Pff, I used hemolymph on my article about the giant moths of Yamato:
Codex Riccardium - A Primer on the Moths of Yamato
As Riccard Leeuw prepares to discuss the principles of technamagix in his codex, he sets a few pages aside to talk about the Moths of Yamato. (13848 Words)
Well, I at least got one, I'll count that as something. I did actually later Google a huge list of obscure words, but I suspect you likely know most of them. I would suggest Eisenbahnscheinbewegung or Dunandunate, but I don't believe either of those are actually in Dictionaries, so I'm not sure if they count. I quite like Zugzwang, but again, that's likely already in your repertoire.
All the good German ones are. Zugzwang, Weltschmerz, Schadenfreude, Wunderkind, Zeitgeist, Völkerwanderung, a.s.o. I am German xD Also, my former Japanese student gave me a dictionary of obscure English words as a present once :P
I at least knew of Schadenfreude, but most of the others are new to me. How about poindexter? Prolix? Nesh? Skeuomorph? Flahoolick?f
Are you skimming buzzfeed lists or something? xD I did not know any of those other than poindexter, so I tip my bonnet. Though I doth feel a bit parched; don't you feel these are a bit weak? With the exception of perhaps prolix. I can't help but feel that if I used any of these the reaction of most readers wouldn't be "interesting" but "ok, but why tho" :P Well, here is the strongest and most evil insult my world has to offer:
I took this directly from this one:Vinclav, the Master of Keys
Now games and wagers are the life / Of sailors, pirates, fisher′s wives; / But do beware the yellow eyes, / Don′t bet to serve, your soul, your life / Always beware the yellow eyes. (2701 Words)
I will readily admit these are weak, yes, haha. I am entirely guilty of Googling a bunch of lists—your substantial knowledge presented quite the challenge, and I couldn't restrain myself from doing a little research. You've started me on something and I don't know if I'll be able to stop now. :P Other fruits of my shameless Googling include Paralipsis and Cthonic. Cthonic is probably the most useful, at least for the purposes of prose. It sounds enough like Cthulhu I think readers would infer the meaning. I do have one genuine, non-Googled word to offer you, compliments of my brother, who randomly tells me neat things he's discovered on his own time. The word is defenestrate, and it's actually one of my new favourites. The meaning tickles me immensely. If we're counting insults from our own worlds, I have some to offer of my own. I need to actually get articles written up about my language, though—I'm still very new to this site, and quite intimidated by all the different little types of articles and things. Do you have any tips for how one might format a language on this here site?
Ah yes, good old defenestrate. That one comes up occasionally in crime novels and tv shows ^-^ I might actually use chthonic, as a character in the novel has indeed spent over two decades magically sealed away below ground, so thanks for that one. As for paralipsis, well it is always nice to learn new lables for the tools of the trade, very interesting. I'd be happy to provide some ideas and assistance for your formatting; why not join me and other skilled writers I found on WA and the Worldbuilding Magazine on my Discord Server? The comment section of this article might be a bit static for a proper exchange.
Was digging through my old "Collection of Handles" (that's what I call my file for loose ideas; I watched TED talk once about metaphors or something that was basically about how all you needed was a handle to get a door to a world, etc.) and found another good one: Threnody. Quite like the sound of that one. Thanks for the invite to the Discord server, I'll have to join! I guess I'll see you there fairly soon.