As an italian from (near) Rome, I feel offended we're not getting the recognition we deserve for this!
The expression for variations of "who cares" would be "Sticazzi" (~= "these dicks") and is a particularly important expression in roman culture! "Not caring" is core to our being, in most bad and good ways :)
There's even a short story whose origin I can't recall:
When God finished making the world, God was looking at his creation and some people showed up:
- Lord, we'd like to ask for Power
- Let it be granted - said the Lord, and those became the Kings and Queens and Emperors
Then some more people showed up:
- Lord, we'd like to ask for Power
- The Powerful already have that
- Well, we'd like to ask for the Wealth then
- Let it be granted - said the Lord, and those became the rich people.
Then God saw the Romans walk by and yelled at them
- Hey folks, I'm sorry, there's neither Power nor Wealth left!
The romans looked at each other in confusion, and replied "sticazzi?"
Roman Empire acquired almost every piece of land in Europe, so that story is not quite accurate about the power and wealth ;) But it's entertaining, of course - thanks!
I interpreted it as "Romans" being the (contemporary) inhabitants of Rome, (presumably) considered to be dicks by other Italians. They said "dicks!" referring to the people who got wealth and power, God said "granted", and turned them into dicks.
You'd be surprised what 2000 years of living at a global center of wealth and power can do to the spirit of an average joe. For inspiration, see this thread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29639486
As mentioned in the thread, it's more like it's an ad for a book. Including cross posting it here.
Knowing the thread, i don't really see a correlation ( and it seems te exagerated + coincidence considering the timing in the reddit thread - ~4 hours between)
> Roman Empire acquired almost every piece of land in Europe
Depends on what you mean by "almost" and "Europe" I guess. They never conquered (all of) present day Germany, Poland, Scotland or Ireland. None of the entirety of Scandinavia, or the Baltic states, etc.
At the peak of the Roman Empire, the Iron Age had been going for about 400 years in Northern Europe, so it was clearly inhabited and not completely backwards: and if anyone feels like making the argument that there was nothing "worth" conquering in these parts anyway, consider that 1) you're just parroting what the Romans themselves would have said and 2) if that is true, why did the Romans ever attempt to conquer the Germanic Tribes? It's not like present-day Germany was a bastion of so-called "civilization" compared to present day Scandinavia. The simple answer is that the Romans couldn't.
So without taking anything away from how absolutely gigantic the Roman Empire was, I can't agree with the statement that they "acquired almost every piece of land in Europe" -- not that it really makes that much of a difference since many parts of the Roman Empire were firmly outside of Europe.
Neither do I and I'm also french. I've checked on the french wiktionary[1] and in fact that's a real french saying. But I've never heard someone say this in my all life.
Seems to be a mix betwen of "Je m'en bats les couilles" and "Le train de tes injures roule sur les rails de mon indifférence", never heard the author version. I stand wrong on the etymology, see below. French-speaking here.
It exists as an entry in the https://fr.m.wiktionary.org/wiki/s%E2%80%99en_badigeonner_le... but I don't think I ever heard someone uses it. The non vulgar original version seems to be "s'en brosser le nombril avec le pinceau de l'indifférence" (To brush one navel with the brush of indifference) and found it's origin in the comic strip Achille Talon.
There are just a lot of different ways to say it, and although this one isn't very popular most people would still get the meaning fine and it does have some attested use, so I think it has its place in such a list.
My own personal favorite would be (it's very inelegantly translated) it touches one [of my testicles] without making the other move (maybe invented by former president Chirac, at least made popular by him). It's well known and understood and has the advantage to be vulgar enough without actually making an explicit reference to testicles.
I'm French from Québec and the usual expression here would be the Catholic inspired "I'm X-ing myself of it" where X is one of Christ (je m'en crisse), the Holy Chalice (je m'en câlice), the Tabernacle (je m'en tabarnac) etc.
Although these swears seem extremely mild, they are actually quite heavy in Québec, even though no one goes to church anymore, because of how dominant the Catholic Church was until the sixties. They would be censored on TV, for example.
French speaking, never heard of this one. For the sake of human advancement, I'll share with you the one that I hear more often "je m'en bats les coui*es" (literally "I hit my ba*s with it" or something like that; which means "I don't care).
That happens when you google idioms in other languages ... you have no clue about the actual usage. And they are usually not one-to-one.
German "das ist mir Wurst" is also a lot weaker than "zero fucks given", at least use something stronger like "das interessiert keinen Arsch" (no asshole cares). Also "zero fucks given" in the sense of "irresponsible, he just does it and doesn't care who gets hurt" doesn't really have an equivalent idiom. Maybe "als druff" (just go full power straight ahead) or something.
I've never heard "als druff" but I'd like to add "das ist mir Latte" as a variant as well as "das ist Jacke wie Hose" ("jacket like trousers", which is more like "potayto, potuhto") and as others have pointed out "das geht mir am Arsch vorbei".
But none of them is an exact match as there's no perfect overlap for all situations to which "zero fucks given" can be applied. Which isn't too surprising as most idioms and even most words don't map 1-to-1 between languages even when they share a common root.
Yeah, "das ist mir Wurst" doesn't seem strong enough. "Drauf geschissen"/"Scheiß drauf" ("shit on it") maybe? Kinda close to "not giving a shit" (or "fuck") and also kinda works for the irresponsible case, "Er scheißt drauf, ob er jemanden verletzt".
That sounds beautifully poetic, compared to versions from other languages (mine included). I can see how Monty Python came up with "I fart in your general direction" :)
"Je m'en fous" is the short version. Using a longer version is obviously done for fun, and to tell at great lengths how much you don't care. Usually people will spice it up with a version of their own to add to the comical effect.
Why talk when you can physically convey the idea. I must say that this discussion makes me somewhat uncomfortable with the centrality of not caring in my culture.
The dutch one is better translated as “I’ll let it rust my crack” (as in buttcrack) rather than anus.
It comes from the fact that we also used to use the word crack for “railtrack embedded in the pavement” as used by trams (streetcars). To let the crack oxidize is to not do proper upkeep on that section of the track.
Though no one uses crack to refer to railway track anymore. So the translation is definitely the connotation that modern day dutch speakers would hear.
As a modern day dutch speaker: can confirm the connotation.
Never heard about this alternative use of "reet" before.
As an aside, in Dutch, this alliterates ("rust" is "roest" in dutch).
As an aside aside, the expression is passive in Dutch. A more direct translation would be "that can rust to me arse". The "to" there is also weird in Dutch ("aan").
It doesn't appear so, at least according to Wiktionary. The word supposedly comes from some kind of past tense of "rijten" meaning "to rip, tear". "Reet" comes from "rete" which means "split". This is the furthest back the Wiktionary entry goes: https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Reconstruction:Proto-Germanic...
Spanish translation is also a bit shoddy: "Me importa un pepino" translates to "it matters/means as much to me as a cucumber". It's probably been translated that way to give it the same punch.
The saying is also used with comino (a cumin seed), pimiento (a pepper), rabano (a radish), all rather vegetarian, and culo (ass), and possibly other regional variants.
The "reet" in the Dutch expression of course also returns in "dat interesseert me geen ene reet".
Correction: m'n reet. Although many people will use "me" here, that is definitely incorrect.
And although I too only know the expression with the word "aan" in it, the translation by jauco at the start of this thread seems to suggest they also use it without that word.
"Kan me geen kloten schelen" is what I would imagine is the closest to the intent of the article.
In West-Flanders, we would also say: "'t Is 't klappen nie weird."
You can assume that most trending content on the web is intentionally well timed and trying to peddle something to you. Doesn't matter though; still fun.
Haha! Nice, I'm replying to this while doing AoC day 22. Let's start the debate!
But no, it was not 'that' much fun, especially without the original phrases included (mildly interesting what it is in English, but they missed a lot of nuance, of course, by probably going Google translate -> Google translate or something). But often I see interesting content which is blatant sales/marketing material for a book, SaaS or coaching/consultancy product. I recognise that most things people put a lot of time in are somehow to 'make them money' in some way, especially if that is their job (like evangelists of corps often have very elaborate and interesting articles, videos, etc but they are created with targets in mind).
I often see people using their screens while walking their dogs. It bothers me a lot. Isn't this something that is supposed to be done together? The dogs look like they have the feeling that they are a nuisance to their owners, as if the owner is trying to communicate to them that he is forced to walk them.
Then there are those owners who interact a lot with their (and other) dogs during the walks, and those dogs have a happy attitude on them, they seem to be more awake.
I walk my dog twice a day every day (just myself) - sometimes I will be on my phone because twice a day every single day means at some point I'll think of something to google or check on an email or whatever. Do something outside twice a day every day for a year only and report back if you've never pulled out your phone.
That being said I do prefer keeping attention on him and enjoying the outside quiet time. I would recommend being less bothered by other people using their phones out in the world though, or you'll be constantly bothered.
You are right. But I do get outside for at least an hour a day to do sport, everyday. While I don't do calls or google around, I stop for taking photos with my phone. But you are right.
> The dogs look like they have the feeling that they are a nuisance to their owners, as if the owner is trying to communicate to them that he is forced to walk them.
Uh, no. Dogs don't take their owner's phone usage that seriously or personally. They are more opportunistic and free spirited than to get hung up about other people's behaviours.
The fact that you interpret things that way probably tells us more about you than it does about dogs. I imagine you are a considerate, thoughtful person (who doesn't know much about dogs).
In Swedish it's not as harsh as Zero fucks given but reading some of those others I'd say "intresseklubben antecknar" is the phrase we'd use when I was growing up in the 90s.
It translates literally to "the club of interested people is taking notes".
The usual is "ma doare-n pula" which translates as "it hurts in my dick", or, "da-o-n pula" = "put it / send it in dick" if you're talking about something/somebody. Or you can just say "pula" (dick) in the correct context would translate the same.
EDIT: Forgot to mention the "censored", non-vulgar version: "ma doare tare" = "it hurts much", or just "ma doare" = "it hurts".
I've never heard about the frostbitten onion before and I am Romanian as well - maybe it's particular to some regions?
"It hurts in my dick" is just a more vulgar way of saying "it hurts in my ass" (the ass would be a place you wouldn't care if you hurt or not); more vulgar because "pula" (erect penis) is more vulgar than ass.
The next level of not giving a fuck after that is "it doesn't even hurt in my ass" which I find amusing - to which someone can reply "well, when it's gonna hurt you'll realise how bad it is" in the sense that "you will wake up someday and regret it".
The least vulgar variant is "it hurts in my elbow" - elbows being usually bumped into things and not hurting much (unless you hit that special spot where the nerve lies)
The frostbitten onion one is "o ceapă degerată", worthless. The suggested form here is "nu dau nici o ceapă degerată" which is used, but less common than the painful dick/ass variants.
My favorite is "it breaks my dick" - "mi se rupe pula". Then there is the euphemistic "it hurts somewhere", with the reader left to guess where exactly.
The elbow variant is another euphemism for ass, due to lexical similarity "cur" vs "cot".
> "It hurts in my dick" is just a more vulgar way of saying "it hurts in my ass" (the ass would be a place you wouldn't care if you hurt or not); more vulgar because "pula" (erect penis) is more vulgar than ass.
Oddly enough, "butthurt" is a modern English expression for nearly the opposite sentiment.
In Spanish, I'd say "me importa un pepino" ("I care a cucumber") shares as much popularity as "me importa un pimiento" ("I care a pepper"). Personally I've heard/used the second one a lot more, but I guess it may depend on the region or something.
But there are other, more explicit, expressions equally popular. There is "me importa una mierda" ("I care a shit"), and the most vulgar one is probably "me suda la polla" ("it makes my dick sweat") or, for short, "me la suda".
While I do know both of the mentioned German/Austrian sayings:
"It's sausage to me."
"It's blood pudding to me."
I'm not sure those actually capture the feel of "zero fucks given"...
"It's sausage to me." is rather tame, would fit "I don't care" or "I couldn't care less.". The blood pudding is the same, but feels a bit archaic/backwardly.
There's also:
"This goes straight past my arse." - which might be a better match for "zero fucks" in terms of tone and vulgarity. But even that feels more like "I don't give a shit" rather then "Zero fucks given". I don't think there's a perfect German translation of "Zero fucks given" that captures all the nuances.
"The dog shits on it." (mentioned for another language) exists in German as well. Feels a bit more aggressive/confrontational than "It's sausage to me."
(It's also more of a "nobody cares" rather than an "I don't care")
I think most of these examples are I don't care about the thing under discussion whereas zero fucks given is a more all encompassing level of not caring about anything that might get in the way of what the person who is giving the zero fucks wants to do.
Or, possibly better, "tuz" (or "tozz") which just means "salt" in Turkish. There's a story behind it[0] but it's universally used across the MENA region to express indifference.
In Spanish, in particular in Spain, "cucumber" is seldom used. The order of most used according to a recent corpus [1] and google search suggestions would be:
It might, I had never thought about it. It doesn't make much sense as in "doesn't imply 'I don't care about this'", but then again, very few of these examples do!
In Macedonian we say "ne me boli kur" or the more prevalent "me boli kur" which mean "my dick does not hurt" or the latter more ironic version "my dick hurts".
I am pretty sure that "мне по хрену" is a parody on "мне по плечу" (literally "fits my shoulder" but means "doable to me / within my powers"). Russian people coin new expressions with such witticisms all the time.
So, reproducing the same parody in English, one could say "fits my wiener". Horseradish here being an obscenity-avoiding euphemism for c*ck (like English "wiener"), not the plant (just like all the sausages and cucumbers in the other languages).
As I native, I would assume that "мне по хрену"/"мне похрен" is an euphemism of the more rough variant "мне похуй" (it is up to my dick, same height as my dick).
It's also definitely a ‘minced oath’ for ‘похуй’—which involves the dick and a prefix/preposition that is basically random, as usual for abstract idiomatic expressions in various languages.
For general absence of fucks, there's also the suitable ‘it doesn't fuck me’.
Yes, the horseradish here is a word that sounds similar to dick, and yet is inoffensive enough not to be tabooed. A similar kind of substitution in English would be heck instead of hell, or shoot instead of shit.
Variations of "jeg driter i det" (literally: I shit in it) seems to be to be common in Norway.
Edit: A more polite one in Norwegian I think is "det blåser jeg (en lang marsj) i" (roughly: I play a long march to that. Implied that it is played on trumpet or something since blåser equals blows).
Someone who knows Norwegian and English better than be should feel free to correct.
"Horseradish" aside (lol) my favorite Russian euphemism for this is:
"[I] spun [this] on my dick" (на хую вертел). Spun as in "to spin", "to rotate", "to twirl." The imagery is a bit absurd, as is the case with most of these. The Greek one with the flowers and the bees is 10/10 as well.
- Ca m'en touche une sans m'en faire bouger l'autre: "It touches one of my balls without moving the other one". Actually popularize by French President Chirac :)
- Je m'en branle : "I wank about it"
Seems like involving sexual organs is pretty much international.
"Kiko" comes from "O que é que eu tenho a ver com isso?" (Something like "What's it got to do with me?").
When you pronounce this phrase fast in Brazilian Portuguese it sounds like "Ki ko tenho a ver com isso?" and then became the slang "kiko".
"On my testicles" (short for: "I've noted it on my testicles", i.e. I don't care about it), also said as "I write it (meaning scribled/noted) on my testicles").
"Something is going on at the gypsie camp" (as such camps are lively, there's usually always something going there. So something "going on" there would be a common occurence/irrelevant, and by extension, we don't give a fuck about it).
"The mare shat on the field" (as horses do that all the time, it means it's a trivial thing, and by extension, we don't give a fuck about it).
We do have the horse one in french : "J'en parlerais à mon cheval". It's generaly used to reply to someone questioning, nagging or bulling you, to face slapping him a bit. I'ts a sort of self-defence tactic and can be more translated by "this is not your business" than "i don't care". In the same way we have the more aggressive ones : "Est-ce que je te demande si ta grand-mère fait du vélo ?" or "Et ta sœur, elle bat le beurre ?"
"Non me ne frega un cavolo" is pretty common in Northern Italy, though I'd often go for the more vulgar "non me ne frega un cazzo." (I don't care/give a dick)
Never heard about the horse either; the cabbage thing is a translation of "non me ne importa un cavolo" (I don't care a cabbage), which is just a self-restrained version of the more common "non me ne importa un cazzo" (I don't care a dick)
Yep, in Rome and around it, probably as someone said in another comment, "sticazzi" would be used, though I think that it has a slightly different meaning.
In Tuscany, it would be the "(but) I care (or don't care) a (beautiful) saw"->(ma) (non) m'importa una (bella) sega)
In french there's "je m'en fous comme de l'an 40" or "je m'en moque comme de l'an 40": "I don't care, as if it was year 40". But the funny thing is nobody really knows about which year 40 this is. It's not 1940 for the saying goes back at least 200 years.
In the 90s in Montreal it was a very common expression. Haven't heard it in a while. I avoid it because people might think 1940s, and that would be disrespectful.
These days: "on s'en câlisse" (most cursing is church-based because it is unlikely to offend anyone).
The fun thing about Romance languages. What is Latin for Witness?
Testis.
What is the central message of "zero fucks given"?
I have seen it, and am unmoved.
I am not at all surprised there seems to be a high correlation with phraseology involving testicles/genitalia and the message of having more important things to attend to.
Much more interesting is the variance in terms of how some of these turns of phrase are associated with (the speaker|something else in the world|some situation in the world) as subject.
I'd go on, but I'd have to deposit 25 fucks for the next five minutes, and I'm fresh out.
In Polish, it’s “mam to w dupie”, or “I have it up my ass”, which actually sounds painful/rather a lot of effort about something you’re indifferent to.
- wisi mi to [i powiewa] = it hangs of me [and waves around]
- mam to w nosie = I have it in my nose
- to nikogo = this [matters to] nobody (this is actually pretty funny but can't translate it to English, the joke is that nobody in this particular case only applies to several possible verbs, only a few of them apply to groups of people, and the case also encodes negation - so saying "nikogo" (nobody in a particular case) is enough to deduce the full sentece)
- tak bardzo mi wszystko jedno = it's so very much whatever for me
- srał to pies = a dog shat on it
- mam [na to] wyjebane = I have it fucked-out [on it]? fucked-through? Phrasal versions of "fuck" really don't translate to non-Slavic languages
- jebie mnie to = it fucks me
- kładę na to lachę = I lay my staff (meaning dick) on it
"Horseradish" is a euphemism for "dick" (a similar sounding word). There's a different, original variant which has "dick" instead of horseradish. When you want to say "fuck you" you say "go [and sit] on the dick". The original phrase for "zero fucks given" therefore, means more like "it is around the area of the dick".
For Finnish, I think the more common expression is "The rocks are interested too". Its easier to quip in discussion. Of course the listed one is a bit more lively, so more fun in lists like these :)
Also, some years ago it was almost a meme to use "EVVK", short for "couldn't care less", in so much that it got spelled as such spoken language too. I don't hear that as much anymore.
One could make a list comparable to that by simply focusing on Russian variants. We have a pretty rich variety of ways to not give it. As you may have guessed, many of them refer to having diverse sex or other obscene acts (feel free to fantasize) with a subject in different ways, to not having a desire to do that, or a subject being claimed as not really fitting this purpose.
Dutch here. We also like to say (at least where I am from): "Je kunt mijn rug op en mijn reet af" -> "You can go on my back and off my ass".
BTW: the translated part from the Dutch "It can oxidize on my anus" is in Dutch: "Het kan aan mijn reet roesten"
In French, the one with the paint is not common. However “je m’en branle” (I wank myself with it?) and “j’en ai rien à branler/foutre/secouer” (I have nothing to wank/jerk/shake with it) are _very_ common.
Haha, I came to the comments to say exactly this. These idioms are really very, very common in spoken French. I would add "rien à battre" to your list.
Why doe these not have the original language version behind the English one? Or am I missing that (dunno what Nitter is). Like the Dutch one is: 'Het zal me aan mijn reet roesten'.
Nitter is an alternative frontend to twitter, this is a twitter thread in disguise. Much more readable in my opinion.
I only know a variation of the Dutch one, "het kan me de reet niet roesten", which is the exact inverse. I guess we have our own "I could care less/I couldn't care less", how fun!
It is hard to find the exact meaning of ass though; always ends up with donkey; asshole is anus, but ass would be butt then? My point is ; reet != anus.
A bit crass, but in Punjabi (India), we used to say “Bund ni maardey”, literally translated to “we don’t do it in the ass”. Not sure why it became synonymous with “we don’t give a fuck”.
As long as we're on the fasz topic, there's also the phrase "faszt érdekli", literally "only the dick's interested", which is a pretty confrontative way to tell someone that you're not interested.
though which you use when somebody says something that you don't like and/or stupid and/or they want you to do something and you want to say that you don't agree with it and/or you don't want to do it.
I feel like these have been translated in an over-technical way to deliberately make them seem more ridiculous. Is It can oxidize on my anus not really "it can rust on my ass"?
The expression for variations of "who cares" would be "Sticazzi" (~= "these dicks") and is a particularly important expression in roman culture! "Not caring" is core to our being, in most bad and good ways :)
There's even a short story whose origin I can't recall:
When God finished making the world, God was looking at his creation and some people showed up:
- Lord, we'd like to ask for Power - Let it be granted - said the Lord, and those became the Kings and Queens and Emperors
Then some more people showed up:
- Lord, we'd like to ask for Power - The Powerful already have that - Well, we'd like to ask for the Wealth then - Let it be granted - said the Lord, and those became the rich people.
Then God saw the Romans walk by and yelled at them
- Hey folks, I'm sorry, there's neither Power nor Wealth left!
The romans looked at each other in confusion, and replied "sticazzi?"
God thought about it a bit:
- Let it be granted!