Chapters
Profanity is not just the domain of modern language. In the ancient and Roman times, vocabulary considered indecent was widely used. In ancient times and Roman times, descendants of “she-wolf” were commonly used in conversations, and less often in texts considered indecent.
Profanity was more likely to occur in speech than in writing. In literary works we know the following cases of use of profanity:
- writers: satirical poets, especially Catullus and Martialis. In addition, Horace in their early poems. Another type of song was “Priapeia”, dedicated to the god Priapus, a Roman fertility deity providing fertility.
- speakers and lawyers: e.g. Cicero in Epistulae ad Familiares.
- medical, especially veterinary, texts using anatomical expressions that were offensive over time.
- graffiti and inscriptions written on the walls of Pompeii and Herculaneum.
Vocabulary:
- Mentula, verpus – penis
- Colei – kernels
- Cunnus – pussy
- Landica – clitoris
- Culus – anus
- Merda – feces
- Futuere – sexual intercourse
- Futuo – fuck
- Cevere or crisare – the first probably refers to riding a penis or anal sex for a passive person, and second to fuck.
- Cacare – send
- Pedo, pedere, pepedi (or pepidi) – fart
- pelusia magna! – “young lady!”; offensive to men
- Mingere or meiere – pee
- cinaede, pathice, sceleste , perfide, barbare, inepte – words emphasizing slowness, lack of skills, cowardice, weakness
Although every text spoken in Latin sounds dignified, it should be clearly stated that the Romans knew a lot of profanity and used them eagerly. And it is not about the Latin equivalent of the word “curve”, for which we call vulgarisms “Latin”. In real, ancient Latin, one could encounter numerous profanities referring to sexual activities. Who would have thought that eminent Romans in gowns liked texts such as the famous Catullus poems, entitled: Pedicabo vos et irrumabo…
As for prostitution – the most common term for a prostitute was: scortor, scortari, which mainly occurs in Plautus. The term may come from the word scorteus (“made of leather”). Prostitutes were also referred to as meretrix (“earner”) or loupe (“she-wolf”). The brothel was called lupanar. The word prostituo meant “to put up for sale”.
Roman graffiti
When in 79 CE Pompeii and Herculaneum were destroyed by the eruption of the volcano Vesuvius, no one expected anything to survive there. However, as it turned out after many years, volcanic ash has perfectly preserved the remains of the Roman world. To this day, archaeologists are discovering amazing inscriptions, inscriptions and graffiti left by the Romans on the walls. Many of them prove to us that the Romans were not just luminous and cultural speakers.
Examples dirty words on Roman graffiti
Philiros spado
- “Phileros is a eunuch”
Lucius Pinxit
- “Lucius painted this”
Apollinaris, medicus Titi Imperatoris hic cacavit bene
- “Apollinaris, doctor to the emperor Titus, had a good crap here”
- description: an inscription on the wall of the Casa della Gemma in Herculaneum
Oppi, emboliari, fur, furuncle
- “Oppius, you’re a clown, a thief, and a cheap crook”
Miximus in lecto. Faetor, peccavimus, hospes. Si dices: quare? Nulla matella fuit
- “We have wet the bed. I admit, we were wrong, my host. If you ask ‘why?’ There was no chamber pot.” Found inside an inn”
- description: found in the inn.
Virgula Tertio su: Indecens es
- “Virgula to Teritus: You are a nasty boy”
Epaphra, glaber es
- “Epaphra, you are bald”
Vatuan aediles furunculi rog
- “The petty thieves request the election of Vatia as adele”
- description: in Pompeii, an “adele” was an elected official who supervised markets and local police, among other things.
Suspirium puellam Celadus thraex
- “Celadus makes the girls moan”
Admiror, O paries, te non cecidisse, qui tot scriptorium taedia sustineas
- “I wonder, O wall, that you have not yet collapsed, so many writers’ clichés do you bear”
- description: popular record; often appears on the walls in different places.
