The Sharpest Tongue

I don’t know about you, but while I go out of my way to avoid insulting anyone, I do feel that when the occasion arises, I do feel we have lost some of the inventiveness and charm in the insults we fling around. In attempt to broaden the range of my vocabulary I have taken a look at some insults from around the world and from yesteryear.

The Germans seem to have a thing about simpletons or idiots without whom the human gene pool would be improved. Their word for it is evolutionbremse or evolutionary brake. Alternatively, there is Teletubbyzurückwinker, someone who waves back at the Teletubbies ie someone who is not very bright, or Gehirnverweigerer, someone who does not use their brain very often, or an Einzeller, a single-cell organism. You can also add to the mix Arsch mit ohren, an arse with ears, a complete ignoramus.

In the workplace we all have come across at some time an Erbsenzähler, literally a pea counter, someone who obsesses over small details, and an ameisentätowierer, an ant tattooist, one who is overly pedantic. Almost as bad is the Dünnbrettbohrer, a driller of thin planks who does the minimum and takes the easy way out.

Another characteristic some irksome is talkativeness. The Germans have a word, Heißluftgebläse, to describe someone who talks a lot about nothing, a hot air gun.

More anon.