GermanyArschloch
noun · Vulgar · ARSH-lokh
Arsehole — a genuinely nasty person, not merely a fool. The single most-used serious insult in German, and the register is exactly what the English cognate suggests.
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Germany
German Slang for Insults & Complaints
8 German slang terms for insults & complaints, each with its meaning, how it is pronounced and an example of it in use.
Terms for fools, annoyances and things gone wrong. Register matters enormously here — several of these words are affectionate between friends and fighting words between strangers.
Depp
noun · Regional · DEP
A fool, a clot. The standard southern German, Austrian and Swiss word for an idiot, and much milder than its northern equivalents — close friends call each other Depp with real affection.
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Hurensohn
noun, interjection · Taboo · HOO-ren-zohn
The strongest common insult in German. Directed at a person it insults his mother, which is precisely why it functions as a fight-starter in a way Arschloch does not.
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Schmarrn
noun, interjection · Regional · SHMAR-n
Nonsense, rubbish, tripe. Bavarian and Austrian, and the standard way of dismissing something someone has just said.
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Spast
noun · Vulgar · SHPAST
Idiot, moron — a disability slur used casually as a general insult, chiefly by teenagers and by adults who were teenagers in the 1990s.
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Spießer
noun · Colloquial · SHPEE-ser
A narrow-minded conformist: hedge trimmed to the millimetre, opinions borrowed from the regional paper, deep suspicion of anything unfamiliar. One of the most-used German insults that is not remotely rude.
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verpiss dich
phrase · Vulgar · fer-PISS dikh
Piss off; get lost. Rude but not the rudest — it sits above 'hau ab' and below 'fick dich', and is roughly as strong as the English 'piss off'.
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Vollpfosten
noun · Colloquial · FOL-pfos-ten
A complete idiot — the German for 'absolute muppet'. Contemptuous but not obscene, which is why it turns up in newspaper columns and on daytime television.
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