Finnish profanity

"kusi" redirects here. For the television station, see KUSI-TV.

Many Finns frequently use profanity in everyday speech. While not all Finns swear, frequent swearing is a mark of youth culture. However, it is commonly considered impolite to swear excessively, in public and official occasions and particularly in front of children.

Finnish swearwords can be used as adjectives or adverbs with proper conjugation, just as the English swear words "fuck" or "shit" can become the descriptives "fucking" or "shitty."

The words often have old origins, and some have Pagan roots, that after Christian influence were turned from names of deities and spirits to profanity and used as such. Nowadays few Finns know of the origins and intended original use of the words.

The people in the neighbouring countries to Finland often consider Finnish swear words harsher than their own, and even use heavily mis-pronounced versions of them, most notably perkele. Native Finns tend to consider the harshness exaggerated, while others use it to their advantage.

The words

The following explains the meanings of certain well-known curse words.
Helvetti	Helvetti translates as hell and has roughly the same meaning as in the English language. From Swedish Helvete, with the same meaning. Often used example-phrase is "What the hell?" in Finnish "Mitä helvettiä?" Some words used to replace it, depending on dialect, include helkutti, helvata, hemmetti, hemskutti, himputti and himskatti.
Hitto, Hiisi	Hitto, probably from pagan origin, is a relatively mild swear word, but still considered an expletive. Also used in a diminutive form "hittolainen". Both words are references to sacred grove or burial site or a mythical creature ( possibly also Hittavainen). It can nowadays be translated as "a devil" or some other little hellish being. The word is in same category with other "mild" swear words like "helkkari" or "himskatti". Hiisi means either Hell itself or somekind of hellish being, specially as a wish (painu hiiteen, literally "go to hiisi" but means "go to hell". Hiisi vieköön, "shall the hiisi take (it)".) Hitto is usually translated Damn (it). Funniest form of using hitto word could be hitto soikoon, "shall the hitto chimes"
Jumalauta	This is a combination of two words jumala meaning god and auta meaning help (verb, imperative 2nd person). It is used in a similar fashion to Oh God except in Finnish it tends to have a slightly aggressive emphasis, usually used as a way of expressing one's frustration. Another translation for Oh God is Voi luoja (luoja = the creator, a synonym for God). An ad campaign forEvangelian Church aid for third world countries used JumalAuta as an eyecatcher. This raised discussion for being too profane. Perhaps the most accurate English counterpart for "jumalauta" is "goddamn it", although in English one asks God to damn the person or reason for the problem, whereas in Finnish one simply asks God for some kind of help. Often used replacement words for it are jumankauta, jumaliste or jumaleissön (pronounced like "jumalation").
Kulli	A word for "penis", usually literally, considered somewhat profane.
Kusi	Kusi, pronounced /kusi/ or like "coosy" in English, means "urine" with a similar connotation as "piss". By itself it refers to actual urine and is considered only mildly offensive in colloquial language. It's used of people in compound words, such as such as "kusipää" (pisshead, common translation of "asshole"), as very offensive insults. Inoffensive synonyms are the clinical term virtsa ("urine") and the childish pissa ("pee"). The word pissa has drifted so far into everyday usage that in combined form pissapoika (pissing boy) it refers specifically to the squirter on the windshield of cars. Foreign visitors have been amused by the product "Superpiss" for windshield wiper fluid.
Kyrpä	Literally "cock" in the sense of "penis"; often considered highly offensive. The word nearly always refers to an actual penis and may be used, for example, to express frustration: Voi kyrpä! "Oh fuck!". The widespread verb vituttaa "to feel angry and depressed" originates from its meaning "to want pussy". Therefore, classically, women should not use vituttaa, but kyrpiä, e.g. kyrpii "this makes me feel bad".
Mulkku	Has the literal meaning "penis", but may refer, like English "prick", to an unpleasant man, both as a noun and as an adjective.
Molo	Usually used only literally for "penis", somewhat profane. Has a derivation molopää, corresponding to English "asshole".
Muna	Literally means "egg" and may refer to a literal penis, but is not considered an insult or particularly profane. For example, there is a gay cruise named Munaristeily, which is publicly marketed as such.
Paska	Paska translates as "shit" or "crap" and has has approximately the same context in English and Finnish. It has the same connonations of "shoddy" or "broken," which may even surpass the word's use in the original sense in frequency. Inoffensive synonyms are kakka ("poo"), especially with children, and the clinical uloste ("excrement"). Uloste appears to have been introduced as a high-class replacement in the 1800s, while paska is believed to have been in continuous use since at least the Proto-Finnic of 3000 BC. Doubt and disbelief are expressed with hevonpaska ("horse's shit", compare "bullshit") and paskan marjat ("shit's berries.") It can be combined with vittu as in "Vittu tätä paskaa" ("fuck this shit.") A Finnish rock musician goes by the name, and Paskahousu is a card game, a relative of Shithead, that's popular with children and teenagers.
Perkele	Perkele was originally imported from the Baltic as an alternate name for the thunder god of Finnish paganism, Ukko, and co-opted by the Christian church as a synonym for "devil." [1]. The "r" can be rolled and lengthened, which can be transcribed by repeating it. The word is very common in the country and likely the best known expletive abroad, and enjoys a kind of emblematic status; for instance, the Finnish black metal band Impaled Nazarene named its 1994 patriotic album Suomi Finland Perkele (using the word as a reference to Finnishness, not to the devil) and the more conventional M. A. Numminen released a 1971 album known as Perkele! Lauluja Suomesta ("Perkele! Songs from Finland.") When used for expressing one's miscontent or frustration, perkele often suggests that the sayer is determined to solve the problem, even if it will be difficult. It is associated with sisu, which in turn is an iconic Finnish trait. Professor Kulonen has described perkele as being ingrained in the older generations, as opposed to kyrpä and vittu for the younger ones. A common and milder replacement word is perhana, and less popular variations include perkules, perskuta, perskuta rallaa and perkeleissön (pronounced like "perkelation"). The word has lent itself to a Swedish expression for Finnish business management practices, Management by perkele.
Perse	Perse ("ass") can be used either literally or as a semi-strong swear word. The similarities with the Latin phrase "per se", the Hungarian "persze" (which means "of course", comes from the aforementioned Latin and is pronounced mostly the same way), the hero Perseus and the ancient city of Persepolis are purely coincidental, although the wide use of "persze" in spoken Hungarian could sound somewhat embarrassing to Finnish visitors.
Pillu	Pillu, pronounced "pill-oo" (am.), translates to "cunt" and is not a strong swear word, but not something to say to one's mother-in-law, either. Non-profane synonyms for the literal meaning include römpsä, tavara (literally "stuff"), toosa (actually an oldish dialectical name by Swedish origin for little box, container), pimppi, tussu (which also means female pubic hairs)
Piru	Piru, meaning devil is not always considered a swearword but sometimes used in a similar fashion to the word damn: "Damn it all" - "Piru vieköön" - "shall (the) Devil take (it)" A more proper word for devil is paholainen.
Reva	Reva is another reference to the female genitalia, akin to vittu. Its English representative would be "quim" or "cunt". It is primarily used as a strong sexual expression, not as an actual swearword. The former chairman of Finnish Parliament, Mrs. Riitta Uosukainen used the word in her controversial autobiography Liehuva liekinvarsi, where she described herself in the sexual encounters between her and Mr. Topi Uosukainen as rintaa, reittä ja revää (alternatively spelled "revaa") ("[I was utterly]...breasts, thighs and quim.") Reva is also used occasionally in reference to buttocks, especially female buttocks and can therefore also be translated as "ass". A loose translation for Täyden kympin reva is "Top class ass".
Runkkari	Runkkari or runkku is an extremely offensive word and rarely used, but when used it usually has other swear words said with it such as "Saatanan runkkari!". In English it means wanker and derives from verb runkata, "to wank".
Ryökäle	A curse word specific to the older generation, now considered non-offensive.
Saatana	Saatana means quite literally Satan, but used in a similar fashion to helvetti. Often used replacement words for it are saamari and samperi. Along with "perkele" and "vittu", this is one of the most classic and most used swearing words in Finnish. Often used together with helvetti as saatanan helvetti.
Vittu	Vittu is a quite ancient word for the female genitalia but now has the literal meaning of "cunt." Linguistically it is used similar to how 'fuck' is used in English to add force to a statement or express frustration. The often used "fuck you" is commonly translated as "haista vittu" which means "smell (a) cunt". Often considered extremely profane, its usage is nowadays not only limited to teenager slang, but is often used as an emphasis in a forceful or frustrated utterance or expression, as in "mitä vittua" meaning "what the fuck". Other common phrases using vittu include voi vittu (translating roughly as "Fuck this" or "Oh fuck") and "ja vitut!" ("The fuck you say!" / "Bullshit!"), and one occasionally hears more colorful constructions, such as "Vittujen kevät ja kyrpien takatalvi!" (paraphrased, "Oh fucking shit!" or literally "The spring of cunts and the late winter of dicks!").Notably, the term "vittu" is also widely used as an pre-adjective, to express even more positive things; "vitun hyvä", "vitun upeeta!" "vitun iso" (fucking nice, fucking awesome, fucking large) or less positive "vitun kusipää" (fuckin pisshead). The usage of this extremely versatile word vittu and all its forms is only limited by ones imagination. The term vittu is also known to be the basis of a crude illustration of a vagina, the so-called "kirkkovene" (church-boat), "hämähäkki väärinpäin" (spider on its back) or "vitunkuva" (vittu-image). As such it may come as a surprise that the word is actually quite ancient and it along with the aforementioned vittu-drawing was in fact used in a positive and respectful manner when referring to the female body. It is often replaced in everyday speech with the less offensive hitto (see above), which sounds a little like the other word. Sometimes it's replaced with even less offensive vitsi, which means a joke (as in "oh joke", which doesn't make much sense but is hardly offensive), or hitsi, which happens to be what is created by welding, the weld. Several verbs and adjective have also been derived from vittu: vituttaa originally "to want pussy and not able to get it", currently "to feel angry and depressed", vittuuntua "to get angry and insulted", vittumainen an adjective for "unpleasant and annoying".

See also

• Finnish language
• Italian profanity
• Latin profanity
• Mat (language) - Russian sexual slang
• Profanity
• Spanish profanity
• Société Finno-Ougrienne

References

• Slangi.net sanastot – Net based Finnish - Helsinki slang dictionary (in Finnish)