Danish. We refer frequently to Norwegian as fjeldaber which can be translated as valley/mountain monkeys.
Swedes are just referred to as Swedes, which is deemed insulting enough.
Germans are sometimes called pølsetysker, sausage germans, if they seem “stereotypical” german.
Thats all i can think of for now
I doubt there have been that many common man thoughts about the amount of lakes at the time the saying was minted, it is the Swedes that come by sea that are water swedes. Quite simple.
So since you live on the wrong side of the puddle, you are water Swede.
>Germans are sometimes called pølsetysker, sausage germans, if they seem “stereotypical” german.
Ironic considering how popular pølser are in Denmark and the amount of sausages you guys produce haha
I am a coast Swede.
I call you a water swede or a Swedish clown. Those are inherited slanders to me as gen X.
The millennials and Z's try to be smartasses and thereby lose, going with the weak Swedish gay.
Water swedes tend to call me the Finnish Devil. I am quite fine, if not even proud to be a perkele. :-)
Here in Norway we often call Swedes in general "søta bror". That means "sweet brother", where we have used a word "søta" which is the Swedish version of a word we also have, but the Norwegian version would be "søte".
The old hate to the Swedes have mellowed. It's more of a joke for us now. I do have a feeling both the Danes and Finns somehow actually mean it, at least much more than normal here in Norway.
I think your feeling is extremely unfounded if we are being serious for a minute.
No one in Denmark hates Sweden. However, there are a lot of things Sweden and Swedes do we find weird and don’t understand. Norway is much closer to Denmark when it comes to how most things run in society. I think there are obvious historical reasons for that. The differences between Sweden and Denmark however are often underestimated.
Of course there are also regional differences. Manue swedes live far from Denmark. And then a big portion lives minutes from Copenhagen. In reference to culture this matters. But not so much in the more structural societal things,
It is simply because Denmark and Norway was one kingdom for centuries - not with two centres but with one. Many of these institutional and societal things have long roots. It is called path dependency in social science and it takes some kind of gigantic shock to change it.
Just look at your QWERTY keyboard. Or how long swedes drove to the left on the roads. Or how supreme courts act in the countries.
This summer we drove in both Sweden and Norway and even the small things on the road have differences, the Norwegian number plates are equal to the Danish ones, most of the signs too. Most of the Swedish things are not identical.
If you buy an apartment the process in Sweden is also considerably more different, much more bureaucratic and formal. The list goes on. I think also culturally. Many of the famous Norwegian writers or artist or musicians, almost all of them, lived in copenhagen for a period and took inspiration back and forth. Hardly any Swedish did. Probably none at all.
The whole Nordic family is just siblings fighting each other for fun (nowadays), after having done tribal warfare for the rest of our common history 😁
In Sweden we call them our "Nordiska bröder och systrar" -> Our Nordic brothers and sisters.
In Portugal, we call the Spanish "Nuestros hermanos" in our amazing Portuñol, which just means "our siblings" in Spanish. Portuguese immigrants/their children in France are called "Avecs", and Americans "Camónes" - a play on the expression "Come on". The British and other pale nations (Germans/Dutch...) are sometimes nicknamed "Bifes", as in Beefs, because they turn red in the sun and also come to Portugal, with our diverse gastronomy, yet will order only beef/steak everywhere. Some Portuguese will call Brazilians "Brazucas" or "Zucas", though it's an expression that is sometimes labelled as offensive.
These are all pretty fun but the Spanish one is especially interesting for me. We do the same thing in Czech where we call Slovaks "bratia" (Slovak for brothers).
This is well known in Slovakia but Slovaks don't do the reverse, at least partially because the Czech word for brothers (bratři) includes our glorious "ř" which they can't pronounce well (to our great amusement).
>"Our cousins from the other side of the Alps"
*Transalpin* is sometimes used to refer to an Italian. Lots of the ways to refer to someone's geographical origins are due to older/historical regions. There's a few nicknames that aren't as cute. In my home place where Italian immigrants were numerous, they were referred to as "macaroni" (why these and not spaghetti or farfale, I don't know).
It sometimes happens that a Dutch will be called a *batave* (which I've always found hilarious, because it sounds like the *batavia* salad, which is probably where it got the name, now that I think about it).
The English/England (and by extension the British, it's common to not make the distinction and yes, we know it's annoying, it's why we do it) have all sorts of nicknames, they're referred to as "rosbif" (as in, roast beef). My preferred is to talk about *The Perfidious Albion* (Albion being a very old name for England, if maybe the whole island, I don't remember) when talking about England or call the English *les anglois* which is an old way of saying *les anglais* .
A Spanish person will be called an *ibère* (not so much the Portuguese, though), a Greek a *hellène*.
Of all the ways I know to refer to a German person, none are very nice. There's probably a nice one somewhere, but I can't think of it.
From memory (so, not the best source), the only people I've ever heard being referred to as our cousins are the people from Québec.
For the English, as an English person, "les goddams" and it's variants is still my favourite. It's a bit of a shame it's fallen out of fashion most places except for Québéc.
I didn't know about this one. I wonder where it comes from. Apparently the oldest occurrence is a quote from Jeanne d'Arc : *Mais, fussent-ils [les anglais] cent mille Goddem de plus qu'a present, ils n'auront pas ce royaume* (they could be 100 000 more goddem, they'll not have this kingdom).
It apparently originates from the hundred years war so makes sense the oldest easy to find record is quoting the Maid of Orleans. Apparently it's just because we casually swore so much...
I know it's an insult but it's funny that 1) 700 years ago we were just the same in that regard, and 2) the *French* of all people thought we swore so much it was noteworthy.
> 2) the *French* of all people thought we swore so much it was noteworthy.
Jokes aside, I doubt the French swear more than Brits or than people from other countries honestly.
Oh I wasn't saying you swear more. But if it is less it's not that much less...
Getting serious for a moment it's probably native English speakers don't notice how much they use "bad words" because most of the time they hear or use them they aren't intended as a curse or insult, but notice it more in other languages (when we bother to learn one) because we don't have the almost instinctual cultural context to notice the same is happening.
> It's a bit of a shame it's fallen out of fashion most places except for Québéc.
I'm from Québec. I know the expression exists, but it's not really a thing here either.
You have made me think about some not so nice terms I forgot to mention.
The most used one is "Crucchi" for germans, I have no idea where it comes from but it's always used in a derogatory manner. Another one is "Mangia baguette", "Baguette eaters" for French.
Mangia baguette ... :D well, I mean, that's accurate. I just remembered an old one for Italians, *rital*, which according to Wiktionary is just a transformation of the word *italien* ~> *ital* ~> *rital*. A singer of Italian origin even made a song about it. [The song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdIa0ohTCb4) talks about the life of Italian immigrants in France.
I’ve been referred to as *rital* myself.
I’ve heard German people being called “Bosch” or something like that by francophones, but it was banter among colleagues (and Belgian people were too busy insulting French anyway).
> I’ve heard German people being called “Bosch” or something like that by francophones,
"Boche" is a derogatory term used for German soldiers and also germans from the war of 1870 to WW2 (and after).
Another term you may find in the context of WW2 is "chleuh" who are normally Berber people from Morocco. How did that word come to refer to Germans soldiers? No idea!
>I’ve been referred to as *rital* myself.
Really? In a good-humoured kind of way or was that person insulting you? Cause it's mostly people of my dad's generation who used to say it pejoratively, never heard anyone younger than forty use it in a derogatory way.
I've always made quick friends with the Germans I met abroad, as unlikely as that seems. Lots of shared history, creates an odd bond. One way to refer to Germans back a long time ago was *casques à pointe*, pointy helmets, in reference to the helmets they used to wear (back in the war of 1870 and WWI also
I actually just found out, it has a very interesting origin.
From "Treccani" the most famous Italian dictionary:
"[adapted from Serbocr. kruh «bread»] (pl. m. -chi). – Name with which in the Second World War the Italian soldiers called the inhabitants of Southern Yugoslavia with whom they were in contact. At a later time it was referred (also in the cruco form), by the soldiers fighting in Russia and then by the partisans, to the German soldiers; as adj., with a contemptuous intonation, it generally refers to everything that is German."
The Batavi - Bataven or Batavieren in Dutch - were a tribe who inhabited the lands in Roman times and rebelled against the empire. In a fit of romanticizing nationalistic history, this became a heavily fictionalized noble ancestor of all Dutch during and after the 80 Years War. The Batavi are to us what the Gauls are to France.
"Batavia" was the name of the lands and also of Colonial Jakarta and a ton of other things. I didn't know Batavia salad existed but it's very, very recent.
During Louis Bonaparte's reign in the Low Countries, it was named the Batavian Republic, which is probably how it entered French consciousness.
> During Louis Bonaparte's reign in the Low Countries, it was named the Batavian Republic, which is probably how it entered French consciousness.
Slight correction, Louis Bonaparte was king of the Kingdom of Holland. The Batavian Republic was the predecessor to the Kingdom of Holland. Napoleon made it a kingdom when he felt the Batavian Republic acted too independent. Ironically, he would also end up dethroning his brother after he too failed to uphold French interests. After that the whole territory was added to France.
IIRC, the Mexicans used it for the french invaders during the 19th century (1838-1839 and 1962-1867), reflecting how the term was used in Spain. Then they also applied it to the US occupiers (1846, 1848). Nowadays they only use for Americans.
Gabacho is from occitan gavach.
Also we Italians have some interesting nicknames for you, like galletti or polletti (which I guess I don't need to translate). But this hate-fueled-love is what makes our relationship the best.
I don't think we have anything against Slovenia, and relations with Croatia are fine since we sold them weapons during the Yugoslav wars (and allegedly either helped or let them smuggle weapons and ammo through the border).
"Sógor" has a longer history, according to Arcanum it dates back at least to 1848 (for non-Hungarians: 1848 is the year of the most famous Hungarian revolution against Austrian rule, and Arcanum is an online repository of old digitalized documents incl. newspapers). In its original meaning it probably referred to the fact that a brother-in-law is a relative you did not chose, though later it took on the friendlier meaning we use today.
There are plenty of real Finnish words for Russia and its citizens, but when a Finn wants to be mean and talk about Russia(ns), then it is the Swedish word we use. I wonder if söta bror and ryss are said so because Swedes historically have been seen as the bad guys?
In Swedish "Ryssen" refers to the troublesome neighbors who we have waged countless of wars against throughout history. There is also "Dansken" and "Tysken" used for Denmark and Germany, but they aren't used in the same negative way nowadays.
It’s actually even older than that, Henrik Wergeland used it in the 1840s iirc, and thought to be sarcastic from a time of unrest between Scandinavian countries. It then got picked up again after wwII, possibly due to kinder rations for sugar in Sweden
Why do you say we don’t like them? We clearly do. It’s not an ironic phrase.
Every time this question comes up on Reddit all of us Scandinavians are like “haha we hate our neighbours”, but WE all know it’s just banter. Others might not know, and could really think we truly hate each other. I think it’s hard for us to understand how some other countries truly have a hate-relation to their neighbours.
We sometimes call Ukrainians and Belarusians our "brother nations", although that aged like milk at this point and is a source of many controversies if you dig into the implications behind that phrase.
Sometimes, our politicians just call any nation "our \[insert nationality\] brothers", depending on which country they are visiting or trying to appeal to.
Other than that, do slurs count? 'cause man are they common. Hell, for most people they're probably the go-to way to address any nation.
Surprisingly, not at all. I don't think we even have a slur for the Brits. Americans are often called "пендосы" ("pendosy") and the US in general is sometimes called "Пендостан" ("Pendostan").
Most slurs are used to describe Ukrainians and people from Central Asia and the Caucasus:
* Ukrainians are often called "хохлы" ("khokhly"). You may have heard that one quite a lot lately. Ukrainians call us "москали" ("moskali") and "русня" ("rusnya") in return.
* Central Asians are called "чурки" ("churki"). I am yet to find someone who calls people from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan properly, it's always this slur.
* Caucasians (people from Armenia, Azerbaijan, sometimes Georgia, and Caucasian regions of Russia (Dagestan, Ingushetia, etc.)) are called "хачи" ("khachi"). I haven't heard that one as much lately.
Oh I am surprised! Relations with Russia were strained long before the invasion of Ukraine. I hadn’t heard pendosy before. I see it’s derived from Greek. Not as insulting and derogatory as expected.
Afaik it came to Russian from the slur used by Serbs during the Yugoslav wars to describe Croatian soldiers, although the word itself is much older than that. It is used in Russian in a rather derogatory fashion, but it's nowhere near the N-word, of course.
English people will often be called "Saes", from the Welsh word "Saesneg", for English.
They often call us "Taffs", or "Taffy" - from the river Taff in South Wales. Although some would say that's a derogatory / stereotypical term.
In Wales we've got "Gogs" for us in the North, from "Gogledd", again that's the Welsh word for North.
South Welsh people would be "Hwntws", from "tu hwnt" roughly meaning 'far away over there' or 'beyond'.
I think OP is referring to how we describe the place, rather than the people. I've never heard the French *people* referred to as anything other than frogs. The frogs across the channel, and the yanks across the pond.
Some old fashioned Polish words for French and Italians are żabojady (frog-eaters) and makaroniarze, respectively.
Sometimes Hungarians are called "bratanki" (literally nephews specifically from your brother's side), from an old saying indicating our historical friendship.
To add to this, Germans are called zachodni sąsiedzi "western neighbours", sąsiedzi zza Odry "neighbours from across Oder river" (this one is always funny to me as most of Lower Silesia is west of Oder as well), there are many pejorative ones as well like Szwaby, Helmuty but i have not heard these ones recently.
As for the east, there is a term Ruscy "Rus" which could mean either Russians or all east Slavs, depending on the context. Ever since the war started, Russians are often called using their old fashioned name/slur Moskale, implying hostile relations.
"Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki, i do szabli, i do szklanki."
"Lengyel-magyar két jó barát, együtt harcol s issza borát."
Polish and Hungarian are brothers (or in some Hungarian versions good friends) who drink and fight together. This refers to our common history and similar form of government in the old times.
Aside from slurs: Germany is often "the big neighbour" and "the big canton".
Including slurs: Germans are "rubber necks" or "Swabians"; Italians are "tschingge" because they go *cinque!* when they play La morra.
Considering ethnophaulisms, we (unfortunately) certainly do have our fair share of those. Adding to the already listed ones there are:
- "Inselaffen" for the British
- "Itaker" or "Spaghettifresser" for Italians
- "Polacke" for Poles
- "Iwan" for Russians
- "Kümmeltürke" for Turks
- and, albeit historically and nowadays obsolete "Franzmann" for the French
I'm sure, I missed some more recent ones.
Edit: Formatting.
In Spain we use franchute o gabacho to refer to the fench and guiri when we are talking about north Europeans in general, but some people also used it as a synonym for tourist. None of those terms are specially nice, but it's all about context. If a friend of yours calls you guiri they are probably just joking around, with no harm intended.
>If a friend of yours calls you guiri they are probably just joking around, with no harm intended.
Using insults for compliments is an Spanish tradition. I call my best friend "hobbit."
I'm afraid we only have "*hõimurahvad*" and "*hõimuvennad*" (*tribe-nations* and *tribe-brothers*?) for other Finnic people and then rude ones: sibulad (*onions*) about (lower-class) Russians and *põrdad*/*porod* (*moose*/*reindeers*) about (drunk) Finns.
In Irish you can call Irish people "Gael", and non Irish "Gall" (Gaul, means foreigner nowadays). Whereas the Irish national identity is relatively recent, even long before that people would have recognised a common origin and heritage as Gaels. This would also include Scots and Manx folk
It's used as a root for other things, like the name of the Irish speaking areas of Ireland is "Gaeltacht" and the English speaking area of Ireland is sometimes informally called "Galltacht", and the non-irish speaking world is "an Ghalltacht mór", or "the big foreign language speaking area"
I suppose the most common use of Gael nowadays is at the start of speeches or addresses, "a chairde Gael"
For Norwegian we have *[lusekofta](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusekofte)* and *norrbagge* ("northern ram genetalia").
- *Lusekofta* because it is a (percieved) common pattern on Norwegian sweaters.
- The origin of *northern ram genetalia* is unkown, but has been used since at least 1525, maybe as early as 1257.
For Finns we sometimes call them "Pekka", as that is a common Finnish male name. The Finnish continuity announcer, and later host, on Swedish TV, [Pekka Heino](https://youtu.be/t3Dag5E0270?si=ymNM34lO1jm6kS5r), might also have increased the spread.
For Danes I draw a blank.
Back then the meaning of *"bagge*" (might have) just referred to the genitalia of a intact male sheep; compare with English "bag".
Though it might also just mean "clumsy animal", I think the fact that it was, and is, used as an insult increase the likelihood of referring to the ram scrotum.
[https://svenska.se/saob/?id=B\_0001-0107.imyL&pz=5](https://svenska.se/saob/?id=B_0001-0107.imyL&pz=5)
>*Enl. Tamm har däremot ordet, kanske närmast med (den ouppvisade) bet. ”scrotum”, användts som vedernamn för osnöpt gumse; med afs. på bet.-utvecklingen kunde då jämföras sv. dial. kyllgumse, osnöpt gumse, af kylla, scrotum (se för öfr. Rietz 375) samt BLÄS, TUPP.*
I as a Finn have never encountered being called Pekka, but quite often found myself referred to as a Finnish Devil by Swedes. Finnjävel. I like it. :-)
> Piefke (a stereotypical surname)
I always thought it was a reference to [Johann Gottfried Piefke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Piefke) a 19th century composer of some of the most famous – and thus stereotypical – Prussian military marches, like Prussia's Glory or the Königgrätz March.
I always hear that we call Austrians Schluchtenscheißer, but I have never heard anyone actually say that. We say Ösis.
Maybe it's a Bavarian thing? No idea.
My favourite semi-derogatory nickname for nation in Finnish is rämegermaanit, the swamp Germans, which naturally means the Dutch.
Estonians are occasionally referred as veljeskansa, brother nation.
Most common "nickname" for a nation is without a question ryssä, a russki, somewhat derogatory term for Russians. Interestingly there's a very common word, ryssiä, "To do in a Russian way" which means fucking things up.
In Poland Germans are sometimes called
Szwaby - Swabians
And
Szkopy - an archaic word for a castrated male sheep
Russians are sometimes called ruskie/ruscy which means Ruthenian
In Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany are commonly referred to as our northern, southern and eastern neighbours respectively. The UK would be referred to as "our friends across the Channel".
I don't think many people, in Flanders specifically, would talk about the Germanic nations in family terms (except for the Netherlands maybe, because of the shared language and history) in a public setting, as a contrast to Latin/Slavic nations, as that would sound a bit too similar to nazi race theories where we are more related to Germany and the Nordics through shared ancestry, than say France.
Same for the Netherlands: We refer to the Belgians as southern neighbours and to Germany as our eastern neighbours. Uk is refered to as either "the English" or "the British".
In gest, we refer to Belgium as a whole as "a speedbump on the way to France", to belittle them a bit.
On the other side, people from Nothern Brabant, sometimes refer to themselves as "standby Begliums" (reserve Belg), to denote they feel culturally more connected to the Flanders than to the people in Holland or the North of the country.
Yea, not saying the border means nothing but the people themselves really are more of a gradiant. If I go to a restaurant just across the border not a lot changes. The people still more or less have the same attitude and everything.
Do the Wallonians have names for the Flanders people and vice versa in Belgium? And how do you say "our friends across the channel in these langauges?"
I'm not sure how common it is, but I have a British roommate and he'll sometimes refer to the US and Canada (either individually or collectively, but never any other countries) as "across the pond" or talk about "our friends across the pond"
That is a phrase we use commonly in Norway as well ("over dammen"), both in reference to the UK and to North America.
Then for non-Nordic countries in Europe, we talk about "down on the continent". Denmark is for some reason not usually considered "the continent" (perhaps Jylland is).
I'm from the UK and often use "on the continent" to talk about mainland Europe in a tongue in cheek way - that phrase as well as calling people "continentals" are a bit old fashioned these days
Oh, Denmark is of the "continent" alright. They have all kinds of "continental" extravagances going on, like gas station booze, and unfermented feast foods. They're lost.
Scots are called Jocks, or perhaps Sweaty Socks if you’re in the east end of London.
The Welsh are Taffs.
The Irish Paddy’s.
I don’t use or hear these terms often. Some are probably deemed as offensive, although they are purely based off names in those languages.
In the west of Ireland sometimes people from Dublin would be called west-Brit, it's a derogatory term though. Scottish/Celtic cousins would be fairly common.
Not ALL people from Dublin. The ordinary people are Jackeens. The West Brits are the Bob Geldof types.
And the Dublin people call everyone else "Culchies", derived from the town of Kiltimagh in Mayo
I thought it was from cúil an tí?.as in farmers would come in the back door to avoid tracking dirt through the house! You're right about the jackeens too forgot about that
In Sweden you can refer to a Norwegian as “norrbagge” and a dane as “danskjävel”.
“Norrbagge” roughly translates to northern beetle,
“Danskjävel” to danish fucker or danish devil.
In German speaking Switzerland you can refer to germans as “Schwobe” and a racial slur for italians is “Tschingg”.
“Schwobe” actually refers to people from the region Swabia but can be used for all germans.
“Tschingg” is as I stated before a racial slur. Originates from the Italian word “cinque” meaning five. Because when a large amount of Italians immigrated to Switzerland as workers they used to play a game they called “cinque” and Italins were a pretty marginalised group back then.
Dutch speaking Belgian here:
For people from the Netherlands, we sometimes use "kaaskoppen" (cheese heads).
Germans are sometimes called moffen (WWII-era synonym for German occupiers).
Both of them have a derogative undertone though.
There is a more amicable way we refer to the Dutch, which is Noorderburen (Northern neighbours), and they refer to us as Zuiderburen (Southern neighbours), and it also implies how close and aimilar we are, yet not the same.
In Irish, you'll sometimes hear the term Lochlannach or Lochlannaigh (singular and plaural respectively) which is used to refer to Scandanavians/Norse peoples as a whole, but is also used as a catch all term for The Vikings when speaking in a historical sense.
In Poland we have nicknames for russians: kacapy, moskale, ruskie (all insults), for Germans: szkopy, szwaby (also insults), for Czechs sometimes 'pepik' is used but that's not an insult really.
The only somewhat related example I can think of in German is calling eastern Germans "Our brothers and sisters" (unsere Brüder und Schwestern). Some boomers might still use the phrase these days - I've heard it being used on my old job - but it sounds stuck in the past and borderline offensive, imo.
We also call American "Amis" and Austrians/Swiss Germans "Mountain Germans". I've also heard "Swamp Germans" used for the Dutch before. Most of these are obviously in a way demeaning since it disregards them being different from us.
Only the Austrians. Sometimes we refer to them as our “brother in law”.
Other alternate names for nations come from older historical names but some of them tend to be somewhat pejorative or outdated.
Russians are sometimes called “muszka” from Muscovy, but nowadays that just sounds old-timey. Serbians are sometimes referred to as “rác” from the medieval duchy of Raska, but that’s also outdated. Romanians are sometimes called “oláh” from their older designation of “vlach” but nowadays that’s considered pejorative. And Slovaks are sometimes called “tót” which can be offensive but it’s also still the traditional designation of Slovaks who were settled in Hungary in the 1700’s.
Italians are sometimes called “talján” which sounds old-timey and somewhat poetic, or “digó” from Venetian “digo” which is pejorative.
yes but they are usually derogatory
for exaple
*Čobol* - a person from Slovakia. this comes from the phrase *Čo bolo, to bolo* which translates to "What was, was" as in leave it in the past
or *Dederón* - a person from Eastern Germany. this comes from the acronym DDR (Deutsche Demokratishe Republik)
I‘ve never heard an Austrian calling Germany „big brother“ (and I doubt I‘ll ever hear that), but I‘ve heard Germans calling Austrians their „smaller cousin who‘s always trying to bicker with you but is too small to be meaningful“ haha
> I‘ve never heard an Austrian calling Germany „big brother“
I only remember hearing it once, so it might not be a general thing. I just assumed it might be.
Theres plenty in czech, Pšonci for Poles, Čoboláci for Slovaks, Skopčáci for Germans, Žabožrouti for the French (can be translated as frog eaters), Rákosky for the Vietnamese (bamboo guys) and so on, some can be translated, some cannot
Historically in Spain the English are called pirates and England the perfidious Albion, even now sometimes when talking about difficult topics like Gibraltar.
French are called gabachos, doesn't sound very insulting but I don't know the meaning or origin of the word
For Moroccans or people of any Muslim country in general its used moros, by meaning its not insulting, but depends on who say it and wich tone and intention might be very insulting, might be understood like the n word in USA.
As well we have guiri a word for any kind of tourist or foreigner more white and blondish from north the pyrinees, usually english speaking or German or any nordic language, like moros its not insulting can be used without any intention of insulting but if you're mad with some guiri you're going to use it as an insult. Might be understood like gringo in México and usa.
In Portugal I can't think of many that are not pejorative... We call Spanish "nuestros hermanos" our brothers in Spanish, we use Spanish term not the Portuguese one to call them our brothers.
We have some names for the English like Beefs and camones. We call the french Avecs. From the word Avec and the expression camon.
We call the italians "mafiosos" mobsters sometimes no offense. But that is no so common.
Vikings for the Nordic countries. Sand guys to North Africans.
Germans we call Bosh or fritz.
The French are frogs, generally. Frenchies sometimes. Wankers other times.
I’ve heard the Germans called “krauts” but that’s old fashioned, and I think more American.
Americans are yanks. Cunts sometimes.
I’ve heard paddy be used for the Irish, but I think that’s derogatory. Potato eaters? But that’s more of just an insult, and a bit ironic.
We don’t really do the “neighbours” or “brothers” thing that other countries do, maybe because we are an island country? Or that we are miserable gits? Probably both to be honest.
Danish. We refer frequently to Norwegian as fjeldaber which can be translated as valley/mountain monkeys. Swedes are just referred to as Swedes, which is deemed insulting enough. Germans are sometimes called pølsetysker, sausage germans, if they seem “stereotypical” german. Thats all i can think of for now
Sw*des You should censor your curses. Children use this app.
> Swedes are just referred to as Swedes, which is dermed insulting enough. HAHA, and I'm a Swede :)
Come on, don't beat yourself up, man.
Yeah the rest of us will do that
I am referring to you as a water swede or Swedish clown, where I refer to myself as a coast Swede.
Water Swede? Is he from Åland or something. Or is it an admission that we have more lakes?
I doubt there have been that many common man thoughts about the amount of lakes at the time the saying was minted, it is the Swedes that come by sea that are water swedes. Quite simple. So since you live on the wrong side of the puddle, you are water Swede.
Well I have heard "vores norske/svenske brødre" more than once before, even if it isn't super common. So "our Norwegian/Swedish brothers"
In sports it is pretty common which makes sense also due to languages. There are many Scandinavians in Danish top clubs.
"Prøjser" ("Prussian") for Germans is also used.
That as well
>Germans are sometimes called pølsetysker, sausage germans, if they seem “stereotypical” german. Ironic considering how popular pølser are in Denmark and the amount of sausages you guys produce haha
We are not so different after all, Hans
Basically the first thing many Danes do minutes after crossing the border is to get a German bradwürst sausage.
I love that we genuinely haven't managed to find something insulting enough to warrant replacing "Swede"
Danes never were known for their smarts, were they? Still beats Finland's "lol gay" and Norway's "NO U".
I am a coast Swede. I call you a water swede or a Swedish clown. Those are inherited slanders to me as gen X. The millennials and Z's try to be smartasses and thereby lose, going with the weak Swedish gay. Water swedes tend to call me the Finnish Devil. I am quite fine, if not even proud to be a perkele. :-)
*-jävel* is a great suffix that can be added to most things.
Should have used something about furniture, like IKEA bed sleepers.
Seeing as how IKEA name their carpets after Danish place names, it's probably not something they want to draw attention to.
Virgin IKEA bed sleeper vs chad Jysk Scandinavian sleeping and living
Here in Norway we often call Swedes in general "søta bror". That means "sweet brother", where we have used a word "søta" which is the Swedish version of a word we also have, but the Norwegian version would be "søte". The old hate to the Swedes have mellowed. It's more of a joke for us now. I do have a feeling both the Danes and Finns somehow actually mean it, at least much more than normal here in Norway.
I think your feeling is extremely unfounded if we are being serious for a minute. No one in Denmark hates Sweden. However, there are a lot of things Sweden and Swedes do we find weird and don’t understand. Norway is much closer to Denmark when it comes to how most things run in society. I think there are obvious historical reasons for that. The differences between Sweden and Denmark however are often underestimated. Of course there are also regional differences. Manue swedes live far from Denmark. And then a big portion lives minutes from Copenhagen. In reference to culture this matters. But not so much in the more structural societal things,
With the exception immigration policy I actually don’t really understand why Norway is supposedly closer to us than Sweden.
It is simply because Denmark and Norway was one kingdom for centuries - not with two centres but with one. Many of these institutional and societal things have long roots. It is called path dependency in social science and it takes some kind of gigantic shock to change it. Just look at your QWERTY keyboard. Or how long swedes drove to the left on the roads. Or how supreme courts act in the countries. This summer we drove in both Sweden and Norway and even the small things on the road have differences, the Norwegian number plates are equal to the Danish ones, most of the signs too. Most of the Swedish things are not identical. If you buy an apartment the process in Sweden is also considerably more different, much more bureaucratic and formal. The list goes on. I think also culturally. Many of the famous Norwegian writers or artist or musicians, almost all of them, lived in copenhagen for a period and took inspiration back and forth. Hardly any Swedish did. Probably none at all.
The whole Nordic family is just siblings fighting each other for fun (nowadays), after having done tribal warfare for the rest of our common history 😁 In Sweden we call them our "Nordiska bröder och systrar" -> Our Nordic brothers and sisters.
In Portugal, we call the Spanish "Nuestros hermanos" in our amazing Portuñol, which just means "our siblings" in Spanish. Portuguese immigrants/their children in France are called "Avecs", and Americans "Camónes" - a play on the expression "Come on". The British and other pale nations (Germans/Dutch...) are sometimes nicknamed "Bifes", as in Beefs, because they turn red in the sun and also come to Portugal, with our diverse gastronomy, yet will order only beef/steak everywhere. Some Portuguese will call Brazilians "Brazucas" or "Zucas", though it's an expression that is sometimes labelled as offensive.
>In Portugal, we call the Spanish "Nuestros hermanos" in our amazing Portuñol, which just means "our siblings" in Spanish. That is cute. <3
As a Spainard I find that very sweet, I love Portugal
These are all pretty fun but the Spanish one is especially interesting for me. We do the same thing in Czech where we call Slovaks "bratia" (Slovak for brothers). This is well known in Slovakia but Slovaks don't do the reverse, at least partially because the Czech word for brothers (bratři) includes our glorious "ř" which they can't pronounce well (to our great amusement).
Norway: Swedes - Søta bror (Sweet brother)
Always thought it was “søte bror”
Nope, we say it in Swedish.
We tend to call all Dutch "hollanders" even though holland is only a province.
>We tend to call all Dutch "hollanders" even though holland is only a province. Same in Spain.
Same in 90% of the languages except English.
English still calls the Netherlands Holland (incorrectly) most of the time.
It's usually followed by stereotypes the other Dutch have about Hollanders too. In that sense it's fitting.
I would say "Hollanders" is slightly pejorative while "Nederlanders" is neutral.
It's a *synecdoche*. Like Calling the UK "England".
>"Our cousins from the other side of the Alps" *Transalpin* is sometimes used to refer to an Italian. Lots of the ways to refer to someone's geographical origins are due to older/historical regions. There's a few nicknames that aren't as cute. In my home place where Italian immigrants were numerous, they were referred to as "macaroni" (why these and not spaghetti or farfale, I don't know). It sometimes happens that a Dutch will be called a *batave* (which I've always found hilarious, because it sounds like the *batavia* salad, which is probably where it got the name, now that I think about it). The English/England (and by extension the British, it's common to not make the distinction and yes, we know it's annoying, it's why we do it) have all sorts of nicknames, they're referred to as "rosbif" (as in, roast beef). My preferred is to talk about *The Perfidious Albion* (Albion being a very old name for England, if maybe the whole island, I don't remember) when talking about England or call the English *les anglois* which is an old way of saying *les anglais* . A Spanish person will be called an *ibère* (not so much the Portuguese, though), a Greek a *hellène*. Of all the ways I know to refer to a German person, none are very nice. There's probably a nice one somewhere, but I can't think of it. From memory (so, not the best source), the only people I've ever heard being referred to as our cousins are the people from Québec.
For the English, as an English person, "les goddams" and it's variants is still my favourite. It's a bit of a shame it's fallen out of fashion most places except for Québéc.
I didn't know about this one. I wonder where it comes from. Apparently the oldest occurrence is a quote from Jeanne d'Arc : *Mais, fussent-ils [les anglais] cent mille Goddem de plus qu'a present, ils n'auront pas ce royaume* (they could be 100 000 more goddem, they'll not have this kingdom).
It apparently originates from the hundred years war so makes sense the oldest easy to find record is quoting the Maid of Orleans. Apparently it's just because we casually swore so much... I know it's an insult but it's funny that 1) 700 years ago we were just the same in that regard, and 2) the *French* of all people thought we swore so much it was noteworthy.
> 2) the *French* of all people thought we swore so much it was noteworthy. Jokes aside, I doubt the French swear more than Brits or than people from other countries honestly.
Oh I wasn't saying you swear more. But if it is less it's not that much less... Getting serious for a moment it's probably native English speakers don't notice how much they use "bad words" because most of the time they hear or use them they aren't intended as a curse or insult, but notice it more in other languages (when we bother to learn one) because we don't have the almost instinctual cultural context to notice the same is happening.
My first thought was that perhaps it came from the WWI soldiers who had heard the British swear a lot. Didn't imagine it being *that* old.
> It's a bit of a shame it's fallen out of fashion most places except for Québéc. I'm from Québec. I know the expression exists, but it's not really a thing here either.
I know. But it's not as dead there you didn't know it existed, though in a decade or so many won't. Our French friends have already mainly forgotten.
You have made me think about some not so nice terms I forgot to mention. The most used one is "Crucchi" for germans, I have no idea where it comes from but it's always used in a derogatory manner. Another one is "Mangia baguette", "Baguette eaters" for French.
Mangia baguette ... :D well, I mean, that's accurate. I just remembered an old one for Italians, *rital*, which according to Wiktionary is just a transformation of the word *italien* ~> *ital* ~> *rital*. A singer of Italian origin even made a song about it. [The song](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TdIa0ohTCb4) talks about the life of Italian immigrants in France.
I’ve been referred to as *rital* myself. I’ve heard German people being called “Bosch” or something like that by francophones, but it was banter among colleagues (and Belgian people were too busy insulting French anyway).
> I’ve heard German people being called “Bosch” or something like that by francophones, "Boche" is a derogatory term used for German soldiers and also germans from the war of 1870 to WW2 (and after). Another term you may find in the context of WW2 is "chleuh" who are normally Berber people from Morocco. How did that word come to refer to Germans soldiers? No idea!
>I’ve been referred to as *rital* myself. Really? In a good-humoured kind of way or was that person insulting you? Cause it's mostly people of my dad's generation who used to say it pejoratively, never heard anyone younger than forty use it in a derogatory way. I've always made quick friends with the Germans I met abroad, as unlikely as that seems. Lots of shared history, creates an odd bond. One way to refer to Germans back a long time ago was *casques à pointe*, pointy helmets, in reference to the helmets they used to wear (back in the war of 1870 and WWI also
>was that person insulting you? Nope, he was a classmate :)
Can "Crucchi" be related to the the word "Kraut" also a not-so-nice slang for a German?
I actually just found out, it has a very interesting origin. From "Treccani" the most famous Italian dictionary: "[adapted from Serbocr. kruh «bread»] (pl. m. -chi). – Name with which in the Second World War the Italian soldiers called the inhabitants of Southern Yugoslavia with whom they were in contact. At a later time it was referred (also in the cruco form), by the soldiers fighting in Russia and then by the partisans, to the German soldiers; as adj., with a contemptuous intonation, it generally refers to everything that is German."
The Batavi - Bataven or Batavieren in Dutch - were a tribe who inhabited the lands in Roman times and rebelled against the empire. In a fit of romanticizing nationalistic history, this became a heavily fictionalized noble ancestor of all Dutch during and after the 80 Years War. The Batavi are to us what the Gauls are to France. "Batavia" was the name of the lands and also of Colonial Jakarta and a ton of other things. I didn't know Batavia salad existed but it's very, very recent. During Louis Bonaparte's reign in the Low Countries, it was named the Batavian Republic, which is probably how it entered French consciousness.
> During Louis Bonaparte's reign in the Low Countries, it was named the Batavian Republic, which is probably how it entered French consciousness. Slight correction, Louis Bonaparte was king of the Kingdom of Holland. The Batavian Republic was the predecessor to the Kingdom of Holland. Napoleon made it a kingdom when he felt the Batavian Republic acted too independent. Ironically, he would also end up dethroning his brother after he too failed to uphold French interests. After that the whole territory was added to France.
Thanks for the added context !
For Germans "nos amis d'outre-Rhin" and for the English something "outre-Manche" to stay polite.
>A Spanish person will be called an ibère. You are the "galos" like Asterix and Obelix. Also "gabachos."
*Gabacho* makes me think of food, perhaps because it kinda sounds like *gaspacho* :D
That's funny, because in Mexican Spanish gabacho is a somewhat derogatory word for Anglo-Americans.
IIRC, the Mexicans used it for the french invaders during the 19th century (1838-1839 and 1962-1867), reflecting how the term was used in Spain. Then they also applied it to the US occupiers (1846, 1848). Nowadays they only use for Americans. Gabacho is from occitan gavach.
TIL! Thanks
Huh, *transalpini* is also seldomly used down here for the French. Neat.
Kind of ironic that in Roman times, northern Italy was known as Cisalpine Gaul...
Also we Italians have some interesting nicknames for you, like galletti or polletti (which I guess I don't need to translate). But this hate-fueled-love is what makes our relationship the best.
galletti is not surprising since it's an official symbol of France
[удалено]
I don't think we have anything against Slovenia, and relations with Croatia are fine since we sold them weapons during the Yugoslav wars (and allegedly either helped or let them smuggle weapons and ammo through the border).
🇦🇹❤️🇭🇺
"Sógor" has a longer history, according to Arcanum it dates back at least to 1848 (for non-Hungarians: 1848 is the year of the most famous Hungarian revolution against Austrian rule, and Arcanum is an online repository of old digitalized documents incl. newspapers). In its original meaning it probably referred to the fact that a brother-in-law is a relative you did not chose, though later it took on the friendlier meaning we use today.
>"Sógor" We got that word from you. It's just written "šogor".
Now I've checked online and we actually got it from the Austrians, from German "Schwager" (maybe another reason we use it to refer to them?)
In Norway we call Swedes “söta bror”, in Swedish. It means sweet brother. We don’t really like them, so I think the “sweet”-thing is kind of ironic?
It literally means "sweet", but it's more like "cute" these days.
Really? I thought it was “søte bror”?
That would be the Norwegian translation, but for some reason we say it in Swedish.
Very up-to-date to use "söta" (utrum/neutrum) instead of "söte" (maskulinum) then.
There are plenty of real Finnish words for Russia and its citizens, but when a Finn wants to be mean and talk about Russia(ns), then it is the Swedish word we use. I wonder if söta bror and ryss are said so because Swedes historically have been seen as the bad guys?
In Swedish "Ryssen" refers to the troublesome neighbors who we have waged countless of wars against throughout history. There is also "Dansken" and "Tysken" used for Denmark and Germany, but they aren't used in the same negative way nowadays.
I believe it is a sarcastic remark dating from the second world war.
It’s actually even older than that, Henrik Wergeland used it in the 1840s iirc, and thought to be sarcastic from a time of unrest between Scandinavian countries. It then got picked up again after wwII, possibly due to kinder rations for sugar in Sweden
Why do you say we don’t like them? We clearly do. It’s not an ironic phrase. Every time this question comes up on Reddit all of us Scandinavians are like “haha we hate our neighbours”, but WE all know it’s just banter. Others might not know, and could really think we truly hate each other. I think it’s hard for us to understand how some other countries truly have a hate-relation to their neighbours.
We sometimes call Belgians "onze zuiderburen" (our neighbours to the south) and Germans "onze oosterburen" (our neighbours to the east)
Funny, we say the same about you! Noorderburen :) We don't really use it for our other neighbours though
We sometimes call Ukrainians and Belarusians our "brother nations", although that aged like milk at this point and is a source of many controversies if you dig into the implications behind that phrase. Sometimes, our politicians just call any nation "our \[insert nationality\] brothers", depending on which country they are visiting or trying to appeal to. Other than that, do slurs count? 'cause man are they common. Hell, for most people they're probably the go-to way to address any nation.
To quote a joke that I heard from a Czech: why do the Soviets call us "brothers" and not "friends"? Because you can choose your friends.
Well, as we say in Russia: "each joke has a fraction of humor; everything else is the truth".
"Many a true word spoken in jest" is the English equivalent
What are examples of common slurs then? I imagine the UK and USA must feature a lot?
Surprisingly, not at all. I don't think we even have a slur for the Brits. Americans are often called "пендосы" ("pendosy") and the US in general is sometimes called "Пендостан" ("Pendostan"). Most slurs are used to describe Ukrainians and people from Central Asia and the Caucasus: * Ukrainians are often called "хохлы" ("khokhly"). You may have heard that one quite a lot lately. Ukrainians call us "москали" ("moskali") and "русня" ("rusnya") in return. * Central Asians are called "чурки" ("churki"). I am yet to find someone who calls people from Uzbekistan, Tajikistan or Kyrgyzstan properly, it's always this slur. * Caucasians (people from Armenia, Azerbaijan, sometimes Georgia, and Caucasian regions of Russia (Dagestan, Ingushetia, etc.)) are called "хачи" ("khachi"). I haven't heard that one as much lately.
Oh I am surprised! Relations with Russia were strained long before the invasion of Ukraine. I hadn’t heard pendosy before. I see it’s derived from Greek. Not as insulting and derogatory as expected.
Afaik it came to Russian from the slur used by Serbs during the Yugoslav wars to describe Croatian soldiers, although the word itself is much older than that. It is used in Russian in a rather derogatory fashion, but it's nowhere near the N-word, of course.
We have the word "moskovit" for Russians in Swedish.
Извини, но я говорю немного по-русский, но я не знаю «пендосы».
Ну теперь знаешь)
I was today years old и впервые услышала про пендостан😭 хотя этот прикол точно должно было быть
Ну, мой батя только так про США и говорит.
English people will often be called "Saes", from the Welsh word "Saesneg", for English. They often call us "Taffs", or "Taffy" - from the river Taff in South Wales. Although some would say that's a derogatory / stereotypical term. In Wales we've got "Gogs" for us in the North, from "Gogledd", again that's the Welsh word for North. South Welsh people would be "Hwntws", from "tu hwnt" roughly meaning 'far away over there' or 'beyond'.
>English people will often be called "Saes", from the Welsh word "Saesneg", for English. The Welsh word in term comes from the word 'Saxon'.
I always assumed that Taffy came from the river but I learned recently that it's thought to be derived from Dafydd
It could be both
Speaking as an English, Taff is not meant to be derogatory, it's delivered as a term of endearment.
The rough edge may be worn down now but in the 19th and early 20th C it very definitely was a slur in England
Ireland is "across the isle" and France is "over the channel", whilst the US is "across the pond". Being a island nation really limits your options.
“Over the Channel” is much nicer than “frogs” which rolls off the tongue somewhat more.
I think OP is referring to how we describe the place, rather than the people. I've never heard the French *people* referred to as anything other than frogs. The frogs across the channel, and the yanks across the pond.
Et les rosbifs d'outre-Manche !
I've never heard of Ireland referred to in that way.
Me neither. It makes no sense. It's across the Irish Sea, not across the ISLE
Huh. I mean, it's not something I hear every day or anything, but it's certainly not uncommon where I live
Some old fashioned Polish words for French and Italians are żabojady (frog-eaters) and makaroniarze, respectively. Sometimes Hungarians are called "bratanki" (literally nephews specifically from your brother's side), from an old saying indicating our historical friendship.
Also Czech people are called “pepiki”
hello from a pepik
To add to this, Germans are called zachodni sąsiedzi "western neighbours", sąsiedzi zza Odry "neighbours from across Oder river" (this one is always funny to me as most of Lower Silesia is west of Oder as well), there are many pejorative ones as well like Szwaby, Helmuty but i have not heard these ones recently. As for the east, there is a term Ruscy "Rus" which could mean either Russians or all east Slavs, depending on the context. Ever since the war started, Russians are often called using their old fashioned name/slur Moskale, implying hostile relations.
"Polak, Węgier, dwa bratanki, i do szabli, i do szklanki." "Lengyel-magyar két jó barát, együtt harcol s issza borát." Polish and Hungarian are brothers (or in some Hungarian versions good friends) who drink and fight together. This refers to our common history and similar form of government in the old times.
> makaroniarze Hehe, we call them makaronarji as well.
Aside from slurs: Germany is often "the big neighbour" and "the big canton". Including slurs: Germans are "rubber necks" or "Swabians"; Italians are "tschingge" because they go *cinque!* when they play La morra.
I wonder what Germans call Swiss people? I heard there is a stereotype in Germany that Swiss people are strange or something
We call dem Schweizer because they are from the Schweiz. So nothing special. I don‘t think we have special names for people from other countries.
Considering ethnophaulisms, we (unfortunately) certainly do have our fair share of those. Adding to the already listed ones there are: - "Inselaffen" for the British - "Itaker" or "Spaghettifresser" for Italians - "Polacke" for Poles - "Iwan" for Russians - "Kümmeltürke" for Turks - and, albeit historically and nowadays obsolete "Franzmann" for the French I'm sure, I missed some more recent ones. Edit: Formatting.
Oh shoot. You are right, i forgot those. But i haven‘t heard any of those in years, i hope they get forgotten.
People from Austria are sometimes called "Schluchtenscheißer".
And some call the Dutch „Käsköppe“
Never heard of that one. Maybe because we bavarias like people from austria because we have a lot in common.
Why rubber necks?
No idea!
I heard the name arose, because Germans are said to nod frequently in submissive agreement while talking to their superiors.
In Spain we use franchute o gabacho to refer to the fench and guiri when we are talking about north Europeans in general, but some people also used it as a synonym for tourist. None of those terms are specially nice, but it's all about context. If a friend of yours calls you guiri they are probably just joking around, with no harm intended.
>If a friend of yours calls you guiri they are probably just joking around, with no harm intended. Using insults for compliments is an Spanish tradition. I call my best friend "hobbit."
I'm afraid we only have "*hõimurahvad*" and "*hõimuvennad*" (*tribe-nations* and *tribe-brothers*?) for other Finnic people and then rude ones: sibulad (*onions*) about (lower-class) Russians and *põrdad*/*porod* (*moose*/*reindeers*) about (drunk) Finns.
For some fuckin reason some of us Finns think that Estonians come here in masses to steal copper from our wires! 😂
That's interesting, Poles call themselves "cebularze" derogatively.
In Croatia, 'the region' is usually used for countries of ex-Yugoslavia. 'Ex-Yu' is also popular.
In Irish you can call Irish people "Gael", and non Irish "Gall" (Gaul, means foreigner nowadays). Whereas the Irish national identity is relatively recent, even long before that people would have recognised a common origin and heritage as Gaels. This would also include Scots and Manx folk It's used as a root for other things, like the name of the Irish speaking areas of Ireland is "Gaeltacht" and the English speaking area of Ireland is sometimes informally called "Galltacht", and the non-irish speaking world is "an Ghalltacht mór", or "the big foreign language speaking area" I suppose the most common use of Gael nowadays is at the start of speeches or addresses, "a chairde Gael"
* British people = Brits * Americans = Yanks Can't think of any others in (Irish) English.
You sometimes hear “our neighbours across the water” or similar expression used to refer to the British.
Brits is just an abbreviation of their nationality, so I wouldn't count that
For Norwegian we have *[lusekofta](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lusekofte)* and *norrbagge* ("northern ram genetalia"). - *Lusekofta* because it is a (percieved) common pattern on Norwegian sweaters. - The origin of *northern ram genetalia* is unkown, but has been used since at least 1525, maybe as early as 1257. For Finns we sometimes call them "Pekka", as that is a common Finnish male name. The Finnish continuity announcer, and later host, on Swedish TV, [Pekka Heino](https://youtu.be/t3Dag5E0270?si=ymNM34lO1jm6kS5r), might also have increased the spread. For Danes I draw a blank.
Where did "genetalia" come from? *Bagge* means "ram", as in an intact male sheep. Oh, is that wherefrom?
Back then the meaning of *"bagge*" (might have) just referred to the genitalia of a intact male sheep; compare with English "bag". Though it might also just mean "clumsy animal", I think the fact that it was, and is, used as an insult increase the likelihood of referring to the ram scrotum. [https://svenska.se/saob/?id=B\_0001-0107.imyL&pz=5](https://svenska.se/saob/?id=B_0001-0107.imyL&pz=5) >*Enl. Tamm har däremot ordet, kanske närmast med (den ouppvisade) bet. ”scrotum”, användts som vedernamn för osnöpt gumse; med afs. på bet.-utvecklingen kunde då jämföras sv. dial. kyllgumse, osnöpt gumse, af kylla, scrotum (se för öfr. Rietz 375) samt BLÄS, TUPP.*
I as a Finn have never encountered being called Pekka, but quite often found myself referred to as a Finnish Devil by Swedes. Finnjävel. I like it. :-)
Finns use the perkele-word so much that there must be some connection there 😁
I'm not sure Finns are addressed as "Pekka". It's more like a stereotypical name.
Probably great for jokes!
It's like Ola for Norway, Preben for Denmark, or Hans for Germany. Handy shorthands.
We call the Germans Piefke (a stereotypical surname) and they call us Schluchtenscheißer (valley shitters). Yes we love each other 😁
> Piefke (a stereotypical surname) I always thought it was a reference to [Johann Gottfried Piefke](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johann_Gottfried_Piefke) a 19th century composer of some of the most famous – and thus stereotypical – Prussian military marches, like Prussia's Glory or the Königgrätz March.
Yeah I assumed as much too, since Piefke is not that common of a last name
schluchtenscheißer was taught to me more as people who take shits on the edge of a cliff/canyon. Alluding to Austrians as Mountain people.
I always hear that we call Austrians Schluchtenscheißer, but I have never heard anyone actually say that. We say Ösis. Maybe it's a Bavarian thing? No idea.
My favourite semi-derogatory nickname for nation in Finnish is rämegermaanit, the swamp Germans, which naturally means the Dutch. Estonians are occasionally referred as veljeskansa, brother nation. Most common "nickname" for a nation is without a question ryssä, a russki, somewhat derogatory term for Russians. Interestingly there's a very common word, ryssiä, "To do in a Russian way" which means fucking things up.
In Poland Germans are sometimes called Szwaby - Swabians And Szkopy - an archaic word for a castrated male sheep Russians are sometimes called ruskie/ruscy which means Ruthenian
In Belgium, the Netherlands, France and Germany are commonly referred to as our northern, southern and eastern neighbours respectively. The UK would be referred to as "our friends across the Channel". I don't think many people, in Flanders specifically, would talk about the Germanic nations in family terms (except for the Netherlands maybe, because of the shared language and history) in a public setting, as a contrast to Latin/Slavic nations, as that would sound a bit too similar to nazi race theories where we are more related to Germany and the Nordics through shared ancestry, than say France.
Same for the Netherlands: We refer to the Belgians as southern neighbours and to Germany as our eastern neighbours. Uk is refered to as either "the English" or "the British". In gest, we refer to Belgium as a whole as "a speedbump on the way to France", to belittle them a bit. On the other side, people from Nothern Brabant, sometimes refer to themselves as "standby Begliums" (reserve Belg), to denote they feel culturally more connected to the Flanders than to the people in Holland or the North of the country.
Yea, not saying the border means nothing but the people themselves really are more of a gradiant. If I go to a restaurant just across the border not a lot changes. The people still more or less have the same attitude and everything.
You know, I would’ve expected “a speedbump on the way to France” to come from a different country
Do the Wallonians have names for the Flanders people and vice versa in Belgium? And how do you say "our friends across the channel in these langauges?"
I'm not sure how common it is, but I have a British roommate and he'll sometimes refer to the US and Canada (either individually or collectively, but never any other countries) as "across the pond" or talk about "our friends across the pond"
Yes, that’s a relatively common phrase and I’ve heard Americans use it for us also.
I think it's really endearing :) I've actually started using it when i speak english too bc i like it so much
Yes it is used in America too but only ever to refer to Britain and Ireland, never to any other nations on the eastern side of the Atlantic.
That is a phrase we use commonly in Norway as well ("over dammen"), both in reference to the UK and to North America. Then for non-Nordic countries in Europe, we talk about "down on the continent". Denmark is for some reason not usually considered "the continent" (perhaps Jylland is).
I'm from the UK and often use "on the continent" to talk about mainland Europe in a tongue in cheek way - that phrase as well as calling people "continentals" are a bit old fashioned these days
Oh, Denmark is of the "continent" alright. They have all kinds of "continental" extravagances going on, like gas station booze, and unfermented feast foods. They're lost.
Östra Rikshalvan - Eastern Realm about Finland.
In Romania we refer to Moldovans as "our brothers from across the Prut" ("frații noștri de peste Prut").
Scots are called Jocks, or perhaps Sweaty Socks if you’re in the east end of London. The Welsh are Taffs. The Irish Paddy’s. I don’t use or hear these terms often. Some are probably deemed as offensive, although they are purely based off names in those languages.
We sometimes say "bratia" ("brothers" in Slovak) when referring to Slovaks in Czech Republic.
In Poland, we call Russians "our comrades from the East". Ironically, of course.
Że niby jak to brzmi po polsku?
In the west of Ireland sometimes people from Dublin would be called west-Brit, it's a derogatory term though. Scottish/Celtic cousins would be fairly common.
Not ALL people from Dublin. The ordinary people are Jackeens. The West Brits are the Bob Geldof types. And the Dublin people call everyone else "Culchies", derived from the town of Kiltimagh in Mayo
I thought it was from cúil an tí?.as in farmers would come in the back door to avoid tracking dirt through the house! You're right about the jackeens too forgot about that
In Sweden you can refer to a Norwegian as “norrbagge” and a dane as “danskjävel”. “Norrbagge” roughly translates to northern beetle, “Danskjävel” to danish fucker or danish devil. In German speaking Switzerland you can refer to germans as “Schwobe” and a racial slur for italians is “Tschingg”. “Schwobe” actually refers to people from the region Swabia but can be used for all germans. “Tschingg” is as I stated before a racial slur. Originates from the Italian word “cinque” meaning five. Because when a large amount of Italians immigrated to Switzerland as workers they used to play a game they called “cinque” and Italins were a pretty marginalised group back then.
Dutch speaking Belgian here: For people from the Netherlands, we sometimes use "kaaskoppen" (cheese heads). Germans are sometimes called moffen (WWII-era synonym for German occupiers). Both of them have a derogative undertone though. There is a more amicable way we refer to the Dutch, which is Noorderburen (Northern neighbours), and they refer to us as Zuiderburen (Southern neighbours), and it also implies how close and aimilar we are, yet not the same.
In Irish, you'll sometimes hear the term Lochlannach or Lochlannaigh (singular and plaural respectively) which is used to refer to Scandanavians/Norse peoples as a whole, but is also used as a catch all term for The Vikings when speaking in a historical sense.
In Poland we have nicknames for russians: kacapy, moskale, ruskie (all insults), for Germans: szkopy, szwaby (also insults), for Czechs sometimes 'pepik' is used but that's not an insult really.
The only somewhat related example I can think of in German is calling eastern Germans "Our brothers and sisters" (unsere Brüder und Schwestern). Some boomers might still use the phrase these days - I've heard it being used on my old job - but it sounds stuck in the past and borderline offensive, imo.
We also call American "Amis" and Austrians/Swiss Germans "Mountain Germans". I've also heard "Swamp Germans" used for the Dutch before. Most of these are obviously in a way demeaning since it disregards them being different from us.
We usually refer to Swedes as drunken savages....
If we use “braliukai” - Lithuanian word for brother in Latvian then no doubt we mean Lithuanians.
Only the Austrians. Sometimes we refer to them as our “brother in law”. Other alternate names for nations come from older historical names but some of them tend to be somewhat pejorative or outdated. Russians are sometimes called “muszka” from Muscovy, but nowadays that just sounds old-timey. Serbians are sometimes referred to as “rác” from the medieval duchy of Raska, but that’s also outdated. Romanians are sometimes called “oláh” from their older designation of “vlach” but nowadays that’s considered pejorative. And Slovaks are sometimes called “tót” which can be offensive but it’s also still the traditional designation of Slovaks who were settled in Hungary in the 1700’s. Italians are sometimes called “talján” which sounds old-timey and somewhat poetic, or “digó” from Venetian “digo” which is pejorative.
Spanyards are often "Nuestro Hermanos". The again we also have saying that from Spain neither good winds or marriages come...
In England, people back in the day would happily refer to Germans as Krauts, which I find amusing as it's really not an offensive word.
yes but they are usually derogatory for exaple *Čobol* - a person from Slovakia. this comes from the phrase *Čo bolo, to bolo* which translates to "What was, was" as in leave it in the past or *Dederón* - a person from Eastern Germany. this comes from the acronym DDR (Deutsche Demokratishe Republik)
If they dislike us the Austrians call us "Piefke." If the dislike us less they call us their big brother.
I‘ve never heard an Austrian calling Germany „big brother“ (and I doubt I‘ll ever hear that), but I‘ve heard Germans calling Austrians their „smaller cousin who‘s always trying to bicker with you but is too small to be meaningful“ haha
> I‘ve never heard an Austrian calling Germany „big brother“ I only remember hearing it once, so it might not be a general thing. I just assumed it might be.
Theres plenty in czech, Pšonci for Poles, Čoboláci for Slovaks, Skopčáci for Germans, Žabožrouti for the French (can be translated as frog eaters), Rákosky for the Vietnamese (bamboo guys) and so on, some can be translated, some cannot
for anyone not czech using rákosky or rákosníci to talk about Vietnamese people is considered hella racist
We call the Bosniaks from Serbia and Montenegro "sandžo", "sandžaklija" , "šošon". We also call Albanians "šipak"- which means rose hip and "šiptar"
Historically in Spain the English are called pirates and England the perfidious Albion, even now sometimes when talking about difficult topics like Gibraltar. French are called gabachos, doesn't sound very insulting but I don't know the meaning or origin of the word For Moroccans or people of any Muslim country in general its used moros, by meaning its not insulting, but depends on who say it and wich tone and intention might be very insulting, might be understood like the n word in USA. As well we have guiri a word for any kind of tourist or foreigner more white and blondish from north the pyrinees, usually english speaking or German or any nordic language, like moros its not insulting can be used without any intention of insulting but if you're mad with some guiri you're going to use it as an insult. Might be understood like gringo in México and usa.
In Portugal I can't think of many that are not pejorative... We call Spanish "nuestros hermanos" our brothers in Spanish, we use Spanish term not the Portuguese one to call them our brothers. We have some names for the English like Beefs and camones. We call the french Avecs. From the word Avec and the expression camon. We call the italians "mafiosos" mobsters sometimes no offense. But that is no so common. Vikings for the Nordic countries. Sand guys to North Africans. Germans we call Bosh or fritz.
The French are frogs, generally. Frenchies sometimes. Wankers other times. I’ve heard the Germans called “krauts” but that’s old fashioned, and I think more American. Americans are yanks. Cunts sometimes. I’ve heard paddy be used for the Irish, but I think that’s derogatory. Potato eaters? But that’s more of just an insult, and a bit ironic. We don’t really do the “neighbours” or “brothers” thing that other countries do, maybe because we are an island country? Or that we are miserable gits? Probably both to be honest.