Mini Hungarian language lesson: Sweary Saturday.

"Using Anglo-Saxon language" is a common euphemism for "turning the air blue", which of course is just another euphemism.

But in Hungarian you'd struggle to use Finno-Ugric language to the same effect.

I thought most swearwords were ancient and immutable but it turns out, when it comes to Magyar, there is scant evidence of the origins of our spicier words.

"Fasz" ("cock") for example is of unknown origin, the only Finno-Ugric cognate candidate is the Sámi "puohtja".

This may sound convincing, but Sámi is a very distant relation in linguistic terms and no other language in the family has it.

If you think it'd still be too much of a coincidence: "house" is "ház" in Magyar yet their etymologies are definitely distinct.

Coincidences do occur.

The female counterpart of "fasz", "pina" is almost as dubious in its origin.

One reconstructed ancestor is *puna, derivatives of which exist in many related languages and mean "hair". This could've morphed into "fan" in Magyar, a word only surviving in "fanszőr" ("pubic hair").

How (if at all) this turned then back into "pina" is unclear, written sources are understandably but annoyingly rare, the first ever mention coming from the 16th century.

So it's all a bit up in the air not just for "pina" but all its derivatives like "puna" or "picsa".

We're on much firmer ground with the verb "basz" ("fuck"). This is definitely Old Turkish that we picked up on our long journey to Europe.

Curiously though, despite it being the rudest word now, it started out as a euphemism, its literal meaning being "to push or to press".

This can be seen in the word "boszorkány", now a generic word meaning "witch" but originally a succubus or "pressing ghost", cos it'd sit on you and pin you to the bed during what we now know as sleep paralysis.

Of course nobody gave a fuck about where "basz" came from, they embraced it with gusto and rather aptly it became a very fertile word, with "baszd meg" often taking on a phatic function just like "fucking" in English.

And of course we've got phrasal verbs:

"kibasz" ("fuck out") - to throw out
"bebasz" ("fuck in") - to slam something shut or to get drunk
"átbasz" ("fuck across") - to con someone
"lebasz" ("fuck down") - to give someone a dressing down
"felbasz" ("fuck up") - to annoy someone

Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I wish you all a very happy Sweary Saturday, baszomalássan!

P.s.: Almost forgot the recommended listening from the kings of shaman rock.