# 扑你老母的



## qsh

just to be sure:
is 扑你老母的 equal to the Cantonese 屌你老母 (I know that it's normally another character for diu, but that one is blocked...)
according to some Chinese blogs I found, it's 潮汕 dialect - correct?

Thanks


----------



## Skatinginbc

I've never heard of this expression before and my intuition is: It is English.  扑(粤: _pok_)你老母的 "_poke_ your mother".  Of course, I'm curiously waiting for native speakers' explanations.


----------



## brofeelgood

In Cantonese, 仆街 is sometimes also written as 撲街 (still pronounced as  puk1). This expletive is widespread and notoriously versatile, but at  the same time reckoned to be much less vulgar than the famous five - <diu>, <gau>, <cat>, <lan>, <hai>.

One of its many uses goes in the form of: 仆 (someone's) 街, where 仆 is a verb and 街 is the object complement.
- "仆佢個街,咁都射唔入!" translates to "Damn (him)! How did he miss that!"

It's  perfectly acceptable to substitute the "someone" with "you", "him",  "her", "that monkey"... and obviously "your mother", which is how you  get 仆你老母個街. Over the years, creativity and increasing discretion enabled  臭 to creep into the phrase, thus forming 仆你老母個臭街, which is very similar  sounding to 你老母個臭閪. It's euphemism through the brilliant use of  homophones.

This is the closest Cantonese equivalent of the  original phrase that I can think of, but it's atypical to use only 仆 in  place of 仆街. Therefore, the omission of 街 in the original phrase is a  glaring oddity. It's probably not Cantonese in my opinion. If it is, the  author is obviously not very good at it.


----------



## Skatinginbc

There are regional variants in pronunciation, for instance: 
僕: 香港 pok, 澳門 pʰok, 廣州 pʊk, etc.  Also 潮州话: pʰok 
撲: 香港 pʰɔk, 澳門 pʰɔk, 廣州 pʰɔk, etc.  Also 潮州话: pʰok


----------



## brofeelgood

僕 is the traditional variant of 仆, but when paired with 街, it is without exception written as 仆街 instead of 僕街, and pronounced as puk1. 

According to the Linguistics Society of Hong Kong (香港語言學學會), there are 3 possible pronunciations of 仆.
1. fu6 - 仆倒, 仆頓, 前仆後繼
2. buk6 - 同「僕」字，「仆」是「僕」的簡體字
3. puk1 - 「仆fu6」的異讀字，口語讀音

From the same source, the possible pronunciations of 撲 are given as:
1. pok3 - 撲打, 撲粉, 撲救
2. puk1 - 同「仆」字

http://humanum.arts.cuhk.edu.hk/Lexis/lexi-can/search.php?q=%BC%B3

Edit: these are Cantonese-only pronunciations.


----------



## Skatinginbc

brofeelgood said:


> it is without exception written as 仆街


Then it literally means "to fall prostrate on the street", which sounds like a death curse to me.  Cantonese 仆 does not carry sexual connotations, does it?  扑你老母的 certainly sounds sexually related.


----------



## brofeelgood

Skatinginbc said:


> Then it literally means "to fall prostrate on the street", which sounds like a death curse to me. * Cantonese 仆 does not carry sexual connotations, does it?*  扑你老母的 certainly sounds sexually related.



Not at all, it simply means fall forward (e.g. 仆親) and/or lie on (e.g. 仆喺度). The original use of 仆街 (PK) is as a curse; to tell someone to drop dead on the street - 仆街(死)喇你, which is not unlike 去死吧你 in Mandarin. It has since evolved to encompass a wider scope of definition and use.

Here's an interesting article I found that explains the origins of the word. I'm not 100% convinced, but it's undeniably entertaining. 

http://evchk.wikia.com/wiki/仆街

Edit: added 仆親 and 仆喺度.


----------



## Ghabi

More context is needed, *Qsh*. The word in question here may be bok1, not puk1. The non-vulgar meaning of bok1 is "to hit someone with a club (or something similar)" (which is perhaps related to 攴 in archaic Chinese). So it's not surprising it's become one of the f-words in Cantonese. 扑(bok1)你老母 "Screw your mom!" is of course very, very vulgar in Cantonese.


----------



## brofeelgood

Ghabi said:


> The word in question here may be bok1, not puk1. The non-vulgar meaning of bok1 is "to hit someone with a club (or something similar)" (which is perhaps related to 攴 in archaic Chinese)


Hey Ghabi, thanks for clearing something up for me. I've always written it as 卜頭黨 instead of 攴頭黨...


----------



## qsh

Ghabi said:


> More context is needed, *Qsh*. The word in question here may be bok1, not puk1. The non-vulgar meaning of bok1 is "to hit someone with a club (or something similar)" (which is perhaps related to 攴 in archaic Chinese). So it's not surprising it's become one of the f-words in Cantonese. 扑(bok1)你老母 "Screw your mom!" is of course very, very vulgar in Cantonese.



here you go:
隐隐约约还传来了疯狂的叫骂声：
　　“扑你老母的！居然敢给我动刀子，动啊，动啊！”
　　“今天杀你全家！”
　　“咸家铲，烂春袋的老杂货!”
　　“……”

I really think that - at least here - it's meant as a curse...


----------



## Ghabi

@Brofeelgood: You're welcome! @Qsh, thanks for giving the context. The dialogue seems to be a mixture of different dialects. 烂春袋 "balls rotten" and 咸家铲 "whole-family annihilated" are Cantonese, but 老杂货 definitely isn't. (的 is of course also not Cantonese.) Perhaps the author here is trying to depict a fight between people from different regions?


----------



## brofeelgood

咸家铲，烂春袋的老杂货!

Lol, this is definitely Cantonese.

Like how *Ghabi* explained it:
冚(咸)家剷(铲) - whole family dies
爛(烂)春袋 - rotten testicles

Maybe 老杂货 (old groceries or mixed-up goods) = 老傢伙 (old man)?

*qsh*, whatever it is you're reading, it's hilarious.


----------

