# el culo del mundo



## bantza2001

Hola, sabe alguin como es en ingles - ir al culo del mundo?? con una exprecion equivalente en ingles como el culo del mundo en español?
besos


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## fenixpollo

Hola, bantza, y bienvenid@ al foro.

¿A qué se refiere esa frase?  ¿Es un sitio -- como un pueblo, por ejemplo -- que es muy feo o muy mal visto por la persona que habla? Siempre es mejor brindarnos un poco de contexto.

Si usas la herramienta de búsqueda del foro, vas a encontrar muchos hilos anteriores donde se debate la palabra "culo" y sus niveles de vulgaridad en distintas regiones del mundo. Por aquí, es bastante vulgar, y se traduciría al inglés como _the asshole of the world_.  He escuchado esa frase antes, y se entiende muy bien.  Espero que te ayude.

Saludos.


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## bantza2001

Muchas gracias!!!


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## gonzalomonte

"el culo del mundo" no se refiere a que sea feo, sino a que está muy muy lejos. Es una expresión bastante coloquial, incluso vulgar.

La traducción dependerá de cada pais, pero "the far side of (something rude)" es lo que usaría yo, como en "to go to the far side of the fucking city"


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## LoveFifteen

to go to BFE (bum-fuck Egypt)


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## faranji

Como dice gonzalo, es una expresión muy común, vulgar y que no necesita de ningún contexto para entenderse. Significa un lugar muy remoto. 

_The fucking boonies_.


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## Iararo

BFE - "Bum Fuck, Egypt" - a colloquial Placeholder name denoting a place that is remote and out of the way.


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## teachermadrid

In British English we say'In the arse end of nowhere' to express 'el culo del mundo', this is a very colloquial expression, but I suppose it would be a good translation as 'el culo del mundo' sounds pretty colloquial too.
Less colloquially we could also say  that a place is in 'the back of beyond'


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## Paul Clancy

Hi
In Ireland we would say "the back arse of nowhere"


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## Paul Clancy

Paul Clancy said:


> Hi
> In Ireland we would say "the back arse of nowhere"



I forgot to add in my last submission that in Ireland we also say "the back end of beyond"


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## fenixpollo

BFE -- butt-f***ing Egypt
hell and gone from (otro lado)
in the middle of nowhere
the boondocks/the boonies

Estas expresiones describen a un lugar muy lejos de todo.  Para describir un lugar feo, desagradable, y no deseado, se pueden aplicar otros términos en inglés americano, como the _ass(hole) of the world_.

Saludos.


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## faranji

fenixpollo said:


> Para describir un lugar feo, desagradable, y no deseado, se pueden aplicar otros términos en inglés americano, como the _ass(hole) of the world_.


 
Amigo fenix, para que nadie se confunda es importante dejar claro que la expresión 'en el culo del mundo' no tiene nada que ver con la belleza o fealdad del lugar en cuestión. Un paraje hermoso, paradisíaco y de lo más deseable también puede estar en el culo del mundo.


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## newzamt

More formal:

the ends of the earth

Informal:

asscrack of (insert place) 
the sticks


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## redi

Creo que yo también diría "the arse end of nowhere", y menos coloquialmente "the back of beyond".


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## jalibusa

"The boondocks", suitable for polite company.


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## scotu

faranji said:


> Amigo fenix, para que nadie se confunda es importante dejar claro que la expresión 'en el culo del mundo' no tiene nada que ver con la belleza o fealdad del lugar en cuestión. Un paraje hermoso, paradisíaco y de lo más deseable también puede estar en el culo del mundo.


 
I think the confusion here is that in English "asshole of the world" refers to an ugly, undesireable place. (A more polite English expression is "armpit of the world.) In Spanish I think "*el culo del mundo"* means a place so far away from civilization that no one would want to go there or the "ass end of the world." To make it even more confusing, In English there is a distinction between ass and asshole. Colloquial Spanish uses the same word (culo) for both.


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## Paul Clancy

Hi
Just to clarify for non mother tongue English speakers "Back arse of nowhere" "back end of beyond" have nothing to do with whether the place is nice or not ... just in the same way as the expression (el culo del mundo) in Spanish.  It is a reference to the general inaccessability of the place ... somewhere really far away, remote etc.

If you don't want to use the equivalent "culo" expression you can also say "back of beyond" or "out in the sticks" or "in the middle of nowhere"


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## faranji

Yeah, scotu, a place 'en el culo del mundo' is not necessarily a godforsaken place. It's simply a place 'muy a trasmano', that is, veeery out of the way. I happen to live in one of the many _culos del mundo (_right in the hemorrhoid of the planet more quite like it --two hours and a half horse ride plus a 45 min boat trip from the nearest road) and it's simply gorgeous here.


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## criesoc

Hi, can I translate "En el culo del mundo"?? I don't know if it is possible..


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## apuquipa

At the end of the world.


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## criesoc

So easy...thanks apuquipa!!


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## mhp

en el quinto pino, en los quintos infiernos:
in the back of beyond, 
in the boondocks.


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## bernaljg

There are many possibilities that express the same "in the middle of nowhere" idea.
The most literal translation is actually used, as in:

"Her hometown is in the ass crack of the world".

Also common, "in the boondocks" and "in Bumfuck, Egypt".

Cheers,
B


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## mhp

I don't recommend "Bumfuck" or "ass crack". But I do like how they sound.


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## bernaljg

I should have mentioned that using "ass crack" or "Bumfuck", while very common, are not very "elegant" and in some circles you may want to avoid using them (listen to what mhp suggests!).  But kind of the same happens with the word "culo" in Spanish.  While I know in Spain it is not any more offensive than "butt" in English, in most of Latin America it is practically a curse word you wouldn't hear on TV.  Oh, and another one you hear often is "in the armpit of the world (or of America)".
Cheers,
B


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## nv1962

I agree with Bernalj: it's very off-color - but it's also an accurate translation and, moreover, within register of the Spanish original expression.

So: _bumfuck, (insert place or country, typically that of residence)_ would be appropriate for _en el culo del mundo._


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## Fospia

Tambien se puede decir "to Timbuktu."
He oido esta frase mas que "BFE."


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## Fantasmagórico

Hello,
  Just to reinforce the statement that this expression denotes remoteness rather than dirtiness: note that “culo” does not necessarily refer to the ass (although 99.99 percent of the times it does): 



> *4. *m. Extremidad inferior o posterior de algunas cosas. _Culo del pepino, del vaso_


 http://buscon.rae.es/draeI/SrvltGUIBusUsual?TIPO_HTML=2&TIPO_BUS=3&LEMA=culo

  I guess this meaning of “culo” applies here, as the Earth does have a back side (which varies according to your point of view), but it does not have an anus that I’m aware of.

 P.S.: Something similar happens with the opposite: the center of the Earth, which is often called the “ombligo del mundo”. “Ombligo” means “navel”, but it also means “the center of something” according to the RAE dictionary.


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## Lenora

Esta expresión en castellano se puede traducir como *'in the back of beyond'* o ¿es demasiado coloquial?

¿Cuáles podrían ser otras maneras de decirlo?
Gracias! 

Lenora


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## elirlandes

"in the back of beyond" está muy bien. No es menos coloquial que "en el culo del mundo".


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## Lenora

Thanks a lot! 

Lenora


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## Arrius

Tenemos también _in the arsehole of the world,_ pero más común _of Africa, Asia, South America _que significa lo mismo pero es más grosero que la frase del hilo. Los américanos dicen _out_ _in the boondocks_ (derivado de una palabra filipina) y los ingleses _out in the sticks_ ( sticks = arboles y maleza) para significar en _las afueras más lejanas_ o_ en el monte dificilmente accesible_.


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## sound shift

Alternatively you could say "A real backwater".


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## Arrius

sound shift said:


> Alternatively you could say "A real backwater".


You could indeed.  But it would be as well to point out to our friends that such a place, funnily enough, does not have to be anywhere near the sea or even a waterway.


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## sound shift

Fair comment, Arrius. We should perhaps stress too that "backwater" is not at all vulgar.


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## dante08

"In the arse-end of nowhere".


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## Arrius

*Timbuctoo*, spelt thus, used to be used to mean the remotest place on earth, as if it were fictitious, but the town has now been developed and become accessible to the extent that nobody seems to use its name like that anymore,
*PS I stand corrected: I just noticed that Fospia *_*mentions it in post #27 but with a different spelling.* So it is alive and well and still used in the States._


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## elirlandes

I think that "Bumfuck nowhere", "arse end of nowhere" etc are more vulgar than "en el culo del mundo". I would translate them more as "en el quito co*o".

"En el culo del mundo" is something you might here a well spoken person say, so I think it is more akin to "the back end of beyond" etc.


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## fenixpollo

elirlandes said:


> "En el culo del mundo" is *something you might here a well spoken person say*,


 Not in every Spanish-speaking country. In Mexico, _culo_ is probably the most vulgar word of all buttock-related vocabulary, which includes _trasero, nalgas, pompis, ano _and_ cola_.


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## Arrius

In Spain _culo_ is generally translatable by BE _bum_/AE _tush _or _backside_, so nothing too vulgar, but  I am glad to hear that Mexicans are more conservative in the terms they use. The things I have heard quite decent Spanish mothers say to their naughty children in public I at first found quite shocking (and sometimes physiologically contradictory)!


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## jalibusa

Arrius said:


> In Spain _culo_ is generally translatable by BE _bum_/AE _tush _or _backside_, so nothing too vulgar, but I am glad to hear that Mexicans are more conservative in the terms they use. The things I have heard quite decent Spanish mothers say to their naughty children in public I at first found quite shocking (and sometimes physiologically contradictory)!


 
Tell us more!


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## stooge1970

Arrius said:


> In Spain _culo_ is generally translatable by BE _bum_/AE _tush _or _backside_, so nothing too vulgar, but  I am glad to hear that Mexicans are more conservative in the terms they use. The things I have heard quite decent Spanish mothers say to their naughty children in public I at first found quite shocking (and sometimes physiologically contradictory)!



In Mexico it refers to the "asshole" itself. 

By the way, I think the translations given that include "ass/arse" are much more common in British English. Really, where I come from we would just say: "It's in the middle of (fuckin') nowhere", or "it's out in the boondocks". 

I've heard my state (NJ) referred to as "the armpit of the world", but it is a way of calling the place ugly/terrible, since, as the most densely populated state, it's as far away from the boondocks as you can get. At least the part where I come from. 

We can call something "a (real) shit-hole", but again, it's used to call a place ugly/awful. I wouldn't use expressions with "ass", "hole" or "asshole" in American English to describe a place if you don't want to convey that meaning.

But I may be wrong. People might use those expressions in other areas with different meanings. 

Best.


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## Arrius

*In Mexico it refers to the "asshole" itself*. *stooge 1970* 
 In the Iberian Spanish expression _que te den por el culo,_ for example, it also means that and can mean either buttocks or anus in an erotic or pornogaphic context.


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## stooge1970

Arrius said:


> *In Mexico it refers to the "asshole" itself*. *stooge 1970*
> In the Iberian Spanish expression _que te den por el culo,_ for example, it also means that and can mean either buttocks or anus in an erotic or pornogaphic context.



Of course. I jokingly said a variant of that expression to a Spanish friend who has a very vulgar vocabulary (I can't remember if I was pretending to be mad or what), and it kind of shocked her.

My point is that in Mexico it always means "the asshole" itself, and thus common colloquial Spanish expressions like "hasta el culo" and "mueve el culo" sound incredibly vulgar there. Obviously I'm no expert, but I remember a Mexican friend of mine telling me that while working at a camp for kids to learn Spanish in France, the counselors from Spain would always say "mueve el culo" and it grossed out the Mexican counselors, who told them to not use that expression. Likewise, I said "está hasta el culo" to a madrileño once while living in Mexico and he warned me not to say that in Mexico, as "culo" always refers to the "asshole".

Best.


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## Arrius

American "move your ass!" I would also find offensive even if does mean buttocks or is a synecdoche for the whole body.


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