The first set are all from one scene in Plautus' Pseudolus (I.3.127ff), where Pseudolus and the pimp Ballio are seriously trading insults! It ends up with Pseudolus saying:
|
impudice loose |
sceleste evil |
verbero need a good beating |
bustirape tomb robber |
sociofraude backstabber |
furcifer gallows meat |
sacrilege blasphemer |
periure liar |
legerupa crook |
permities adulescentum child molester |
fur thief |
fugitive runaway |
fraus populi fraudster |
fraudulente cheat |
leno pimp |
caenum scum |
In Persa (III.3.1ff) there's a completely different set:
lutum lenonium filthy pimp |
sterculinum publicum rubbish dump |
impure rude |
inhoneste nasty |
iniure wrong |
inlex lawless |
labes populi stain on the public |
pecuniae accipiter avide greedy money-hawk |
procax wanton |
rapax grasping |
trahax sticky-fingered |
impudens shameless |
From Plautus' other plays we can add the following (Plautus was apparently never "lost for words"): |
stabulum servitricium |
scortorum liberator |
suduculum flagri |
compedium tritor |
pistrinorum civitas |
perenniserve |
lurcho |
edax |
furax |
fugax |
inanilogista |
pultifagus |
pernonida (=ham-let?) |
mastigia |
hircus |
hara suis |
carnuficium cribrum |
virgarum lascivia |
Please send me your suggestions for suitable translations of the last set - or any improvements on the first two. The possibilities for being nice were far fewer! |
vita my life |
anima, animule my soul |
voluptas my delight |
ocelle my eye |
rosa my rose |
mel /melculum my (wee) honey |
cor / corculum my (little) heart |
bellula my little beauty |
verculum my little springtime |
And finally, ways of expressing yourself without needing to know any words! |
haha / hahahae (funny) |
fu / vae (disgusting) |
ei / heu / papae (sad) |
attat / attatae/ (amazing) |
ehem /hem / hui (embarrassing) |
eu / euge / eugepae (great!) |
pax / st (sh!!) |
eho / heus (hey!) |
babae / bombax (wow!) |
heia (aha!) |
For a rude interpretation of one of Kennedy's innocent-seeming gender rhymes, |