Which animal is worse?
Last summer I went to meet my mother-in-law in Latvia. My partner's family are all Russian speakers, and my Russian language skills are poor, but improving quickly now! We were having a picnic one afternoon, and joking around I called my partner osyol meaning donkey. His mother's jaw nearly hit the floor, and all went quiet ... They misheard me, and thought I'd said kosyol which means billy-goat and is also an extrememly rude swear word.
Sent by: Samantha
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By the way, both words have nothing to do with criminals. They are more girly or childish and mostly not used by men.
Fro: some really bad prisoner's slang words, which better never use talking to/about other people, are: "petuh" (rooster) (nothing with "chicken" in english speaking culture) and "dyatel" (woodpecker).
The Russian language is very beautiful, colorful and extensive, but on the other hand that makes it quite difficult to learn. And it's always better carefully use such kinda expressions.
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Not sure if your Russian partner or his mum would ever appreciate you saying that to their family member.
Both expressions are unappropriate to be used here.
I guess, even if the mother heard right she'd be confused anyway.
Though this expression is girly, you can't use it without intending to offend the other person.
I have to make it clear: the word 'kazyel' in Russian is considered extremely rude mostly among criminals. So I think the members of Samantha's new family were simply surprised by the fact that she was aware of such a term. It's absolutely OK to call your husband a goat, if he's not a gangster and simply deserves it :-)
I can never understand why referring to a person as an animal is an insult. Animals are so much nicer than many people in this world.
Osyol and kosyol are both bad words to call a person.
Hi :) i'm Russian, and both these words are bad, but they're not extremely rude, just slang, kozyol is quite often used to offend a man. That's why it sounds stronger than kozyol as it often used, usually when a person is angry. Osyol is similar to fool.
Samantha, great story ... I can't help but wonder how you explained yourself. I am Russian and kozyol is a worse name to call a man, it's degrading, osyol is more like a fool.
Haha! That's hilarious! I'm learning Russian, I've studied Russian for already two years.
Hmm... you probably know the Russian criminal world much better than me, but for me, as for a man who is quite far from it, the word "dyatel " doesn't sound very bad. For me it's a hard-working student who devotes much time to learning a subject but nevertheless is not very smart.
olen " (deer). Sometimes in Runet (= Russian-language Internet) it is even typed as "alen " which is closer to its pronunciation (since the unstressed "o" sonds in modern "proper" Russian as an "a"). As for its meaning... it is something like "not very clever/smart person" :)
Another animal name which is an offensive word (though a soft one) in modern Russian language is "
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