9 most common Russian insults in which animal names are used

Hello everyone, today we will be talking about nine specific Russian insults. Unfortunately, they are very commonly used, but keep in mind that they are used only when people are abusing each other, when they really mean to insult.

Technically, these words are animal names and when used out of insulting context they just mean animal names 🙂

Translation of most common Russian insults

Ok, let’s have a look at these words and how they are generally translated:
1) Козёл – a goat
2) Свинья – a swine
3) Собака – a dog
4) Корова – a cow
5) Петух – a cockerel
6) Курица – a hen
7) Лошадь – a horse
8) Баран / овца – a ram / a sheep
9) Осёл – a donkey

Another Russian insult, which is not mentioned in the list above, is Обезьяна — a monkey. It’s not very common and is used when someone behaves like an ape or copy someone else’s behaviour.

When do you use these insults?

1) If you call somebody козёл (a goat) you mean that they are dicks and/or jerks. It is also the origin to one of the Most popular Russian surnames! By the way, there is a Russian word for ‘a scapegoat’ – козёл отпущения.

2) When someone is called свинья (a swine), it means that this person is totally untidy.

3) Собака (a dog) as an insult means that someone behaves bitchy. Among these Russian insults this one is the rudest. Another thing about собака is that you can use it in regards to things as well, when you can’t handle or fix them.

4) Корова (a cow) is an insult, which cannot be used for a man. As an insult it means a fat woman.

5) Петух (a cockerel) is a rude word for ‘gay’ in Russian. Check The oldest and the most neutral word for gay in Russian.

6) Курица (a hen) is again an insult that is used for females only. It simply means that someone is stupid and/or a simpleton.

7) Лошадь (a horse) is AGAIN (?!) an insult for females, which means that someone is clumsy and disproportionately big.

8) Баран (a ram) or овца (a sheep) is used when you want to call somebody stupid. Баран is used for males and овца is used for females.

9) Осёл (a donkey) is an insulting word for those who are extremely stubborn.

If you want to say in Russian that someone is too slow, you go with «Ты как черепаха!» It means ‘You are like a turtle!’

Anyway, if you are not planning to insult someone in Russian, but want to know some useful words for emotional situations, check out the article Russian curse words that you should learn asap.

Ok, I hope this one helps this article will be useful for you only in theory. Subscribe to Speak Russian Like Russians and you will speak Russian like Russians 🙂 Check for yourself, if you don’t believe me.

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