At the corner of Bosworth and Diamond just now, I saw a youngish, professionally-dressed woman in an impolitely-located car cussed out thoroughly by a small, cranky older man who had to walk around her to cross the street. "Chinga madre cabrona pendeja," he started, giving her rear window a thump with his fist for emphasis, and continued in the same breath, "stop you son of a bitch!" He was still talking as he cleared the other side of the car and continued across the crosswalk, but I could no longer hear what he was saying. I wish I had. Maybe he would have continued in German at that point, or Thai. I could have learned something. I already did learn something; I didn't know you could feminize "cabron" and "pendejo".
Cabron, according to wordreference.com, literally means "billy goat". The next time I'm angry with someone, I'm going to call them a gender-ambiguous barnyard animal to see if it packs the same punch in English.
Posted by dianna at September 16, 2005 02:46 PM