The Polish language, like most others, has swear words and profanity. Some words are not always seen as very insulting, however, there are others that are considered by some greatly offensive and rude. Words that might be considered most derogatory, based on multiple sources,^[1][2][3] are not necessarily a general and have not been decided upon in a more definite manner.^[4]

There are different types of swearing (as coined by Steven Pinker): abusive, cathartic, dysphemistic, emphatic and idiomatic.^[5][6]

The Polish language uses all types of swearing mentioned. Research has shown that "Polish people hear profanity more often in a public space than in a private space".^[7] 65% of surveyed adults said they have sworn due to emotions and only 21% claimed they never swore.^[7]

The CBOS (Centrum Badania Opinii Społecznej; The Center for Public Opinion Research) has done surveys to examine the use of profanity. In the research report, it was pointed out that information given about the private sector might not be accurate, as it is a protected and idealized space, meaning that the subjects of the survey could be downplaying or changing their answers providing a false report.^[8]

Linguist Jerzy Bralczyk calculated that there are only five basic vulgarisms in Polish. These are "cock" (chuj), "cunt" (pizda), "fuck" (pierdolić, jebać) and "whore/shit/fuck" (kurwa). The rest are combinations of these five, derived words and phraseological relationships. New vulgarisms appear when new word configurations are created or their semantic context changes.^[9] The dictionary of real Polish gives four words in 350 configurations, including the word "shit" in 47 functions.^[10]

Ciemno jak w dupie (u) Murzyna

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕɛmnɔ ˈjak v dupʲɛ u muʐɨna]

Very dark. Literally "as dark as the inside of a black person's ass"

Skośny

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈskɔɕnɨ]

1. An offensive term for an Asian person.
2. In a non-vulgar context: diagonal.

Żółtek

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈʐuwtɛk]

1. An offensive term for an Asian person, literally "yellowie".
2. Pope John Paul II, mockingly referred to as rzułta morda (lit. yellowface)

Ciapaty

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡siapatɨ]

1. An offensive term for a person of a slightly darker skin color but not black, usually Indian subcontinent, people from the Middle East.
2. Word probably comes from "ćapati", a type of flat bread traditionally made in India and Pakistan.

Ciota

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕɔta]

1. Period, menstruation.
2. An insulting way to call a homosexual, usually one behaving in an overly feminine way.^[13]

Cwel

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡sfɛl]

1. A male providing sexual services to homosexual inmates in prison^[14]
2. An insult towards a male.

Pedał

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpɛdaw]

Faggot (a gay man). Literally "pedal".

Cipa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕipa]

(See above)

Chuj

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈxuj]

(See above)

Do dupy

Pronunciation: IPA:[dɔ ˈdupɨ]

For something or someone thought no good, useless.

Dziwka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈd͡ʑifka]

1. A prostitute, hooker.
2. An insult towards a female.

Frajer

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈfrajɛr]

1. A naive person.
2. A loser.

Matkojebca

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmatkɔjɛbt͡sa]

1. Same as the English "motherfucker".

Menda

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmɛnda]

1. A policeman.
2. A greedy or clumsy person.

Męska kurwa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmɛ̃ska ˈkurva]

A male prostitute.

Skurwiel

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈskurvʲɛl]

An insult towards a male.

Skurwysyn

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈskurvɨsɨn]

An insult towards a male. Similar to the English “son of a whore”.

Suka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsuka]

1. An insult used towards females. Same as “bitch” in English.
2. Non-vulgar: a female dog.
3. A male sexually submissive to another male.

Świnia

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɕfiɲa]

1. A person behaving in a way that is seen as obscene. Same as calling someone a pig in English.
2. Non-vulgar: a pig.

Zdzira

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzd͡ʑira]

1. A female prostitute.
2. An insult towards a female.

Ciota

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡ɕɔta]

(See above)

Cwel

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈt͡sfɛl]

(See above)

Pedał

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpɛdaw]

1. An insult towards a gay man or a male perceived as gay.
2. Non-vulgar: a pedal.

Dojebać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdɔjɛbat͡ɕ]

1. To beat someone up, give someone a beating.

2. To add something to something else in high amounts, e.g. pepper to a soup.

Dopierdalać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdɔpjɛrdalat͡ɕ]

1. To beat someone up, give someone a beating.
2. To talk nonsense.

Dopieprzać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdɔˈpiɛprzat͡ɕ]

1. Same as "dopierdalać" but less vulgar.

Dupa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈdupa]

1. Ass.
2. A scaredy cat.
3. Insult towards a man.
4. A vulgar way to call an attractive woman.
5. Girlfriend (preferably when discussed in her absence, unless she's a ździra).

Gówno

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɡuvnɔ]

1. Feces, literally “shit”.
2. Used as an insult towards a person seen as someone not worthy of attention.
3. Something useless, worth nothing.
4. Can also literally mean “nothing”, similar to "jack shit" or "fuck all".

Japa

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjapa]

Used to refer to someone’s face, similar to the English "mug".

Jasna cholera

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈjasna ˈxɔlɛra]

A word to express frustration. Similar to “holy shit” in English.

Kiblować^[15]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈkiblɔvat͡ɕ]

1. To be serving a sentence in prison.
2. To repeat a grade in school.

Kurwa^[16][17]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈkurva]

1. A female prostitute.
2. An immoral, unethical person.
3. An expression of frustration, like “fuck!” in English.
4. A filler like “fucking” in an English sentence, e.g. “I hate this fucking show”.

Kurestwo

Pronunciation: IPA:[kuˈrɛstvɔ]

1. A broken object.
2. A bad tasting dish/drink.
3. A substance that is unpleasant to touch or smell.

Kurwiarz

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈkurviarz]

1. A man frequently who frequently engages in sex with prostitutes.
2. A man cheating on his wife.

Kurwidołek

Pronunciation: IPA:[kurvʲiˈdɔwɛk]

1. A brothel.
2. Any place where prostitutes can frequently be encountered.
3. The flat of a man who frequently invites multiple women over to have sex with them.

Mieć nasrane w głowie^[18]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmiɛt͡ɕ naˈsranɛ v ˈɡwɔvʲɛ]

To behave weirdly, illogically, with no sense.

Morda w kubeł

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈmɔrda f ˈkubɛw]

Used to tell someone to be quiet, to stop talking, to shut up.

Na odpieprz/odpierdol

Pronunciation: IPA:[na ˈɔdpiɛpʂ/ɔdpiɛrdɔl]

To do something without much care or thought.

Najebać

Pronunciation: IPA:[naˈjɛbat͡ɕ]

1. To be drunk/have had too much to drink.
2. To add too much of something.
3. To beat someone up.

Niech to szlag trafi

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɲɛx tɔ ˈʂlak ˈtrafʲi]

An expletive used to express frustration. Similar to “dammit” or “shit” in English.

Opierdalać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ɔpʲɛrˈdalat͡ɕ]

1. To be lazy.
2. To quickly peel something.
3. To perform fellatio.

Obesrać^[19]/obsrać^[20]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈɔbɛsrat͡ɕ/ɔpsrat͡ɕ]

To dirty someone or something with feces.

Pierdolić

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈpʲɛrdɔlʲit͡ɕ]

1. To have sex, “to fuck”.
2. To regard something as irrelevant, not worth attention.
3. To lie, talk nonsense.

Robić w chuja

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈrɔbit͡ɕ f ˈxuja]

To fool someone. Literally: ”do in a dick”.

Samojebka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsamɔjɛpka]

1. To jerk off, to masturbate. Literally: ”self-fucking”.
2. To take a picture of yourself, to take a selfie.

Srać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsrat͡ɕ]

1. To defecate, “to (take a) shit”.
2. To regard something as irrelevant, not worth attention.

Sometimes it is followed by "taśma" to create the word "srajtaśma". The literal translation is "shit-tape" and it refers to toilet paper.

Srać w gacie

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈsrad͡ʑ v ˈɡat͡ɕɛ]

To be very afraid, nervous. Literally "to be shitting your pants".

Szajs

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈʂajs]

1. Feces, literally “shit”.
2. Something worthless, of bad quality.

When the word "papier", meaning paper, is added after it makes "szajspapier". Literally, it means "shitpaper" and is used to refer to toilet paper.

Szczać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈʂt͡ʂat͡ɕ]

To release urine, to pee. Literally: "to piss".

Walić konia

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvalit͡ɕ kɔnia]

To jerk off, to masturbate. Literally: ”to beat the horse”.

Wkurwiać

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈfkurvʲat͡ɕ]

To annoy someone or to “piss someone off”.

Wpaść po uszy w gówno

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈfpaɕt͡ɕ pɔ ˈuʂɨ v ɡuvnɔ]

To be in a lot of trouble. Literally translates to “fall into shit to the ears”. Similar to the English phrase “to be in deep shit”.

Wyglądać jak pół dupy zza krzaka

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈvɨɡlɔndat͡ɕ jak puw 'dupɨ zza ˈkʂak]

To look strange, weird.^[21] Literally translates to “look like half an ass from behind a bush”. Similar to the English phrase “to look like shit”.

Zabrać dupę w troki^[22]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzabrat͡ɕ ˈdupɛ f ˈtrɔki]

To get away, to run away. Usually referring to running away from something problematic.

Zapieprzać^[23]

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzapʲɛpʂat͡ɕ]

1. To be going very fast.
2. To be working hard.

Zapierdalać^[24]

Pronunciation: IPA:[zapʲɛrˈdalat͡ɕ]

1. To be going very fast.
2. To be working hard.
3. To steal.
4. To stink.
5. To beat (especially perform a single-punch knock-out).

Zawracać dupę

Pronunciation: IPA:[ˈzavrat͡sad͡ʑ ˈdupɛ̃]

To distract someone, to take their attention away from what they are doing.

Numerous studies have been done to examine the way that profanity is used in everyday life situations as well as online. No studies give a definite answer as to whether vulgarity is more common online or not and has proved to be a difficult topic to study as it can change with time as well.^[25] One such study looked at different internet forums: one that was an open discussion, a closed discussion, and a social networking site. An open discussion allowed for the most anonymity while the other two conditions required some form of the users identifying themselves. The study found that users often used vulgar expressions criticized other users arguments in the discussions, attacked the users directly or used that language to insult a larger group. At times it is also just used as a way for users to express their general frustrations.^[25]

It is said that profanity started being used in songs around the late 1970s and into the 1980s in Poland. It was a response to the state of the country at the time. The youth used vulgar expressions to show their frustrations.^[26] Though songs that used such language would not be presented in the mass media, works with profanities more often circulated within communities.^[26] This censorship caused for more creative ways of expressing frustrations which lead to a faster development of Polish rock in the 1980s, which became quite popular and influential. Nowadays profanity is also used in more mainstream media at times. Polish pop music does not appear to have as much use of profanity as Polish rap music does. Movies of different genres also use profanity at times.

A number of words in the Polish lexicon have been borrowed from foreign languages and used with similar meanings. There are several profane words or expressions that have been borrowed from other languages. One such word would be MILF. Borrowed from the English language, it means exactly what it does in its original context. The use of the abbreviation "WTF", as in "what the fuck" can also be used in Polish profanity. The noun "swołocz" is a borrowing from the Russian "сволочь". Some profanities have been borrowed from German and transcribed phonetically according to their pronunciation, e.g. "szajs" was derived from the German "Scheiße" which carries the same meaning as the Polish word. The appearance of this word in the Polish lexicon could be attributed to the historical partition of Poland where the country was occupied by its neighbors which tended to suppress the use of Polish language and enforce the use of theirs.