Swedish profanity can be divided into several categories. A substantial number of curse words in Swedish have religious origins. Euphemistic variants of the religious curses are commonly used as well. References to genitalia or bodily functions are common in the Swedish profanity vocabulary. Notably, no word for sexual intercourse is commonly used in invectives, unlike many other languages (e.g., English fuck, Spanish joder, Mandarin cào / 肏/操, Portuguese Foda). However, calques of English fuck using knull (noun), knulla (verb) do occur; this comes across as more offensive than fuck does in English. In general, knull(a), along with genitalia slang words like kuk ('cock') and fitta ('cunt') are the most offensive single words. By contrast, most of the traditional religious profanities are not considered very offensive today; this is in line with Sweden's long-standing secularism.
Some commonly used profanity is borrowed from other languages, such as English: Shit vad snygg hon är ('Damn, she looks good'), German: Det var en scheissefilm ('That was a crappy movie'), and Finnish: Perkele! (the latter usually for comic effect). An overt attitude expressed regarding this phenomenon may be that some Swedish speakers find the native profanities lacking the required 'punch'; again this might be related to the perceived ineffectiveness of the traditional religious profanities; borrowing allows speakers to avoid the much more offensive native sexual vocabulary.
Other common English-origin profanities used are bitch and fuck. Such words are often rendered in a more-or-less diligent English pronunciation, suggesting code-switching, though more assimilated Swedish approximations, for shit, for fuck, are also common. More humorous is spelling pronunciation of fuck as , but the verb fucka upp, calqued on fuck up, and its participle uppfuckad, for fucked up, usually have the spelling pronunciation.
Commonly used as euphemisms are certain numerals, especially sjutton ('seventeen'; phonologically reminiscent of satan and skit), and variant form tusan from tusen ('thousand'; reminiscent of satan), plus nonsense numerals used as intensifiers like femtielva ('fifty-eleven').
Intelligence profanities Idiot (noun), idiotisk (adj.) Meaning "idiot", "idiotic".
Puckad (adj.), pucko (noun) Derogatory slang for "stupid person". The etymology is uncertain; one hypothesis derives it from puck "hockey puck", as in being hit on the head with one.
IQ-befriad (adj.) Devoid of IQ.
Efterbliven (adj.) Retarded.
Blåst (adj.) "Blown-out", meaning an empty head.
CP (noun, adj.) Versatile insult referring to cerebral palsy.
Sexual profanities Bög Lit. "bugger, faggot", male homosexual. Combined with jävel (see below) to yield the very offensive bögjävel ("fucking faggot"). The word bög by itself is reappropriated by the Swedish gay community and is today considered neutral or somewhat positive.
Fitta Pussy, vagina, vulva, but not used as the English "pussy" meaning coward, rather "trecherous". Etymologically, it means "wetland, swamp".
Fjolla "Faggot, gay", but more generally used for feminine men.
Knapsu Men who act like women, who do feminine chores. Used only in the North.
Torsk "Sex-buyer, john" (lit. "codfish").
Hora Lit. "whore". Compound horunge means "child of a whore".
Slampa, slyna, luder Bitch, slut, promiscuous woman.
Lebb "Lesbian, dyke". Blend of lesbisk ("lesbian") and läbbig ("icky").
Knulla (verb), knull (noun) Lit. "(to) fuck", but less commonly used and more offensive than fuck in English. The verb can be used both intransitively (e.g. dom knullar "they're screwing") and transitively (mostly of males, e.g. han knullar henne "he's screwing her").
Kåt (adj), kåta upp (verb) "Horny"; the verb (with stressed verbal particle) is causative, meaning "to make horny", and from it is formed a passive participle uppkåtad which also means "horny" but with an inchoative nuance. Etymologically, kåt is an example of pejoration, as the Icelandic cognate kátur simply means "glad".
Sätta på Vulgar phrasal verb with stress on the verbal particle, meaning "to bang, screw" in transitive use (usually said of males). The phrase can also be used in the non-vulgar sense "to turn on (a device)", a source of sexual innuendos.
Religious profanities Fan A name for the Devil. May be pronounced as a disyllabic for emphasis: Faan! , Faen!. Used interjectively, Va' fan? ("What the hell?"), Fan ta dig!, ("Goddamn you!", lit. "[may] the Devil take you!"). The derived word fanskap is also used: Vad har hon nu hittat på för fanskap? ("What devilry is she up to now?"). The taboo deformation in Dra åt fanders! (Get lost!) is increasingly becoming old-fashioned, but still commonly used are: fanken fasen fasiken farao "pharaoh" Förbannad, förbannat Lit. "cursed, damned". Used interjectively, as Förbannat! ("damn!") or as an intensifier: Var inte så förbannat dum! ("Don't be so damned stupid"). An alternative meaning is "angry": jag blev förbannad på henne ("I got pissed off at her"). Taboo deformations include: förbaskat förbenat förbålt Helvete Lit. "hell". Used similarly to the English "hell", such as in the phrase Dra/Far or Stick åt helvete! ("Go to hell!") and Vad i helvete? ("What the hell?"). Also common is för i helvete, "for fuck's sake". Taboo deformations are: Helsike Helskotta Hälsingland (referring to the province of Hälsingland, but introduced due to similar sounding to Helsike). Herregud Lit. "Lord God". A relatively mild profanity used to express dismay or surprise, similar to "oh, my God!" Contracted with jävlar it becomes the cruder and more offensive herrejävlar. Jisses, jösses Taboo deformations for Jesus. As an interjection, an expression of amazement or surprise: Jisses! ("Yikes!"), Jösses, vad du har blivit stor ("Geez, you've grown!"). Jävel, djävel. Colloquial versions of djävul, lit. "devil". A versatile word, used in many ways as the English "fuck". The plural is frequently used as an interjection, Jävlar! ("Fuck!" or "Damn it!"), sometimes extended Jä-ä-ävlar-r-r-r for extra emphasis. Most commonly used pejoratively, as in din jävel! ("You fucker!"), but can also be used admiringly, as in han var en snabb jävel ("He was a quick son-of-a-bitch"). The word can also be used adjectivally: den jävla hunden bet mig! ("The fucking dog bit me!"). The derived form jävlig can mean "irritating", "troublesome": jag haft en jävlig dag. ("I've had a rough day"); also common with intensifying prefix förjävlig, as in jag mår förjävligt "I feel like shit". A more comic effect can be rendered by traditional adjective djävulsk "devilish", or its expressive variant djävulusisk. Jävla also derived a deponent verb jävlas "to be a jerk": Han jävlas med mig means "He's yanking my chain/fucking with me". Commonly used taboo deformations for jävel or jävla include: jädra jäkla jämra - lit. "moan" bövel(en), bövlar - originally bödel "hangman" blending with jävel One group of taboo deformations, less commonly used today, substitutes words beginning with järn- ("iron"): järnspikar: "iron nails" järnvägar: "railways" Satan Literally, an invocation of Satan. Used as an interjection Satan! and also in the genitive form: Den satans katten har pissat i rabatten igen ("The goddamn cat has pissed in the flowerbed again"). Taboo deformation: sablar: "sabers". Backformed into attributive adjective sabla (like jävla from jävlar), e.g. sabla skit "fucking shit". The religious profanities are often combined in tirades for extra emphasis or for comedic effect: satans helvetes förbannade jävla fan.
Scatological piss Lit. "piss, urine". Frequently used as an interjection to express dismay or disappointment, Piss också! ("Damn it!"). Used as a prefix it intensifies the head: det var pissenkelt ("It was really easy"), Jag mår pissdåligt ("I feel like shit"). skit Lit. "shit". When used interjectively it is much less offensive than its English cognate: Skit! ("Damn!"). Commonly used for "filth", "mess": hon var skitig ("She was dirty"). As a verb, skita means "to defecate", as in: Han sket på sig ("He's shit himself" or "He shat his pants.") but also "to make dirty": Han skitade ner sig ("He got dirty"). Combined with the preposition i ("in") changes the meaning to "ignore", "not care": Det skiter jag i! ("I don't give a damn!"). Commonly used as an emphasizing prefix: skitbillig ("dirt cheap"), skitfull ("dead drunk") and as a diminishing prefix: Det är en skitsak ("It's a piece of cake"). In imperative mood, skit på dig! (lit. "shit yourself!") is used like "get bent" or "get lost" in English. The extremely common word skit is increasingly losing its literal sense and offensive character in many of its uses, to the point of becoming a placeholder noun, e.g. det ligger nån skit på bordet means "there is some stuff on the table"; likewise the verbal construction skita i is the usual colloquial expression for "never mind, not care about, skip" with little or no scatological connotations, e.g. han sket i efterrätten "he skipped dessert"; in the use of offensive, scatological profanity it is sometimes replaced by child-language bajs and verb bajsa. skitstövel Lit. "shit-boot". Similar in offensiveness to "asshole", "fucker", or "bastard". Originally a derogatory term for peasants, implying their boots are stained with manure (compare with "shit-kicker"). kräk Derived from the Swedish words for vomit and vomiting (kräk, kräkas). Used similarly to the English "asshole".
Body parts arsel, arsle Lit. "arsehole". Used pejoratively about people: Vilket arsle han är! ("What an arsehole he is!"). Occasionally used less offensively to refer to somebody's posterior. fitta (compounding form fitt-) Lit. "cunt". Used pejoratively about females: Hon är en riktig fitta. ("She's a real bitch"). kuk Lit. "cock, dick". Used interjectively to express annoyance (Kuk!). Combined with huvud ("head") yields kukhuvud ("dickhead"). röv, rövhål Lit. "arse, arsehole". Commonly used in the expression Ta dig i röven! ("Up yours!", lit. "grab your ass!"). snorunge Small child or behaving like a child; little brat; literally "snot kid".
Ableist slurs mongo (adj. and noun) Slang term derived from mongolism; the meaning is "retard" or "weirdo". Can be added to anything, such as "borrmongo" (someone who incessantly renovates their home).
särbarn, sär Offensive slang term meaning approximately "retard". From särskola, the Swedish term for special education. The prefix sär- is at least partly short for särskild "special", but also means "apart, segregated". Children receiving special education are särskolebarn, which as a general invective shortened to särbarn, with connotations of "segregated, institutionalized"; this in turn backformed into adjectival noun sär, e.g. ditt jävla sär! "you fucking retard!".
cp Usually . Offensive slang term derived from the abbreviation for cerebral pares "cerebral palsy" and meaning approximately "retard". Can be used as a derogatory prefix, e.g. jävla cp-cykel "fucking shitty bike". Also in combination with -barn ie child, "cp-barn".
damp (Noun), dampa (verb) Abbreviated form of the formerly diagnosed neuropsychiatric condition called Deficits in attention, motor control and perception. Implies erratic or unusual behavior, especially hyperactivity and aggression. Can be used as a verb, e.g han dampar "he is freaking out".
missfoster, miffo Missfoster (from miss- "mis-" and foster "fetus") is an offensive term for "(the result of) miscarriage, a freak". Miffo is in origin a slang truncation, but nowadays the connection is more or less lost, and miffo has the more mild sense of "weirdo".
efterbliven, utvecklingsstörd Offensive adjectives, meaning "retarded", e.g. Han är så jävla efterbliven! "He's so fucking retarded!". Utvecklingsstörd is often shortened to störd lit. "disturbed".
Animal invectives