Translating the word "bullshit"

[Iversen]

I would just say something as "bavl" or "pladder" or "ævl" in Danish (roughly the same as 'nonsense'). We do have our share of fecal allusions in our informal speech, but not really when referring to 'bullshitty' utterances. On the other hand: just listen if a Dane realize he/she has made a serious blunder...

[getreallanguage]

In Spanish I can think of pavadas, huevadas, cuentos, boludeces and pelotudeces, but I think the best translation is the Argentinian (but not exclusively Argentinian) Spanish chamuyo, which also has a dedicated verb chamuyar. Interestingly enough, the latter also means "flirting". Personally I consider this the best translation into Spanish of "bullshit" and "bullshitting".

[pir]

I think the most common German translation would be "Schwachsinn", or more colloquially "Scheiß". However, as a lot of other English expressions, the word "Bullshit" itself has been introduced to the German language as well.

When I lived in Germany (decades ago), it was "Kuhscheiße" (serious emphasis), "Scheiß(e)", "Mist" (a kinder, gentler Scheiße), less vulgar "Blödsinn" or "Schwachsinn", and least vulgar "Quatsch". I was not allowed to use the word "Scheiß(e)" or my mouth was indeed washed out with soap -- *urgh*, I can still feel it.

It is quite weird for me to listen to younger people speak German now because it is just peppered with Americanisms. Alienating, in a way, though I'm not sure why. I guess I don't like Americanisms to take over the world; I've always enjoyed native swearwords because they say something interesting about the culture. I really enjoy the Québécois "sacres", for example.

From Dutch I remember "lariekoek", "kletskoek", "gelul", "onzin" which could all translate to bullshit, hogwash, baloney, nonsense. My favourite Dutch swearwords were those involving diseases; they were inordinately fond of those.

Seems to me swearing in other languages than one's native one can feel less vulgar. Well, nobody washes out my mouth for anything anymore.

[zenmonkey]

In french, I would say "connerie" is close to bullshit, often used at the plural.
Raconter/dire des conneries, dire n'importe quoi, pipoter grave, être un mytho, etc all is related the act of saying bullshit
The typical phrase is: "Qu'est-ce que c'est que ces conneries ? Tu racontes vraiment n'importe quoi !"
Connerie has also other meanings, of course, as it's also used when you do stupid things.

C'est du pipo
N'importe nawak
Des âneries
des sottise

[reineke]

Serbian:

lie = laž
bullshit = lovačka priča; pl. lovačke priče (hunting tale(s))

Well, I read your quote and the first thing that came to my mind was "lovačke priče". I'm gonna translate a couple of entries from the Serbian slang dictionary, and you tell me if it fits the bill.

#1
Lovačke priče

Prava lovačka priča je kad kreneš u lov i sa kilometra daljine upucaš jelena koji padne na divlju svinju i probode je rogom,a kad im se približiš vidiš da divlja svinja u ustima drži zeca.

#1
Hunting tales

A real hunting tale is when you go hunting, and you shoot a dear from a mile away, the dear falls on a wild boar and stabs it with its antlers, and when you get near them, you see that the boar is holding a rabbit in its mouth.

#2
Lovačke priče

Laž kojom se veliča onaj koji je priča. Uglavnom providna k'o rudarske čarape, ali zato ima majstorski zaplet. Jedan od žanrova u književnosti.
Uglavnom svako selo ima po jednog zvaničnog lažova.

#2
Hunting tales

A lie by which the person telling it glorifies himself. It's almost always see-through like miner's socks(never heard this one before), but it has a majestic plot. It's one of the literary genres. Almost every village has one official liar.

Of course, this is not used just for "hunting tales" it can be used every time someone is telling a far-fetched story.

If you want to say "Stop bullshiting" you can say "Nemoj da sereš"(don't shit).

Using "lovačke priče" in that context doesn't have the same ring to it as "bullshit", mostly because it doesn't contain the word shit. lol
But, you could also say something like "Mani me tih lovačkih priča"(Stop with those hunting tales already).

Sereš Lovačke priče (tall tales) is not impossible, but it's a lot less likely than many of the following words and expressions. The BSC language, btw, has some very salty expressions that are the rough equivalent to bullshit so I think you're also giving people a false impression about the language. I don't have time to clean up the following list which was borrowed liberally from wiki....something. The headword is "budalaština" and lov pr. is included at the bottom of the list. "Sranje/srati" would have been another good starting point. The context is king.

značenje izvedeno preko sinonima: ludorija, koještarija, besmislica, nebuloza, glupost, apsurd, nesuvislost, idiotarija, gluparija, nonsens, nesmisao, bezvezarija, bezumnost, kretenarija, idiotluk, nakarada, bljezgarija, apsurdnost, smejurija, brbljarija, izmišljotina, galimatijas, bedastoća, trotlarija, koješta, apsurditet, neumnost, bestemeljnost, neosnovanost, hec, lupetanje, bezrazložnost, burgija, velika glupost, iron. mudrolija iron., reg. avetluk reg., bestiluk reg., žarg. biser žarg., ret. nepodoba ret., apsurdum ret. [1][n 1]
(značenje izvedeno preko sinonima) ujdurma, šuplja/prazna priča, manipulacija, mahinacija, falsifikat, neistinita tvrdnja, izmišljena priča, smicalica, poluistina, urbana legenda, fam. pričam ti priču fam., krivotvorina, spletka, fikcija, podvala, laž, neistina, poluinformacija, reg. laža reg., urbana bajka, glasina, neistinita priča, lovačka priča fam., konstrukcija, dezinformacija, lagarija, fantazija fam., patka fam., priča fam., mit fam

[Querneus]

I think the word "bullshit" has various meanings which we should not confuse in this thread. For example, Central American Spanish pendejada and Argentinian Spanish boludez/pelotudez mean "bullshit" in the sense of an overly stupid action or concrete thing, but if you want to refer to a lie or misleading words or stupid words, the Argentinians say chamuyo whereas we in Central America usually say paja. Example: ¡Qué paja! 'Such bullshit (you're saying)!'

[Atinkoriko]

Uh, for WA creole it could be = k-leg as in 'Oboi, dat tori get k-leg o' ( My man, your story is highly doubtful)

Or 'If I hear' as in 'u talk sey you comot with dat babe. If I hear' (You said you dated that girl but I find that hard to believe). 'If I hear' on its own is quite powerful and dismissive, usually paired with a snort.

Or perhaps 'yarn' may be the most fitting = as in 'Ehn talk sey ehn suppose dey jand now. Dat wan na yarn joor' ( He said that he/her should be abroad now. That's just talk/bullshit)

For Ibibio, I'll go with the standard 'nsu' [Lie] or 'ekamba nsu' [massive lie] for emphasis.

For English-English, hehe rdearman, I'd go with a good, old fashioned, well enunciated 'rubbish'.

[NIKOLIĆ]

Sereš Lovačke priče (tall tales) is not impossible, but it's a lot less likely than many of the following words and expressions. The BSC language, btw, has some very salty expressions that are the rough equivalent to bullshit so I think you're also giving people a false impression about the language. I don't have time to clean up the following list which was borrowed liberally from wiki....something. The headword is "budalaština" and lov pr. is included at the bottom of the list. "Sranje/srati" would have been another good starting point. The context is king.

značenje izvedeno preko sinonima: ludorija, koještarija, besmislica, nebuloza, glupost, apsurd, nesuvislost, idiotarija, gluparija, nonsens, nesmisao, bezvezarija, bezumnost, kretenarija, idiotluk, nakarada, bljezgarija, apsurdnost, smejurija, brbljarija, izmišljotina, galimatijas, bedastoća, trotlarija, koješta, apsurditet, neumnost, bestemeljnost, neosnovanost, hec, lupetanje, bezrazložnost, burgija, velika glupost, iron. mudrolija iron., reg. avetluk reg., bestiluk reg., žarg. biser žarg., ret. nepodoba ret., apsurdum ret. [1][n 1]
(značenje izvedeno preko sinonima) ujdurma, šuplja/prazna priča, manipulacija, mahinacija, falsifikat, neistinita tvrdnja, izmišljena priča, smicalica, poluistina, urbana legenda, fam. pričam ti priču fam., krivotvorina, spletka, fikcija, podvala, laž, neistina, poluinformacija, reg. laža reg., urbana bajka, glasina, neistinita priča, lovačka priča fam., konstrukcija, dezinformacija, lagarija, fantazija fam., patka fam., priča fam., mit fam

Ne serem, svega mi.

Ah, tall tales. Thank you, I couldn't think of the correct translation.

I already wrote that the term "lovačke priče", can be used when referring to a far-fetched story, and I wrote one example sentence using "srati".
I'm sorry I wasn't able to think of the other 148 words at the time.