Talk:Russian profanity

"Zhopa" listed at Redirects for discussion

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"yob tvoyu mat'"

If you look at it closely you will notice that yob (ёб) is the past tense of the verb yebat (ебать) conjugated in the first person, singular. So the meaning is, in fact, '(I) fucked your mother' not 'fuck your mother'. Ilya-42 (talk) 21:00, 22 June 2023 (UTC)

This subject is editorial synthesis

The intro literally defines mat as swearing in Russian. The article’s text overuses the foreign term. There are less than a handful of English-language sources: a couple of popular magazine articles and a couple of translations from Russian, all of which italicize the word as an unnaturalized foreign term. The made-up phrase “Four Pillars” is just the raising up of a government censor’s list from 2013 to the level of universal linguistic principle, law of physics, or word of a deity.

At least the article on seven dirty words quotes Carlin explaining the US censors’ list is arbitrary. This article, based on very little, seems to embrace the Book of Mat as scripture.

This article should be moved to Russian profanity, the use of the foreign term “mat” in the text should be mostly be replaced with its exact simple English translation, “profanity” or “obscenity.” ~2026-10386-89 (talk) 17:29, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Requested move 15 February 2026

The following is a closed discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review after discussing it on the closer's talk page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

The result of the move request was: moved. (closed by non-admin page mover) Jeffrey34555 (talk) 18:39, 22 February 2026 (UTC)

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Mat (profanity) → Russian profanity – tescnical nomination, see section above --Altenmann >talk 17:48, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

Although many unnaturalized foreign terms are defined in English dictionaries, usually indicated as being italicized, mat in this sense is below the threshold of usage frequency to justify inclusions as a headword in American Heritage, Cambridge, Collins, Dictionary.com, Merriam-Webster, or Oxford dictionaries, or in the Encyclopedia Britannica. The article’s title and text should stick to using English, and only refer to the Russian term мат (mat) as needed for encyclopedic information. ~2026-10386-89 (talk) 18:05, 15 February 2026 (UTC)

By the way, the main category is Category:Russian profanity, and the articles in it are about the words mentioned in this article. ~2026-10386-89 (talk) 22:56, 16 February 2026 (UTC)

• Support per comments of ~2026-10386-89.--Altenmann >talk 19:14, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
• Support per nomination and comment by ~2026-10386-89. Although "Mat" is the putative main topic, the article focuses virtually all of its content upon lexical roots of "mat" under section header Mat (profanity)#Four pillars of mat. Thus, the proposed broad main title header, Russian profanity, in line with Category:Russian profanity, seems more appropriate. —Roman Spinner (talk • contribs) 19:46, 15 February 2026 (UTC)
• Support per nom.--Ortizesp (talk) 16:11, 17 February 2026 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

• I somehow missed this nomination, but the move, IMHO, was not a good one. There is a lot of profanity in Russian that is not mat, while English term profanity does not capture mat at all. Mat used in a wrong place or to a wrong face can get the speaker into a fight or make a person to avoid them in the future. One can also wind up in court (highly unlikely, and with a Russian equivalent of misdemeanor). The closest English equivalent (but still coming up way short) is seven dirty words (there are only 4-7 roots in Russian). The rich dictionary of non-mat Russian vulgarities deserves another article, if at all. --Викидим (talk) 21:17, 19 July 2026 (UTC)

Add more non-Mat curse words

Now that the article has been renamed to "Russian profanity," more profane words without Mat roots should be listed as is done in articles on other languages. -- J7n (talk) 12:06, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

Correct, but these must be notable and come from scholarly sources , not just listed in dictionaries; se e.g., Finnish profanity --Altenmann >talk 15:14, 20 March 2026 (UTC)

I think that the move was wrong. It was like moving seven dirty words to English profanity (the latter does not exist, and this is how I like it). Garden-variety profanity is hard to separate from regular language and thus there is nothing to write about. It is like Von Neumann's elephant#Other von Neumann elephants: whatever is special (say, elephants or mat) deserves attention of researchers and wikipedians. Whatever is not exceptional (say, non-elephants or non-mat) is rarely worth the pursuit. Викидим (talk) 21:23, 19 July 2026 (UTC)