How to say Bullsh*t

PommieBast

Tried looking for an Irish language forum on Boards but failed miserably, so posting this here. Had to resort to a bit of Google translate a certain "term" into Irish, and naturally I also tried the reverse translation. Result below.

bullshit -> caic tarbh

caic tarbh -> bull cake

Is 'cake' a cowpat? Not sure what happened in the translation engine. Anyway how do I say in Irish what I really intended ;)

‘Cac bó’, as Gaeilge you say cow sh*t, years since I’ve said that 😂

PommieBast

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119470340#Comment_119470340

Thanks for that. Very annoyed that voice output is not available for Irish..

.....

Gregor Samsa

Just remember that "Cac tarbh" would be the literal Irish translation of the words "bull shít", but it doesn't mean "bullshit" in the sense of a stronger term for the word nonsense as it does in English. You don't generally translate idioms literally, as they often don't carry the same meaning in other languages. Now obviously pretty much anyone who speaks Irish also speaks English fluently, so they'll likely get the meaning, but that's only because they're thinking in English using Irish words.

For instance if someone was talking nonsense, and you wanted to reply "Rubbish!", you wouldn't say "Bruscar!", even though bruscar is the word for literal, physical rubbish. You'd say "Amaidí chainte!", which literally means "stupid talk!", but has the same intention and weight as "Rubbish!"

Also while "cac" is a translation for "shít" (as in faeces), it doesn't have the same gravity as "shít" has in English. It's not natively an obscene or swear word (Irish lacks them). It's the general word for dung - specifically horse dung (but can be used in a more general sense too). Cow dung is actually "bualtrach".

So I wouldn't really say "cac tarbh" is a proper translation of "bullshít" in the sense you're looking for. "Amaidí!",  "Fastaím!" or "Seafóid!" would be more correct translations, rather than "cac tarabh", which is a metaphrase rather than a translation.

Donald Trump

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The poster below me has actually won awards for it

is_that_so

Cacamas was the word I was given but that could be a Munster Irish thing. Raiméis could also work. It's a lot more acceptable and has a very wide range of meanings.

Gregor Samsa

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119474994#Comment_119474994

"Cacamas" is actually the term for the scum on the surface or molten iron, but it could indeed have an idiomatic meaning too. Raiméis is a good one.