Re: Distinctions
In (Castilian) Spanish "coño"* is a pretty mild expletive, translating to something like "oh, crap". My late Basque mother-in-law, an upstanding church-going lady bandied it about like a good 'un. On the other hand, calling someone "hijo de puta" (son of a whore) is likely to earn you a smack in the teeth.
*The old Windows console library "conio" always used to make me giggle.
My favourite Spanish invective is "vete a tomar por un pez", a contraction of "go take it up the arse from a swordfish". Runner-up is "me cago en la leche", a contraction of "I shit in your mother's milk". Neither of these, though, gets close to the S. African (Afrikaans): "Jy is uit jou ma se gat gebore, want sy poes was te besig" - "You were born out of your mother's bum-hole, 'cause her cunt was too busy".
Biting the hand that feeds IT
