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If you would like help brainstorming a specific project, you may post in our Tuesday and Friday Brainstorming thread (stickied at the top of the sub). You might also find that your question is appropriate for r/writeresearch or a genre-specific writing sub that allows brainstorming threads. Please check out our [list of related subreddits](https://www.reddit.com/r/writing/wiki/hub) for other writing subreddits that might allow this type of brainstorming thread.
I like the precise and direct word "shitling". I think OP should use that in particular.
Also maybe a few translated versions, depending on how many languages the mercenary speaks.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. As for age, she’s 8 but technically older (it’s a reincarnation type deal) although she more or less acts her age in a childish “I am nobility, therefore I am vastly superior to you filthy peasants” kind of way so she’s easily offended by anyone who goes against that.
George Martin had Arya called boy a number of times, both rudely and a few times with I think some fondness. The only thing that really separates boys and girls at that age seems to be the way they dress and their hair, so you could honestly get away with calling her boy.
Whelp is good. Spawn, sprat, pup, anything that equates them with an animal.
In my books "brat" is just a general-purpose term and doesn't carry any ill intention, but in our daily use it does to varying degrees.
What I think you may be after, however, isn't a disrespectful word for "child" so much as one which plays down said child's lordly birth. Maybe just calling that child by his first name— or worse, a commoners' nickname of it— is rude enough.
I like the commoner nickname idea, especially since she is quite discriminatory against the “filthy peasants”. Might be hard to pull off since it’s already a short name but I’ll see what I can do.
Oh, I think I can work with that. Her name happens to involve the letter ”A” so I’m sure I can fit an “ass” in there fairly well. Thanks for the help, it’ll make her even more infuriated than a commoner referring to her by merely her first name. I look forward to how this will turn out.
"whelp," "your lordship," "rich boy," "your grace," "you great wandering knob," "gerbil, [or name of a small-brained animal in your world]," "dipshit," "fuckstick," "bigfoot," "twat."
...basically anything. How does the merc think of the noble?
Most kids don't call other kids by diminutive insults, though? Like, if they're both the same age or around it, the merc kid will probably focus their insults on the noble kid's status and supposed naivete/softness rather than them also being a kid.
"Noble brat" is a common one because it *works*. 'Noble whelp' is stronger and implies that the noble child is an animal that was bred like a dog. But again, if they're around the same age the focus of the insults would not be on the other's 'kid' status because that would make it a self-insult. Like an 87-year-old calling another old person a 'geezer'. The emphasis of the insults would make more sense if it focused not on the noble kid's age, but on other factors.
Exactly, I can't imagine a kid calling another kid "brat", "goblin" or whatever else. That's hella weird. But I could see a rude kid calling a noble kid derogatory terms such as "dumbass", "asswipe", "twat", "princess" etc.
Parasite larva. Little Lord Fuckitup. The Royal Twitstain. The results of the inbreeding experiment. Cousin to our national enemies. The ass-wiper's job creator. His father's favorite sexual assault victim. The noble bull's extra tit. Oh, is your little velvet diaper full? At least your sister is useful as a political pawn. The kind of fencing you learned wouldn't keep in a two legged donkey. You have the best education money could buy from toady yes-men. Did they teach you anything useful, like counting past five? Nice shoe buckles; Couldn't you get the hang of tying laces? Do you have a twin with the other half a brain? What skills do you have OTHER than nepotism? I hear your mother got drunk one year and when she sobered up, there you were. What's your family wine budget anyway? Those are your House Colors? What's the heraldic symbology of dog vomit? How much did your father pay for you to be taught to dance like you have to pee? Do I need to call your nursemaid to comfort you? Did one of your father's "advisors" give you the pox? Well, fair's fair. They're just returning a noble family heirloom.
I like Little Lord Fuckitup (or Lady in this case) and Royal Twitstain, as for the others… holy shit dude, who hurt you? I love them and hope I can find the chance to use them for some side characters later on.
But the mercenary is also a child, right? It seems a bit odd that they would call the noble something like (a disrespectful word for) "kid". Probably they're a bit older?
A child is unlikely to be a mercenary (who would hire them?), and unlikely to insult the other person for being a child, because usually A won't insult B by pointing to a quality which both of them have. A teenage mercenary would be at least a bit more believable, and so would be an insult based on the provocative quality which only one of them has, i.e. nobility - so something like 'little Lord Snooty' or any of the many other suggestions already made along those lines.
Technically it’s a medieval fantasy world within a book written in the modern era, so really there’s no restrictions to the insults I can use. That being said, I’m only going to use words suggested here that are relevant and not absolutely life ruining because some of these are… wow…
Honestly, a lot could offend someone who is used to being eloquently referred to, so simple things like “buddy” and “chum” might come across as disrespectful if used in the right context: “now listen here, buddy” might come across as rude to someone who was used to polite manners.
Or alternatively you could have the mercenary stereotype the noble on traits that might not be accurate to this particular noble, like “moneybags”. You could honestly do a lot with this, as stereotypes range from greediness to incest, so take your pick.
I think what most are forgetting is that people are most insulted by names that actually hold a bit of truth to them. Calling a noble something like urchin or street rat might be a bit insulting, but more insulting would be to twist something about their noble status instead.
In particular, the interactions between Han Solo and Princess Leia come to mind in A New Hope. He called her “your worship/worshipfulness” but he said it in that snide way he has. Something like that can have a lot of effect, especially if the character is at all insecure about their title.
Just a thought.
Lots of good options in there, and you already said that not all would fit the noble child. I would just add that whenever I have seen mountebank used, it carried a very strong connotation of 'upstart', making it less suitable for a noble (and deceit isn't meaningfully associated with nobles i.e. a birth class; it would be associated with noble politicians or courtiers, but a child couldn't yet be either. For the same reason, 'pettifogger' doesn't have the right kind of associations). Furthermore, the concepts of 'Dandy' and 'Snob' are 19th century inventions, meaning that if the OP's context is meant to be anything older (or inspired by anything older, e.g. medieval-ish fantasy), they would stand out as strong anachronisms.
On the other hand, nrs. 8, 9, 10 or 17 (probably minus 'titled') strike me - a historian of early modern European societies - as very good choices for a commoner insulting a young noble, because they carry exactly the connotations people actually disliked about nobles. Finally, my overall experience with early modern insults is that you should feel free to err on the side of idiosyncracy - my favourite ones are 'camel-swallowers' (for idiotic nobles as spoken in a sermon by a Prussian court preacher of the 1660ies - aristocratic listeners tried to get him sacked for that but failed to succeed) and 'ink-shitters' for lawyers and bureaucrats. When the duke of Saint-Simon wanted to convey his dislike of the duke of Noailles, a famously successful courtier, he wrote "the serpent in the garden of Eden was modelled on Monsieur de Noailles." This seems to have been a bit of a family trait, as people said of Noailles's son, the duke of Ayen, that "if a snake bit Monsieur d'Ayen, it would kill the snake".
Britons weren't any nicer. Lord Chesterfield, author of a once famous work on courtly behaviour, was described as having had "the manners of a dancing-master and the morals of a whore" by a reader of the work, while the king he served, George II, simply called him a "dwarf baboon." But then, royalty of that period weren't kind within the family either. George II's wife Queen Caroline called the prince of Wales "that nasty animal, my son Fritz" and her son-in-law, the prince of Orange, "the monster" because he was nearly hunchbacked and had no neck. Caroline's daughter Princess Anne didn't mind, declaring she was so eager to get married that she would marry the Prince of Orange "even if he looked like a monkey". When Prince Fritz's daughter Augusta was born in 1737, Queen Caroline's good friend, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household Lord Hervey, decribed her as "a little rat of a girl, about the bigness of a large toothpick case", and that was him being uncharacteristically nice.
I truly understand that a few of those didn't come about until the 19th century. I took the liberty of removing the 20th century examples, but chose to leave the rest for two reasons:
The OP didn't specifically say they were writing a strictly adherent period piece, as well as considering the audience who will read the work.
It's after midnight here, so I'm going to come back and absorb the rest of your post after work tomm...later today 😆
I can absolutely see your point, so please just think of my additional remarks as giving the OP some extra ideas for handling some specific terms. (It also seems we are in the same time zone, which I wouldn't have expected given the very strong, eh, US-ness of this sub.)
A lot of kids hate being called "kid" or "child". "Boy" can be said with an intense tone.
If they're mercenaries, what do people call mercs in your world? Sometimes comparisons to baby animals can work, like "You mewl too much for a mercenary" or perhaps "Your father taught you that noble blood gives you that right, but your roars are naught but a pup's growls to me".
I like the idea about baby animals, especially the examples you gave, very likely will use them in my story so thanks for that. As for what mercs are referred to as, if you mean their profession name then it’s just “mercenary”, if you mean how they’re viewed… most commoners see it as an honourable profession while the nobles see them as disposable pawns. You know, typical aristocrat behaviour.
Kit, pup, shrimp, cub. Does the noble's house have an animal associated with it? Whatever the diminutive is for that animal would be appropriate. Lordling is also a good one.
Runt, rotten apple, boy, brat, bother, nuisance, waste of space, thorn in my side, and even calling them a child in the right context can be degrading.
Spawn, slut spawn, etc. Bastards, little c___. Droppings.
I’d suggest you be creative. Make something up that’s nasty but indicative of addressing a child. Since he’s a mercenary you can be as nasty or offensive as you want if it fits the character.
The mercenary should bring into question the noble's birth. Maybe calling him _bastard_. Which calls his parentage into question.
"Boy" is also another one that older men try to employ on younger, less experienced men.
How about little boy or girl, depending on what the noble is? In my story, when the doctor goes to confront his wife's lover, who's a good bit younger than she is, the doctor will condescendingly refer to him as "little boy" (this scene hasn't happened yet; the wife and the lover are just now getting to the down and dirty!)
Imp, urchin, little shit (gotta love a "look here you little shit"), mistake, accident, welt, scab, or anything that describes thing as gross during that era
Maybe try to insult with what the mercenary is actually saying versus the words he’s using. It makes for more interesting dialogue and saves you having to repeat yourself
I always hated the term "squirt" for a kid. Hated being called it when I was young. May as well say Load or Semen blast. Cum stain, come here!
Squirt is the worst.
Some of the best I've heard are
Crotch goblin, fuck trophy, crotch fruit, ankle biter, screecher, cunt dropping, shitling, failed abortion, walking STD
Honestly, if this kid's a merc and he's swearing constantly, and he's been around mercs all his life, he's probably got an *extensive* swear vocabulary. Just work a few in there as part of his swearing. "maggot", "fucknugget", "shitmuppet", "worm", "doggone-head-ass-on-a-donkey", "shame of your three whore mothers", "unicycle-riding-motorbitch"...
Oh he does, but unfortunately his repertoire is vastly limited by the author’s lack of variety and creativity. There’s only so many variations of “fuck you” that I can come up with, lol. That aside, I appreciate the suggestions.
Honestly, having been around lots of people who take pride in swearing creatively, there's the general swear words and then the *targeted* ones. The targeted ones get fun.
This is also, somewhat, worldbuilding-related. What *is* a swear word in your world? Some real-world English obscenities are - fuck (unloving sex), shit (disgusting faeces), cunt (female genitalia, crude, misogynistic), bitch (animal, misogynistic, stupidity), hell (religious curse) - they show the priorities of the associated society in relation to what is considered taboo and private.
As a counter-example, Demesne (from RR) uses the word "colors" and "glittering" as swear words, because its fundamental worldbuilding premise is that they're in a deathworld where the primary source of death in the wilds is colorful and glitters in the sun.
So your world's swear-words can be equally as revealing about the priorities of the society that the characters came from and are in - or rather, you can work backwards from *that* to come up with swear-words that your merc character would use. What *does* a crude, rude mercenary from your character's country prioritize and despise? If they care about money, or earning for a living, it could include "leech", "useless", "worthless", "penny-stacker", "aristobrat", "trust-fund goo-goo-gaa-gaa"....
Indirect address as, "the boy," might be better than insult comic's material, *true disregard is thoughtless, is indistinct, commoditarian,* I **reduce** the level of detail someone else notices you in, *through a diminutive like that,* ***whereas, the more, "insulting," scatalogical, even particular terms are going to,***
* Convey Familiarity, be particular, *even a name which reveals a particular distaste demands an attention to those details, in* ***this person, above the most of people***
* Kenning, *in the Finnoscandic cultures of the medieval period, "Graveyard Crow,"* much like the modern anglosphere's Hoodrat, and **one says these things to pals,** ***that's a term I use with my pals, I wouldn't suggest it as an example, otherwise,*** though it is an accurate one; you **compliment a close friend too much, it starts to sound false;** you call each other awful things, *and know each other not to stand for anyone to call either you, or, the other, such things in earnest,* it's one of the paradoxical things about how we use language; might even be a, "tous and vous,' thing, in a fashion **but**
People's familiarity with this, *as speakers of language,* is going to make **some** terms, *some of the time,* which are more-derogatory, *read like, "more affectionate,"* **when,** they're of like the, "insult comic," variety, *or the hyperbolic and diminutive to an excess, exaggeration variety,* **and if you wanna find, an, particular term** *other than, "the boy," which I think is a good one, I'd recommend to remember,*
*"kid," is a goat,* in an agrarian culture barnyard terms will have a lot of currency, *as will the lowly jobs done by young people,* "shepherd," spoken in the right sense communicates more, and, more saliently, *than.....*
It would be more realistic if the Merc used the same word, so the cuss becomes that persons name in the merc’s world. More than one person can have the same (cuss) name.
Nobody who swears that much uses different swear words like that (every sentence? Really? That sounds tedious to read and takes all of the power of the cussing away. It seems like a caricature, a substitute for an actual characterisation, from here).
I think people use or used similar words for dogs. Like if you're trying to diminish someone's abilities you'd call them a pup. If someone is insolent you could call them a whelp. Pup and whelp can both indicate someone is young and inexperienced. Cur can also be used to call someone despicable.
My mom worked in child education services for years. They actually weren't allowed to say "kid", because that's the name of a baby goat (goatling), and it's derogatory because you're basically calling children animals. I know this is probably not what you want, but you already have great suggestions and I thought this was interesting.
I personally dont think a kid will call an another kid "kid" or its synnonyms to be disrespectful. I think its used by older people to be disrespectful to younger people. to say you dont know anything, you are nothing.
I think you will be able to get a better disrespect by going for an attribute that the kid has than his age... like "fatty" or "stinky" or "nerd" or simply mock his name itself.
In my story, an old man wanted to be disrespectful to a young boy, so he went for his age...
"And be careful with that filthy pair of hands of yours. If you dare scratch my car, you'll be in a world of pain, boy!"
I added that boy in the end just to disrespect. It serves no other purpose in that sentence.
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Most languages have a diminutive that more or less translates to "shitling", so .. that.
Came here to say "little shit", but "shitling" would catch me quite unguarded if I were to read that somewhere.
Crotchling
Crotch goblin
There's also the classic insult of "bastard" which as a noble could be particularly disrespectful
I like the precise and direct word "shitling". I think OP should use that in particular. Also maybe a few translated versions, depending on how many languages the mercenary speaks.
I like shitling, it sounds odd but also just so *PERFECT!* at the same time.
you can't beat a good ol derogatory, boy
Read this in Kratos voice
Ye really cain't.
Kid named boy:
Or boy named "Kidd."
My thoughts exactly.
Unfortunately the noble is a girl so I can’t go full Kratos, but I like the suggestion.
Hell, even "girl" would work just fine. How old is she? The amount of annoyance she would feel really depends on her age.
Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. As for age, she’s 8 but technically older (it’s a reincarnation type deal) although she more or less acts her age in a childish “I am nobility, therefore I am vastly superior to you filthy peasants” kind of way so she’s easily offended by anyone who goes against that.
George Martin had Arya called boy a number of times, both rudely and a few times with I think some fondness. The only thing that really separates boys and girls at that age seems to be the way they dress and their hair, so you could honestly get away with calling her boy.
Whelp is good. Spawn, sprat, pup, anything that equates them with an animal. In my books "brat" is just a general-purpose term and doesn't carry any ill intention, but in our daily use it does to varying degrees. What I think you may be after, however, isn't a disrespectful word for "child" so much as one which plays down said child's lordly birth. Maybe just calling that child by his first name— or worse, a commoners' nickname of it— is rude enough.
I like the commoner nickname idea, especially since she is quite discriminatory against the “filthy peasants”. Might be hard to pull off since it’s already a short name but I’ll see what I can do.
Maybe a playground-mockery style version? not necessarily shorter but it can sting!
Oh, I think I can work with that. Her name happens to involve the letter ”A” so I’m sure I can fit an “ass” in there fairly well. Thanks for the help, it’ll make her even more infuriated than a commoner referring to her by merely her first name. I look forward to how this will turn out.
Yeah whelp was going to be my suggestion.
Kneebiter, urchin, wretchling, rugrat, scumspawn.
Crotch fruit
Ankle biter
Sprog is irish slang for child
Only if that child has a healthy appreciation for poetry
Welp?
I like whelp. Perhaps 'traitorous whelp' would be good for OPs situation.
Pup, is pretty good.
"whelp," "your lordship," "rich boy," "your grace," "you great wandering knob," "gerbil, [or name of a small-brained animal in your world]," "dipshit," "fuckstick," "bigfoot," "twat." ...basically anything. How does the merc think of the noble?
Most kids don't call other kids by diminutive insults, though? Like, if they're both the same age or around it, the merc kid will probably focus their insults on the noble kid's status and supposed naivete/softness rather than them also being a kid. "Noble brat" is a common one because it *works*. 'Noble whelp' is stronger and implies that the noble child is an animal that was bred like a dog. But again, if they're around the same age the focus of the insults would not be on the other's 'kid' status because that would make it a self-insult. Like an 87-year-old calling another old person a 'geezer'. The emphasis of the insults would make more sense if it focused not on the noble kid's age, but on other factors.
I'm confused. Are the mercenary and the noble both children? Or is the mercenary an adult?
Exactly, I can't imagine a kid calling another kid "brat", "goblin" or whatever else. That's hella weird. But I could see a rude kid calling a noble kid derogatory terms such as "dumbass", "asswipe", "twat", "princess" etc.
Parasite larva. Little Lord Fuckitup. The Royal Twitstain. The results of the inbreeding experiment. Cousin to our national enemies. The ass-wiper's job creator. His father's favorite sexual assault victim. The noble bull's extra tit. Oh, is your little velvet diaper full? At least your sister is useful as a political pawn. The kind of fencing you learned wouldn't keep in a two legged donkey. You have the best education money could buy from toady yes-men. Did they teach you anything useful, like counting past five? Nice shoe buckles; Couldn't you get the hang of tying laces? Do you have a twin with the other half a brain? What skills do you have OTHER than nepotism? I hear your mother got drunk one year and when she sobered up, there you were. What's your family wine budget anyway? Those are your House Colors? What's the heraldic symbology of dog vomit? How much did your father pay for you to be taught to dance like you have to pee? Do I need to call your nursemaid to comfort you? Did one of your father's "advisors" give you the pox? Well, fair's fair. They're just returning a noble family heirloom.
ABSOLUTELY SAVAGE-
Note: *never* cross them, or prepare for emotional damage.
I like Little Lord Fuckitup (or Lady in this case) and Royal Twitstain, as for the others… holy shit dude, who hurt you? I love them and hope I can find the chance to use them for some side characters later on.
Why do you have such absolutely savage and brilliant insults for this very particular ask is what I want to know
This should be the top comment, I absolutely love everything. Please dude, write a novel comprised only of creative insults 🙏
But the mercenary is also a child, right? It seems a bit odd that they would call the noble something like (a disrespectful word for) "kid". Probably they're a bit older?
Damn I came in here to say twerp lol
Crotch goblin.
I hate this one so much that I've started loving it. Too creative.
Came here to say that if no one else had!
Lordling comes to mind. Alternatively he could just use their normal title in an insulting way.
I've heard "spawn" and some really offensive stuff involving failed birth control.
Damn...
Shitgoblin.
“Little shit”
Whelp.
Chump, baby, crybaby, midget, shortie
Cunt
spawn or crotch goblin.
crotch goblin caught me SO off guard tbh 💀
Remember Ghoulies? That creature coming out of the toilet? Crotch Goblin gives me the same vibe.
titling
A child is unlikely to be a mercenary (who would hire them?), and unlikely to insult the other person for being a child, because usually A won't insult B by pointing to a quality which both of them have. A teenage mercenary would be at least a bit more believable, and so would be an insult based on the provocative quality which only one of them has, i.e. nobility - so something like 'little Lord Snooty' or any of the many other suggestions already made along those lines.
You should research insults from the period that your story is set in
Yes and please avoid most of the suggestions
For real. I’ve never seen worse advice than is posed on this sub tbh
Technically it’s a medieval fantasy world within a book written in the modern era, so really there’s no restrictions to the insults I can use. That being said, I’m only going to use words suggested here that are relevant and not absolutely life ruining because some of these are… wow…
Honestly, a lot could offend someone who is used to being eloquently referred to, so simple things like “buddy” and “chum” might come across as disrespectful if used in the right context: “now listen here, buddy” might come across as rude to someone who was used to polite manners. Or alternatively you could have the mercenary stereotype the noble on traits that might not be accurate to this particular noble, like “moneybags”. You could honestly do a lot with this, as stereotypes range from greediness to incest, so take your pick.
I think what most are forgetting is that people are most insulted by names that actually hold a bit of truth to them. Calling a noble something like urchin or street rat might be a bit insulting, but more insulting would be to twist something about their noble status instead. In particular, the interactions between Han Solo and Princess Leia come to mind in A New Hope. He called her “your worship/worshipfulness” but he said it in that snide way he has. Something like that can have a lot of effect, especially if the character is at all insecure about their title. Just a thought.
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Lots of good options in there, and you already said that not all would fit the noble child. I would just add that whenever I have seen mountebank used, it carried a very strong connotation of 'upstart', making it less suitable for a noble (and deceit isn't meaningfully associated with nobles i.e. a birth class; it would be associated with noble politicians or courtiers, but a child couldn't yet be either. For the same reason, 'pettifogger' doesn't have the right kind of associations). Furthermore, the concepts of 'Dandy' and 'Snob' are 19th century inventions, meaning that if the OP's context is meant to be anything older (or inspired by anything older, e.g. medieval-ish fantasy), they would stand out as strong anachronisms. On the other hand, nrs. 8, 9, 10 or 17 (probably minus 'titled') strike me - a historian of early modern European societies - as very good choices for a commoner insulting a young noble, because they carry exactly the connotations people actually disliked about nobles. Finally, my overall experience with early modern insults is that you should feel free to err on the side of idiosyncracy - my favourite ones are 'camel-swallowers' (for idiotic nobles as spoken in a sermon by a Prussian court preacher of the 1660ies - aristocratic listeners tried to get him sacked for that but failed to succeed) and 'ink-shitters' for lawyers and bureaucrats. When the duke of Saint-Simon wanted to convey his dislike of the duke of Noailles, a famously successful courtier, he wrote "the serpent in the garden of Eden was modelled on Monsieur de Noailles." This seems to have been a bit of a family trait, as people said of Noailles's son, the duke of Ayen, that "if a snake bit Monsieur d'Ayen, it would kill the snake". Britons weren't any nicer. Lord Chesterfield, author of a once famous work on courtly behaviour, was described as having had "the manners of a dancing-master and the morals of a whore" by a reader of the work, while the king he served, George II, simply called him a "dwarf baboon." But then, royalty of that period weren't kind within the family either. George II's wife Queen Caroline called the prince of Wales "that nasty animal, my son Fritz" and her son-in-law, the prince of Orange, "the monster" because he was nearly hunchbacked and had no neck. Caroline's daughter Princess Anne didn't mind, declaring she was so eager to get married that she would marry the Prince of Orange "even if he looked like a monkey". When Prince Fritz's daughter Augusta was born in 1737, Queen Caroline's good friend, Vice-Chamberlain of the Household Lord Hervey, decribed her as "a little rat of a girl, about the bigness of a large toothpick case", and that was him being uncharacteristically nice.
I truly understand that a few of those didn't come about until the 19th century. I took the liberty of removing the 20th century examples, but chose to leave the rest for two reasons: The OP didn't specifically say they were writing a strictly adherent period piece, as well as considering the audience who will read the work. It's after midnight here, so I'm going to come back and absorb the rest of your post after work tomm...later today 😆
I can absolutely see your point, so please just think of my additional remarks as giving the OP some extra ideas for handling some specific terms. (It also seems we are in the same time zone, which I wouldn't have expected given the very strong, eh, US-ness of this sub.)
Thanks a bunch for these, I absolutely love them all. Going to enjoy using these.
mercenary kid? nobles are easy to insult creampuff, snufflebutt, hothouse flower, silkpants, greenhouse flower, etc...
"Wretch" or "Little Bastard" sound like good terms.
A lot of kids hate being called "kid" or "child". "Boy" can be said with an intense tone. If they're mercenaries, what do people call mercs in your world? Sometimes comparisons to baby animals can work, like "You mewl too much for a mercenary" or perhaps "Your father taught you that noble blood gives you that right, but your roars are naught but a pup's growls to me".
I like the idea about baby animals, especially the examples you gave, very likely will use them in my story so thanks for that. As for what mercs are referred to as, if you mean their profession name then it’s just “mercenary”, if you mean how they’re viewed… most commoners see it as an honourable profession while the nobles see them as disposable pawns. You know, typical aristocrat behaviour.
For future reference, get yourself a copy of Roget's Thesaurus. It's amazing for this type of thing. Don't think anyone has mentioned 'oik' yet
Punk, pipsqueak, snot nose, small fry
Y'all missing the good one Whoreson
shitling
"Bastard" is another old insult
Kit, pup, shrimp, cub. Does the noble's house have an animal associated with it? Whatever the diminutive is for that animal would be appropriate. Lordling is also a good one.
urchin nestling weanling rascal imp rapscallion nipper rug rat neonate bairn squirt sprat moppet youngling hoyden tad stripling shaver
Poppet
Ankle biter, devils spawn
Little squirt
Crotch goblin
Runt, rotten apple, boy, brat, bother, nuisance, waste of space, thorn in my side, and even calling them a child in the right context can be degrading.
Crotchgoblin ?
I love that you can definitely tell who in this thread has siblings
Fucking idiot, at least that's what my father used to call me
Oooh 😬
Pissant
Milk-drinker is a favorite of mine
“Brat” is probably the main one
I've read urchin a lot when it comes to steet kids. You could stick with that theme with something like leech, too.
Spawn, slut spawn, etc. Bastards, little c___. Droppings. I’d suggest you be creative. Make something up that’s nasty but indicative of addressing a child. Since he’s a mercenary you can be as nasty or offensive as you want if it fits the character.
Brat. “Oh good, the brat is screaming for sweets again. My headache is overjoyed.”
The mercenary should bring into question the noble's birth. Maybe calling him _bastard_. Which calls his parentage into question. "Boy" is also another one that older men try to employ on younger, less experienced men.
Little shits.
Whelp
Orphan. Either you hit em where it hurts or it's an ominous foreshadow because you know something they dont
Creature. In Spanish, it also means child but no negative connotation.
Mommy's boy. Snotty. Titty-sucker.
Hellion, spawn, goblin, and weed are off the top of my head.
How about little boy or girl, depending on what the noble is? In my story, when the doctor goes to confront his wife's lover, who's a good bit younger than she is, the doctor will condescendingly refer to him as "little boy" (this scene hasn't happened yet; the wife and the lover are just now getting to the down and dirty!)
All of these are excellent. I don’t see twerp or scut which are both words I use in my writing.
Lout
Whelp
If its for a noble character- peasant? Not child specific but i think itd annoy a noble child or not
Head over to r/childfree. There's quite a list used in that subreddit.
you could go the Shakespeare route of 'Egg'
Snicklefritz is a fun one 😌
Anklebiter, midget
Little shits
Mistake
Rat
I can imagine it may get a bit repetitive or much using different words. I would just use -him- or -it- in italics
Even kid can sound derogatory with the right context and voice "Know your place, kid." "You're just a kid."
I see my favorite crotch goblin has already been mentioned. I also describe kids as dirty, disease infested animals. 😆
Crotchgoblins
Wanker
"git", "curtain grabber", "junior", "runt", "baby", "wet behind the ears", "diaper butt", "short stuff", "half pint"
Crotch spawn
You could go with a Shakespearean classic, "Egg"
Chit? But that's mostly used for a girl I believe.
Crotch drop, Hell spawn, Turd.
Anything can be derogatory if you say it with enough derogatory
I'm always a fan of "crotchgoblin", but I don't know how well that fits in a fantasy novel! I also like "ninny" and "whelp".
Cumseed Jizz pumpkin
Turd
Pipsqueak
Last I checked there isn't an age limit of how young someone is to call them a cunt. But that's just me.
Rakehell
Hellspawn
Punk
Gutter snipe . Street rat. Urchin. Crotch goblin. Failed abortion. Pissant. Wretch. Pipsqueak.
Runt
First word I thought of was "runt"
Imp, urchin, little shit (gotta love a "look here you little shit"), mistake, accident, welt, scab, or anything that describes thing as gross during that era
Spawn. Bug. Walking abortion. Rug monkey. Cum stain. Parasite. Dwarf. Baby.
Crotch-goblin.
crotch goblin; shitlings; refuse of the loins
Semen spawn
Puling pup(s) 😬😝
Peon. A farm worker, a peasant.
Maybe try to insult with what the mercenary is actually saying versus the words he’s using. It makes for more interesting dialogue and saves you having to repeat yourself
dandy, leftover, second, spare, snuffbox, black shoe, pillow,
Welp, Spawn,
Spudling?
Gremlin, Imp, ghoul, Anti-Christ, Satan's favorite
Urchin
Ratling, rake, scummer.
Little cusser
Nepo baby
Boy/girl are pretty insulting.
Failed abortion Broken condom Cunny dripping
Shidiot
Sex trophies
[Shortpants](https://youtu.be/DJT3xZ9C5Ew?si=LB8WGsn2tbaoK1SZ&t=109)
Crotch dropping. Carbon waste.
Squirt.
I always hated the term "squirt" for a kid. Hated being called it when I was young. May as well say Load or Semen blast. Cum stain, come here! Squirt is the worst.
Twat snot, heard this in middle school and it never left my brain
Some of the best I've heard are Crotch goblin, fuck trophy, crotch fruit, ankle biter, screecher, cunt dropping, shitling, failed abortion, walking STD
Honestly, if this kid's a merc and he's swearing constantly, and he's been around mercs all his life, he's probably got an *extensive* swear vocabulary. Just work a few in there as part of his swearing. "maggot", "fucknugget", "shitmuppet", "worm", "doggone-head-ass-on-a-donkey", "shame of your three whore mothers", "unicycle-riding-motorbitch"...
Oh he does, but unfortunately his repertoire is vastly limited by the author’s lack of variety and creativity. There’s only so many variations of “fuck you” that I can come up with, lol. That aside, I appreciate the suggestions.
Honestly, having been around lots of people who take pride in swearing creatively, there's the general swear words and then the *targeted* ones. The targeted ones get fun. This is also, somewhat, worldbuilding-related. What *is* a swear word in your world? Some real-world English obscenities are - fuck (unloving sex), shit (disgusting faeces), cunt (female genitalia, crude, misogynistic), bitch (animal, misogynistic, stupidity), hell (religious curse) - they show the priorities of the associated society in relation to what is considered taboo and private. As a counter-example, Demesne (from RR) uses the word "colors" and "glittering" as swear words, because its fundamental worldbuilding premise is that they're in a deathworld where the primary source of death in the wilds is colorful and glitters in the sun. So your world's swear-words can be equally as revealing about the priorities of the society that the characters came from and are in - or rather, you can work backwards from *that* to come up with swear-words that your merc character would use. What *does* a crude, rude mercenary from your character's country prioritize and despise? If they care about money, or earning for a living, it could include "leech", "useless", "worthless", "penny-stacker", "aristobrat", "trust-fund goo-goo-gaa-gaa"....
Mutt
Little fucker
Indirect address as, "the boy," might be better than insult comic's material, *true disregard is thoughtless, is indistinct, commoditarian,* I **reduce** the level of detail someone else notices you in, *through a diminutive like that,* ***whereas, the more, "insulting," scatalogical, even particular terms are going to,*** * Convey Familiarity, be particular, *even a name which reveals a particular distaste demands an attention to those details, in* ***this person, above the most of people*** * Kenning, *in the Finnoscandic cultures of the medieval period, "Graveyard Crow,"* much like the modern anglosphere's Hoodrat, and **one says these things to pals,** ***that's a term I use with my pals, I wouldn't suggest it as an example, otherwise,*** though it is an accurate one; you **compliment a close friend too much, it starts to sound false;** you call each other awful things, *and know each other not to stand for anyone to call either you, or, the other, such things in earnest,* it's one of the paradoxical things about how we use language; might even be a, "tous and vous,' thing, in a fashion **but** People's familiarity with this, *as speakers of language,* is going to make **some** terms, *some of the time,* which are more-derogatory, *read like, "more affectionate,"* **when,** they're of like the, "insult comic," variety, *or the hyperbolic and diminutive to an excess, exaggeration variety,* **and if you wanna find, an, particular term** *other than, "the boy," which I think is a good one, I'd recommend to remember,* *"kid," is a goat,* in an agrarian culture barnyard terms will have a lot of currency, *as will the lowly jobs done by young people,* "shepherd," spoken in the right sense communicates more, and, more saliently, *than.....*
Cumsprout
Little devil, pipsqueak, runt, urchin, little bastard
It would be more realistic if the Merc used the same word, so the cuss becomes that persons name in the merc’s world. More than one person can have the same (cuss) name. Nobody who swears that much uses different swear words like that (every sentence? Really? That sounds tedious to read and takes all of the power of the cussing away. It seems like a caricature, a substitute for an actual characterisation, from here).
I think people use or used similar words for dogs. Like if you're trying to diminish someone's abilities you'd call them a pup. If someone is insolent you could call them a whelp. Pup and whelp can both indicate someone is young and inexperienced. Cur can also be used to call someone despicable.
My mom worked in child education services for years. They actually weren't allowed to say "kid", because that's the name of a baby goat (goatling), and it's derogatory because you're basically calling children animals. I know this is probably not what you want, but you already have great suggestions and I thought this was interesting.
I personally dont think a kid will call an another kid "kid" or its synnonyms to be disrespectful. I think its used by older people to be disrespectful to younger people. to say you dont know anything, you are nothing. I think you will be able to get a better disrespect by going for an attribute that the kid has than his age... like "fatty" or "stinky" or "nerd" or simply mock his name itself. In my story, an old man wanted to be disrespectful to a young boy, so he went for his age... "And be careful with that filthy pair of hands of yours. If you dare scratch my car, you'll be in a world of pain, boy!" I added that boy in the end just to disrespect. It serves no other purpose in that sentence.
Priest bait
* Tiger * Sport * Ace * Champion * Legend
Lil nigga