swear/curse like a sailor/truck driver

[Tonza]

Hi everyone, in English we might say that someone "swears like a sailor" if he or she constantly uses foul language. There are also the variations "curse like a sailor", "swear like a truck driver" and "curse like a truck driver". Is there an equivalent expression in Italian?

Thanks!

 

[underhouse]

Perhaps, "Parla/Bestemmia come uno scaricatore di porto".

 

[Tonza]

Thanks, that's perfect!

 

[Paulfromitaly]

We often say "come un Turco".

 

[Tonza]

We often say "come un Turco".

So is that more idiomatic in your opinion than "come uno scaricatore di porto"? My concern would be that it might sound racist. Is it similar to how we say jokingly "Excuse my French" when an indecorous word accidentally slips out, or is it indeed directed at Turks? I guess the other option is insulting to the scaricatori, though!

 

[Paulfromitaly]

So is that more idiomatic in your opinion than "come uno scaricatore di porto"? My concern would be that it might sound racist. Is it similar to how we say jokingly "Excuse my French" when an indecorous word accidentally slips out, or is it indeed directed at Turks? I guess the other option is insulting to the scaricatori, though!

I believe their are both idiomatic, however since nowadays everyone's first and main concern is that everything must be politically correct, some people would rather not say "come un Turco".

http://www.wordreference.com/iten/turco

fumare come un turco- smoke like a chimney;
bestemmiare come un turco - swear like a trooper

 

[Tonza]

Thank you!

 

[london calling]

Interesting. In this part of Italy they don't seem to worry about that! You hear "bestemmiare come un turco" a lot. But I fully understand it could be considered very racist.

However, they also say: "bestemmiare in turco". Is that maybe a little more PC, people?

 

[Vekkio]

Both the variations are more or less the same in Italian, we have "linguaggio da camionista/scaricatore di porto"; bestemmiare "come un turco" in my opinion is less used nowadays...

P.S. E scusa il francesismo, too

Edit: I've heard Bestemmiare in turco/cinese/ostrogoto/ecc. per fare qualcosa, it's more figurative then literally swearing, it's like trying to do something very hard.

 

[Paulfromitaly]

However, they also say: "bestemmiare in turco". Is that maybe a little more PC, people?

I guess that's slightly different:
Bestemmiare come un turco = To swear a lot, using a very coarse language.
Bestemmiare in turco = To swear, using words people don't understand (similar to "parlare in turco", using a language people can't understand)

 

[london calling]

P.S. E scusa il francesismo, too

We say "Excuse my French": did you pinch that from us?

 

[Umbizcymru]

Perhaps, "Parla/Bestemmia come uno scaricatore di porto".

 

[Umbizcymru]

We often say "come un Turco".

Usually Come un turco is used if someone smokes a lot... fuma come un turco...

Scaricatore di porto é la migliore