There is a much wider range of swear words than just putain in French. And much more than in English in general which sounds like a poor language for insults to French ears.
Enlighten us! English is of course rather impoverished here. What does the wider range of cursing in French look like, in current use? Do people still say c'est con, ça and sacrebleu!? My own exposure to French cussing in real life has all been putain putain putain.
Is con even a cussword? Most of the translations are non-taboo insults referring to stupidity rather than to genitalia, with the exception of the Italian and the Argentine rajá, pobre pelotudo, which refers to different genitalia and is not taboo. (The Greek "shabby wanker” is maybe an exception?)
But there may be some selection bias involved in the translation sampling process; by definition, taboo words won't be printed in a major newspaper headline. If he had used a racial slur against Maghrebis, for example, the NYT surely would not run a headline containing the N-word.
Around here, people will say of actions or other people that they are stupid, but not con, so I get the impression it goes well beyond stupidity, into sheer bloody-mindedness.
(whether the latter rates cusswordedness I prefer to leave to L1 speakers)
Nah, "con" must have been a very bad word a few hundred years ago. The French people I grew up with used it like it was nothing. Much like "merde". Doesn't mean that you should be saying it willy nilly. I'm sure if you call a stranger a "con" they won't take it well -- you need some familiarity to do that.
"Espèce de con" ("some kind of cunt") is for when you mean it a bit more.
– C'est un imbécile..., lâcha le garçon.
– Non, c'est un con.
– C'est pareil.
M. Pelletier s'arrêta de jouer.
– Non, c'est pas pareil. Si tu expliques trois fois un truc
à quelqu'un et qu'il ne le comprend pas, c'est un imbécile.
Mais si, à la fin, il est certain de l'avoir compris mieux
que toi, alors, tu as affaire à un con. — (Pierre Lemaître,
Le Grand Monde, Calmann-Lévy, 2022, pages 20-21)
"Con" is very much a curse word, it's just that in French everyone is allowed to use "con" (and "conard"/"conne"/"conarde"/"conasse") and just about all cuss words. I remember my childhood French teachers using those words like it was nothing; kids too. French is a really crass language that everyone seems to think is beautiful. Well, it is beautiful, but it's also crass.
"Petit con" is "little shit". A French teacher might say that to a troublemaker student, say.
"Boludo" and "pelotudo" are just Argentine variants of "huevón" -- a big fat zero. They do not refer to genitalia. I know many people think that, but that's not their origin. And what, why should "ballsy" be a swear word? Of course it's not, not even in Argentina.
Similarly "weon" is Chilean for "huevón".
"Carajo", however, is an old word for "cock". "Conchudo" is basically "cunty". Etc.
Hmm, I thought boludo and pelotudo came from the idea that too-big testicles made a man stupid, perhaps related to coglione. There's also an urban legend that they come from improvised weapons used in the war of independence, adapted from livestock herding equipment.
But I'm trying to unpack the distinction here between insults and taboo words. Taboo words may not be insults; to use an outdated example, if I say that I'm going to the shitter, nobody is being insulted — probably not even the plumbing facility in question. Similarly if I am tired of waiting in line and exclaim "God damn it!" And insults may not be taboo words; if I say, "Your mother wears army boots," many people will take it as an insult, even though in English it contains no taboo words.
In that sense I think con is an insult, not taboo, because I've heard people say punaise (for putain) and nom de bleu (for nom de dieu) but I can't recall ever having heard a similar substitutions for con.
