Mando'a Etymology: What Exactly Is A Shabuir?
Linguistics is a hobby of mine, and fictional linguistics especially so. While I refrain from using profanity myself, I find it interesting what makes a word taboo, because it changes based on culture, history, and context; sometimes even on intent. All of which is to say, Mando'a expletives interest me, specifically the worst one, because I think the most common interpretation of what it means is wrong.
It's fairly clear in RepComm that shabuir is meant to be the Mando'a counterpart of the English word for Oedipal relations, in terms of impact when spoken. The official translation is "jerk, but much stronger". The English counterpart is a taboo because incest is a taboo, but the English word specifically refers to a man who sleeps with his mother (though it's applied to more than just men). I don't think Mando'a would have the same etymology, because Mando'a would not place the taboo of incest on the child.
So what does the Mando "queen-mother of all dirty words" mean?
Shab is clearly a pejorative in its own right. However, I see no particular reason to believe that it's at all connected to sex, apart from the fact that the English word which carries similar weight is. Mandalorians don't seem to have the cultural history around sex that we do in the West, so why would their swear words refer to it? Sex isn't unimportant to individual Mandalorians, but it's not nearly as much of an object of focus in their culture as it is in ours today. They're much more interested in lifelong bonds, on the whole, be they brotherly or romantic.
Buir, of course, means "parent", which I think is why most people translate shabuir the way they do. The most important bond in Mandalorian culture is the parent-child bond, and the most shameful thing that could happen to any Mandalorian is to be declared dar'buir (that is, be rejected by their children). This, to me, suggests a different likely meaning for their worst insult: not child who would commit incest with a parent, but, in the strongest and most pejorative terms known to Mandalorians, bad parent. Probably abusive parent. I suspect that the most literal English translation would be something along the lines of child-beater or one who abuses their child, causing permanent trauma.
@bardan-jusik, what are your thoughts on this?
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