How bad of a word is "cow" in Taiwan?

Just how bad is it? What would an English equivalent be?
When I was in Beijing it was not profanity but it is here.

Shit

In the Beijing language it means nothing profane, but that’s a different country.

There is a beautiful place in north-eastern Australia called Cow Bay.

Look it up and tell your Taiwanese students about it.

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Then sing Old Macdonald with the horse lyrics to them.

Found out that one the hard way singing to my nephew and niece.

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It can be nothing or something. Depends on the situation. Shit, damn, ouch, oops etc. I made the mistake of punishing a student when i first started teaching as i was told it meant shit. Got an earful from an angry mom. Though tones are said to be for picking words, tone here can also certainly imply emotion to words.

The title of the thread is a bit confusing. Are we talking about cow or kao?

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I thought “kao” (操) meant “fuck”

but that’s also a profanity in Beijing although widely used. I guess OP means 牛 which has a few different meanings. Or may be 靠 as in 靠北 which I think is Taiwanese but isn’t actually a profanity. 靠 means cry.

In Beijing it is short for 牛逼(niubi) which means cow cunt or slang for awesome.

If in Taiwan you said something is very 牛 , as a foreigner you would be excused as someone who learnt Chinese in China. A Taiwanese would be ridiculed for saying it.

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I thought this was about the equivalent of calling someone a cow in English.

In German you have “Dumme Kuh”, which could be translated as “Stupid bitch”.

Do you call a woman “Stupid cow” in English?

Do people in Taiwan call someone “笨牛”?

image

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Paging @Dr_Milker

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More of a Britcism, but yes.

I’ve been a very very bad cow. :wink:

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Now you’re giving us the bird.

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Khàu as a profanity came from khàu-pē (哭爸) and khàu-iau (哭枵). It means cry. Cry over your father is cursing others to lose their father. Cry over an empty stomach is curing others to lose their livelihood.

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