Another of Shakespeare’s best put-downs, coined in
Henry IV, Part 2: “Away, you scullion! You rampallion! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe,”
"Besides being the greatest writer in the history of the English language, William Shakespeare was the master of the pithy put-down. So the nervous servant who tells Macbeth his castle is under attack is dismissed as a
“cream-faced loon.” Oswald in
King Lear isn’t just a useless idiot, he’s a
“whoreson zed,” an “unnecessary letter.” Lear’s ungrateful daughter Goneril is “a plague-sore,” an “embossed carbuncle in my corrupted blood.” And when Falstaff doubts something Mistress Quickly has said in
Henry IV: Part 1, he claims, “there’s no more faith in thee than in a stewed prune.” (And there’s a good chance he didn’t intend “stewed prune” to mean dried fruit.) But you don’t have to rely just on Shakespeare to spice up your vocabulary. Next time someone winds you up or you need to win an argument in fine style, why not try dropping one of these old-fashioned insults into your conversation?
Next time you need to win an argument, try dropping one of these old-fashioned English insults.
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Turns out I am a "loiter-sack" in 17th Century English.
I cannot wait to be in a shop or public with my mate & turn around & say to him so people around me here “Away, you scullion! You rampallion! You fustilarian! I’ll tickle your catastrophe,” or sadly the next time I'm around these "road man" types who speak in some bizarre Drill / Grime Music slang that I only understand at the best 50% of what they are saying & I come out with some 1600's / 17th Century English insults.
'Thou shakeragg blewe beard; a rogue and base fellowe, a bankerupt, roaguish and knavishe constable'
