Just stashing some 17th c. Welsh insults here, nothing to see, move along

[hrj]

All items have been vetted for currency in the 17th century via citations in the Geiriadur Prifysgol Cymru. Note that some of the grammatical forms are gender-specific and only the male versions are given (due to the wording of the question).

adyn - “wretch, scoundrel”
bawddyn - “vile wretch”
budr - “dirty, filthy, nasty” (as adj. or n.)
budryn - “wretch, knave”
casddyn - “hateful person, hated one”; also related “cas” = “hated person, enemy” but this appears to be obsolete in this sense by the 17th c.
cenau - “rascal”, but primarily “whelp, puppy” and even the “rascal” sense seems to be more affectionate than derogatory
cnaf - “rascal, knave”, a borrowing of English “knave”
croesan - “fool, buffoon”, earlier use could also mean “jester” but by the 17th c. it seems to have been entirely pejorative
diog - “lazy, sluggish” (as adj. or n.)
diogyn, diogwas - “idler, sluggard, lazy person”
drwg - “bad, evil, wicked” (as adj.)
drygwr - “bad man, evil doer, scoundrel”, can also be a reference to the Devil
dwl - “dull, stupid, foolish” (as adj. or n.)
ffo^l - “foolish, silly” (as adj.), “fool, clown” (as n.)
gwalch - “rascal”, originally “hawk, falcon” and with an extended sense of “hero, nobleman” in the 14-15th c., but by the 17th c. the pejorative sense comes in; possible too ambiguous as the primary associations are positive
gwirion - “simpleton, fool” more in a “mentally impaired” sense than in a “stupid” sense
hwrswn - “whoreson” (borrowed from English)
lleidr - “thief”
llwfr - “coward” (as adj. or n.)
meddwyn - “drunkard”
musgrell - “feeble, clumsy, slovenly”
ofer - “worthless, useless”; oferddyn, oferwr - “waster, good-for-nothing” (but also “minstrel”)
penbwl - “blockhead, stupid”
pendew - “stupid”, lit. “thick-head” (as adj.)
segur - “idle, lazy” (as adj.)
truan - “wretch, unfortunate person” (more in pity than disgust)
twyllwr - “deceiver, cheat, fraud, imposter”
ynfyd - “foolish, mad, insane” (as adj.)

Comments

[aryanhwy.livejournal.com]

These are awesome.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

When it comes to historic Welsh literary insults, I'm still most fond of Rhiannon's "Never has a man mad worse use of his wits than you have", but it is a bit long-winded.

[deliasherman.livejournal.com]

Bless you. This will be madly useful for the novel I'm going to expand this story into when I finish a) this story; b) the last draft of my next middle-grade novel. I just love the idea of calling someone a "penbwl." It just sounds so perfectly like what it is.

If Angharad needs to swear at a woman (although, in this version, at least, most of her ire seems to be directed at men), I'll check with you on gender endings, shall I? In the meantime, these are perfect and I am very grateful.

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Glad to help. And yes, let me know if you need feminine versions. I didn't include any pronunciation notes since this will be for a written work, but I'm sure you can find pronunciation help if you ever want to do a reading!

(Note that I am neither a native nor fluent speaker of Welsh, but I have lots of resources on the medieval and early modern versions of the language due to my dissertation research.)

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

These are great. Thanks.

I encountered a Welsh name new to me in Newcastle last week. My friend's niece is named Enfys, which means "rainbow".

[hrj.livejournal.com]

Yes, one of the mildly frustrating things about being a researcher in historic Welsh naming practices is that an enormous percentage of the Welsh names popular today (especially feminine ones) are the functional equivalent of "hippie names", i.e., coined for their meaning in fairly recent times (last century, roughly). So the most common response I end up giving to people who ask about this history of Welsh Name X is "I am not aware of this being used as a given name prior to the 20th century." This is rarely the answer people are looking for.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

I like the name, but Enfys says she constantly has to tell people how to pronounce it. When she does, they say, "Oh, like Elvis, right?"

Teleri's daughter's given name is Sunshine. Given the CoA rules about being able to register your given name, I tried to talk her (not seriously) into registering "Sunshine of the West." She's much wiser than I am, and declined vociferously.