Where No means Yes: Handy Polish Expressions

It's high time we had a "colorful" post, and considering I just talked about the Polish language I should stress that, yes, there are swear words here and yes, people do use them. That's not going to be the only thing I talk about, but I should warn the faint of eye that some of these are going to be about PG-13. I also can't exactly "bleep" the vowels because those of you following along in English won't know what it is, exactly, that I bleeped.  So, here are some handy, versatile and uncensored expressions I've picked up.

Spoko- short for "spokojnie" or "calmly" as far as I can tell, but used for a lot more than that. Depending on context it can mean "relax", "cool", "shut up and let me finish" or "it's all good." It's sort of a student expression, and I think I've gotten a few chuckles by saying it to my boss on occasion.

Kurwa- the great Polish five-letter word, appropriate for all occasions except polite ones. I would say it's about as strong as "sh*t" in English but as versatile as "f*ck" in its many usages as verb, noun, adjective, adverb, interjection, pronoun and possibly preposition, and in the fact that some people's conversations seem to consist almost entirely of this word.

Kurczak, kurczy - Chicken. Usually used in place of "kurwa" when in polite company. It is the rough equivalent of  "darn" or "fudge" or "fiddlesticks."  

Załatwić - Another great Polish concept. It means literally "to ease" but idiomatically "to take care of something." It can be implied that the manner of so doing is in some way under-the-radar. If you took care of something by calling in favors, pulling strings, or by doing something on a handshake, that's an example of something that was "załatwiony." When "załatwić" is used to describe something done to a person, however, it usually means that that person was in some way "taken care of" as in taken advantage of : "ale mu załatwili" - "they sure took care of him" or "they sure screwed him over."

As a side note, a Polish word for hiring someone for a job is zatrudnić, which I think might actually mean "to difficultize" as "trudno" means "difficult."   

Jasne - Literal translation is "bright", but it generally means "sure thing."

Cholera (jasne) - Just like it says, cholera, intensified by "jasne." As far as I can tell this is actually a pretty heavy swear word, about on-par with the f-word in English. It's a testament to the fact that public health has not always been as good as it is today.

Szlag, szlag trafi - Roughly "damn." Translates as "lightning bolt" or "may a lightning bolt strike it." It's usually pronounced more like "szlak", which is a different word meaning a trail. I think I'm going to see if I can get a reaction by exclaiming "szlak handlowy!" (trade route) sometime soon.

Jak musztarda po obiedzie - Like mustard after lunch. When something is already redundant or unnecessary/"overtaken by events."

Gdy się człowiek spieszy, to się diabeł cieszy - Someone in a hurry makes the devil cheerful. An explanation for why we can never find something when we most need it, or when we're most in a hurry things go to pieces.

Akurat - Apropo of something. Can also mean "well" as in the sense of "well, I was down at Wawel today and...." or "now that you mention it..."

No - Well. Can also mean "yeah", "of course" or "yeah, and?"

(ma) ręce i nogi - It has arms and legs. In other words, when something is in a workable condition.

(To) gra - (It) plays. Figuratively, when something is working.