How to say (or write) “bed bug” in 30 languages
By nobugsonme on Jan 29, 2008 in Arabic, Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portuguese), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, bed bugs, bedbugs, blakts, blakė, chinche, chinese, cimice dei letti, die Wanze, french, kepinding, kutu busuk, lude, lutikas, percevejo, ploşniţă, ploštica, pluskwa, poloska, punaise, stenica, tahtakurusu, translating, veggedyr, veggjalús, væggelus, wandluis, štěnice, κοριός, клоп, بَقُّ الفِراش, なんきん虫, 臭虫, 臭蟲, 빈대
How to say “bed bug” in 30 languages?
I copied them all here, but Wordpress couldn’t manage all the characters. But you can see them all here (scroll down).
Arabic, Chinese (Traditional and Simplified), Czech, Danish, Dutch, Estonian, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latvian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Polish, Brazilian Portuguese, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian, Spanish, Swedish, and Turkish.
Far from linguistic entertainment, this information may help you while traveling (know what word to use if you find something in your hotel room bed).
May also be useful for making multilingual “danger” signs to post on discarded refuse. A skull-and-crossbones also goes a long way A drawing of a bed bug along with the word “Warning! Bed bugs!” in English and perhaps another language or two that are common in your neighborhood may go a long way. (Thanks to Winston for warning me off the skull-and-crossbones idea. Point taken!)
Source:
bedbug. Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary.
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Winston O. Buggy | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
I would advise you NOT to use a skull and crossbones for bed bug items. For better or for worse we live in a society that is warning over exposed (do not put dog in microwave). However certain symbols denote legal classifications and actual life and death threat levels. The skull and crossbones is one of these symbols. Ergo placing
it on couches, mattresses, boxes and other items is probably not the best of ideas as
it dilutes the meaning of this symbol.
nobugsonme | Jan 30, 2008 | Reply
Updated! Thanks Winston.