Russian · Exclamations
Ёпрст!
yoprst
YOP-rst · /jɵprst/
Argh! / Gah! / Dammit
2/5 Bar-safe
coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances
Literally
"(the consonant run of a swallowed curse)"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
Peak euphemism-ladder engineering: you start to say something filthy and bail into a string of consonants — "yo-p-r-s-t," basically the sound of biting the curse back. Written and spoken alike. Reads as mildly coarse but printable, the stuff of frustrated coworkers.
Heard in the wild
Ёпрст, файл не сохранился!
Gah, the file didn't save!
Where it lands
Russia (universal)
Quick answers
- What does "Ёпрст!" mean?
- In Russian, "Ёпрст!" means "Argh! / Gah! / Dammit". Literally it's "(the consonant run of a swallowed curse)". Peak euphemism-ladder engineering: you start to say something filthy and bail into a string of consonants — "yo-p-r-s-t," basically the sound of biting the curse back. Written and spoken alike. Reads as mildly coarse but printable, the stuff of frustrated coworkers.
- Is "Ёпрст!" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 2/5 (Bar-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances.
- How do you pronounce "Ёпрст!"?
- Say it "YOP-rst" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: jɵprst.
Related in Russian
Блин! blin BLEEN Damn! / Darn! / Shoot! Чёрт! chyort CHORT Damn! / Hell! Чёрт возьми! chyort voz'mi CHORT vahz-MEE Damn it! / For God's sake! Ё-моё! yo-moyo YO mah-YO Oh boy! / Geez! / Good grief! Ёлки-палки! yolki-palki YOL-kee PAHL-kee Good grief! / For heaven's sake! Облом! oblom ah-BLOM Bummer / What a letdown / No dice
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Damn".
- French Putain ! Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really
- German Scheiße! Shit! / Damn! — the all-purpose German expletive
- Greek γαμώτο Damn it! / Dammit!
- Italian Cazzo! Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse.
- Japanese くそ Damn! / Crap! / Shit!
- Korean 씨발 Fuck / fucking hell — the load-bearing Korean curse.
- Polish kurwa Fuck / damn / shit — the load-bearing word of Polish, and its most common comma.
- Portuguese Porra! Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation
Reviewed by native speakers. Rate it differently? Tell us what we got wrong.