In Lithuanian we have these:
- Dievo užmirštame kampelyje - In the little corner God forgot about (typically meaning a beautiful place)
- Giliame užkampyje - Somewhere deep, behind the corner
- Pasaulio pakrašty - At the end of the the world
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Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.
In Lithuanian we have these:
Italian: "in culo al mondo"/"in culo ai lupi" (in the butt of the world/in the butt of wolves)
In South Africa, we say "halfpad tussen Pofadder en Putsonderwater"
Which translates to halfway between Pufadder (named after the snake) and well-without-water town.
Both are real places, with the stereotypical names that already play on the fact that there is very little going on there.
The open stretch between the two with no roads, no farms, no railways.
These days, it does not work in reality as their built the Square Kilometer Array there, as it was probably the quietest place (radio signal wise) in the world where you could build radio telescopes.
Since there's surprisingly no Russian here yet, here are a few I know (some are probably regional):
But honestly the most likely phrase I'd use in an informal context is a boring чёрт знает где [chyort znayet gde] - "devil knows where"
German also has a few other interesting ones that refer to actually real places.
The last one makes historical sence since many Germans migrated to that region of south America in the 1800, and then more Germans got replaced in the soviet union and moved there and then many Nazis fled there after the surrender. So its just a synonym for a place very far away. Not sure where the rest come from
Dont forget that the ass of the world is a real place in germany. Bielefeld.
In America we also have "fuck-ass nowhere," "bumble fuck," and "bum fuck." And that's before you get creative and start making shit up.
people from stockholm call everything that's outside of the city spenaten, "the spinach".
That's nicer than the people of Antwerp, who call the rest of Flanders a parking lot
In New Zealand we say 'in Waikikamukau' (pronounced "Why kick a moo cow") because it's juuuuust enough like actual place names here that people don't instantly pick up on the alternate meaning.
In Québec we also use au milieu de nulle part. But abetter option is Saint-Glin-glin des meuh-meuh. Saint-ding-dong on the moo-moo.
In oldworld French, Trifouillis-les-oies is a favourite of mine (it's a fictional village name, meaning something like... Fiddledy-the-geese).
Saint-glin-glin is for a date, here.
I guess closest turkish version I ever seen used is "ebenin götünde," which translates to "in your midwife's butt."
We have a few in Spanish, one of my favourites is "Donde Cristo perdió el mechero": Where Christ lost his lighter.
In Romanian it's „unde și-a înțărcat dracul copiii” which means "where the Devil weaned his children".
Portuguese "onde Judas perdeu as botas". where Judas lost his boots.
If you go there, pls bring the boots.
That’s literally the first time I heard that hungarian version, that’s not what we use, we use “az isten háta mögött” which is “behind gods back” to refer to places in bumfuck nowhere
American English has “Buttfuck, Idaho”, possibly substituting more polite names, and/or other equally sparsely populated states. If it’s abroad, it becomes Buttfuckistan or some equivalent.
Not sure about a British equivalent, but I’ve seen “Invernowhere” used in a Scottish context (there’s probably a swearier version this was bowdlerised from), and Dylan Thomas named an imaginary Welsh town Llareggub (read it backwards).
In Polish we've got "gdzie psy dupami szczekają" or where dogs bark with their assess.
there's also zadupie, which literally means "behind-the-ass place", and also wypizdowie, or wypizdów, which i can best translate as "fuck-off place"
my friend group also uses Wypizdów Dolny, the context for which is like that one spongebob episode with Bikini Bottomer (or -est, i don't remember), but wypizdów edition.
"Buttfuck, Egypt" is my favorite version of this expression.
Similarly, people would say "B.F., Africa".
I find it funny that the title is "cultural differences", but the content is actually showing how all these cultures needed someway to describe being in the middle of nowhere.
Icelandic has "lengst úti í rassgati" which means as far as you can go to an asshole. There's also the leas common "í langtíburtistan" which is in Far-away-istan
In Hebrew, the closest we have is טיזינבי (tizinabi), which doesn't mean anything in Hebrew but comes from Arabic طيز ٱلنَّبِي where it apparently means "the prophet's butt". TIL.
Meanwhile in Chile: "A la conchade su madre" (Literally: "Towards your mother's c**t")
In my hometown we usually say "a Puttemburgo" (literally "Whoreburg") or "in culo ai lupi" ("up the wolves' arsehole") or "a Tron di Dio" ("on God's throne").
God's Throne is in the Whoreburg up the wolves' arsehole, noted.
In belgian french, we have "Outsiplou-les-Bains-de-Pieds". Made up town name that both sounds funny and too long to actually exist, but the Outsiplou part kind of means "listen if it's raining" in walloon. And "Perpète-les-Oies". Which you could translate to "Far-away Geese", which is plain gibberish but sounds like a lot of real places in France. There's plently of variations but they mostly try to invent a name that sounds like a stereotypical countryside village name.
A Levant arabic way of saying it is "في طيز العقرب" which literally means "in the scorpions ass"
In Québec, we say "Saint Clin-Clin Des meuh-meuh"; "Saint", because a lot of towns here are named after a Saint, "Clin-Clin" because of another expression "ti-clin" which means some random person, so "Clin-Clin" means a random Saint, and "des meuh-meuh" because a lot of towns here have some kind of suffix like "des Saults", or "de Brandon", so "des meuh-meuh" (like moo-moo) is the sound a cow makes, and I guess it sounds rural or something. Also, when we talk about somewhere very far away, we say "au diable vert" "at the green devil"; not sure about the origin of this expression, though.
In Scotland, we say 'middleae fucking naewhere' or 'Largs'.
In Spain we have "en el quinto pino": in the fifth pine, and "estoy a tomar por saco", which badly translates to "to go get fucked in a bag".
Also, if a bit more vulgar, "el quinto coño" ("the fifth cunt"). And don't forget "donde cristo perdió el mechero/ la chancla" ("where Christ lost his lighter/flip-flop").
In Greek it is: στου διαόλου τη μάνα, which means "at the Devil's mom"
In Italian we say we are in culo ai lupi which means in the ass of wolves or at inculandia which translates to in the ass land
In Sardinian, we say a casinu (at the brothel), because often brothels were located far from towns. And if that isn't enough, you can say a casinu 'e Pompu, combining it with the name of a real place that's already in the middle of nowhere by itself
This may be the first post I've ever come across where I wish there was an "Upvote All Comments" button...
These could all be made up for all I know, but they are all very entertaining! 😄
In British English there's:
and probably more
In Slovenia we either use the serbian one or we say Bogu za nogo/hrbtom. Meaning behind god's leg/back.
UK does have the idiom "bumfuck, nowhere" a fictional town in the fictional county of nowhere