Cantonese profanity

The five most common Cantonese profanities, vulgar words in the Cantonese language are diu (屌/𨳒), gau (㞗/𨳊/鳩), lan (𡳞/𨶙/撚), tsat (杘/𨳍/柒) and hai (㞓/屄/閪), where the first ("diu") literally means fuck, "hai" is a word for female genitalia and "gau" refers to male genitalia.

[2] These five words are generally offensive and give rise to a variety of euphemisms and minced oaths.

Diu (Traditional Chinese: 屌 or 𨳒, Jyutping: diu2), literally meaning fuck, is a common but grossly vulgar profanity in Cantonese.

In a manner similar to the English word fuck, diu2 expresses dismay, disgrace and disapproval.

Certain euphemisms exist, including siu (小) (small/little), tsiu (超), yiu (妖).

Compare this: Two common euphemisms gau, which only differ in the tone, include 九 gau2 (nine) and 狗 gau2 (dog, but it may change the original "dumbass" meaning into "cunning" instead).

Tsat (杘 or 𡴶 or Chinese: 𨳍; Jyutping: cat6), more commonly idiomatically written as 柒, is a vulgar word for an impotent penis.

Hai (Traditional Chinese: 㞓 or 屄 or 閪 ; Jyutping: hai1) is a common vulgar word that literally means vagina.

As a result, crabs are sometimes intentionally linked with other words such as stinking and water to achieve some vagina-related humorous effects.

The Chinese character 晒, one of whose meanings is similar to the English "bask", functions in Cantonese as the verbal particle for the perfective aspect.

Since this phrase is highly offensive (it consists of two of the five vulgar words), a euphemism or xiehouyu, a kind of Chinese "proverb", is sometimes used.

As in a normal xiehouyu, it consists of two elements: the former segment presents a scenario, while the latter provides the rationale thereof.

Since the penis and vagina are both exposed to the sun, the second part is hai1 gau1 saai3 (㞓㞗晒)—a pun for total failure.

[9] Since the phrase does not involve any sexual organs or reference to sex, some argue that it should not be considered as profanity.

Adding the words ham gaa (whole family) in front of a blessing can actually reverse the meaning.