this post was submitted on 27 Jul 2026
465 points (99.6% liked)

Curated Tumblr

7376 readers
1 users here now

For preserving the least toxic and most culturally relevant Tumblr heritage posts.

Here are some OCR tools to assist you in transcribing posts:

Don't be mean. I promise to do my best to judge that fairly.

founded 3 years ago
MODERATORS
 
top 50 comments
sorted by: hot top controversial new old
[–] lime@feddit.nu 60 points 1 week ago (4 children)

people from stockholm call everything that's outside of the city spenaten, "the spinach".

[–] huppakee@lemmy.world 22 points 1 week ago (9 children)

That's nicer than the people of Antwerp, who call the rest of Flanders a parking lot

load more comments (9 replies)
[–] Dojan@pawb.social 10 points 1 week ago (3 children)

There’s also tjotahejti, which is a spin on Otaheiti, an older name for Tahiti.

load more comments (3 replies)
load more comments (2 replies)
[–] Kirp123@lemmy.world 43 points 1 week ago (4 children)

In Romanian it's „unde și-a înțărcat dracul copiii” which means "where the Devil weaned his children".

[–] trolololol@lemmy.world 35 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Portuguese "onde Judas perdeu as botas". where Judas lost his boots.

If you go there, pls bring the boots.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Danquebec@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Romanian

dracul

That sounds so stereotypical lol.

[–] smeg@feddit.uk 17 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Hang on, is "Count Dracula" just Romanian for "Lord Devilish"?

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] FishFace@piefed.social 16 points 1 week ago

I mean there's a reason Bram Stoker picked the name "Dracula" for his character ya know...

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] AllNewTypeFace@leminal.space 36 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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).

[–] scbasteve@lemmy.world 34 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Always heard Bumfuck Egypt, BFE being the more polite way to say it

[–] protist@retrofed.com 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

Here in Texas it's always been BFE, butt-fucking Egypt. Never have I heard Idaho used in this context.

However the context is different, because BFE refers to somewhere far away rather to being in the middle of nowhere

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Maestro@fedia.io 16 points 1 week ago (2 children)

In Dutch we have "Lutjebroek". Problem is, Lutjebroek is also a real village with about 2000 people in it. There's also "Schubbekutteveen" which does not really exists and roughly translates as scaled-cunt-ville.

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 10 points 1 week ago

"Podunk" is a real town in the USA, but people use Podunk to mean any small, unsophisticated town.

[–] yetAnotherUser@discuss.tchncs.de 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

(Southern) Germany has Hintertupfingen, where "Hinter-" refers to "behind".

It really sounds like some 1000 year old village with 20 inhabitants.

load more comments (2 replies)

Dylan Thomas named an imaginary Welsh town Llareggub (read it backwards).

Perfect! 😆😘👌🏼

load more comments (4 replies)
[–] cgTemplar@sh.itjust.works 31 points 1 week ago (6 children)

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.

[–] riwo@lemmy.blahaj.zone 6 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

TIL it's not called "hutsilpu" and actually has as story behind it lol

i'd never seen it spelled out or the long version, so i just assumed x3

load more comments (5 replies)
[–] lenya@piefed.blahaj.zone 27 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

In Polish we've got "gdzie psy dupami szczekają" or where dogs bark with their assess.

load more comments (3 replies)
[–] AbsolutelyNotAVelociraptor@piefed.social 25 points 1 week ago (1 children)

We have a few in Spanish, one of my favourites is "Donde Cristo perdió el mechero": Where Christ lost his lighter.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] nowherelord@lemmy.world 23 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (3 children)

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.

[–] Shane_McGoomy@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

I think it's important to also mention Wabush, a very remote town mostly known for being referenced in "chu parké à Wabush", which means "I parked my car in Wabush", thus implying that said parking spot was very bad which resulted in a long walk to the desired destination, often causing one to be late.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] CryptoKitten@sh.itjust.works 7 points 1 week ago (4 children)

The real expression is originally from France «au diable Vauvert».

We also say «aux îles Moukmouk» which is actually a real single remote island in Abittibi, l'Île Moukmouk.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (1 replies)
[–] cout970@programming.dev 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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".

[–] OfCourseNot@fedia.io 13 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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").

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Mok98@feddit.it 21 points 1 week ago (1 children)

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

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] kamee@lemmy.zip 20 points 1 week ago

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

[–] SmoothOperator@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In Danish you can say "where the crows turn".

[–] Viking_Hippie@lemmy.dbzer0.com 11 points 1 week ago (2 children)

Or "out where the crows bring a packed lunch"

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] FishFace@piefed.social 19 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In British English there's:

  • arse-end of nowhere
  • the sticks
  • back of beyond

and probably more

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] Drekaridill@lemmy.wtf 18 points 1 week ago

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

[–] Wizard_Pope@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago

In Slovenia we either use the serbian one or we say Bogu za nogo/hrbtom. Meaning behind god's leg/back.

[–] anon6789@lemmy.world 15 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

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! 😄

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] NeatNit@discuss.tchncs.de 14 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] SmackemWittadic@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

A Levant arabic way of saying it is "في طيز العقرب" which literally means "in the scorpions ass"

[–] TwodogsFighting@lemdro.id 14 points 1 week ago

In Scotland, we say 'middleae fucking naewhere' or 'Largs'.

[–] loutr@sh.itjust.works 14 points 1 week ago (1 children)

In French: trou du cul du monde, or World's asshole.

[–] ooli3@sopuli.xyz 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

could also be at the fictional town "triffouilli-les-oies".. litteraly at "fondling-the-geeses"

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] syaochan@feddit.it 12 points 1 week ago

Italian: "in culo al mondo"/"in culo ai lupi" (in the butt of the world/in the butt of wolves)

[–] carldiortus@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

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
[–] straussbelial@lemmy.world 11 points 1 week ago

Meanwhile in Chile: "A la conchade su madre" (Literally: "Towards your mother's c**t")

[–] spittingimage@lemmy.world 10 points 1 week ago

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.

[–] Jankatarch@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

I guess closest turkish version I ever seen used is "ebenin götünde," which translates to "in your midwife's butt."

[–] Danarchy@lemmy.nz 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I always liked “east jabip” and “east jahunga” (sometimes jahunga road or Jahungaville)

Dogpatch is an interesting one bc I’ve heard it used to mean “middle of nowhere” and also “where poor people/hillbillies live”. It’s got history too since Lil Abner comics were set in Dogpatch, and there’s a San Francisco neighborhood of that name.

load more comments (1 replies)
[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 9 points 1 week ago

UK does have the idiom "bumfuck, nowhere" a fictional town in the fictional county of nowhere

[–] Kaput@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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.

load more comments (7 replies)
[–] jacksilver@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago (2 children)

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.

load more comments (2 replies)
[–] olenkoVD@lemmy.dbzer0.com 7 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

In Greek it is: στου διαόλου τη μάνα, which means "at the Devil's mom"

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 7 points 1 week ago (7 children)

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").

load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments
view more: next ›