Polite v. vulgar: Part Three – The body

In the Thai conception of the human body, the head occupies an almost sacred position, while the feet, conversely, are considered the lowest of the low. That is why it is considered extremely rude to touch a Thai person on the head, and equally uncouth to point to something with one’s feet (indeed, the Thais have perfected a sitting position in which one’s feet are firmly tucked away).

Such conceptions of the body are reflected in Thai vocabulary. As with much other Thai vocabulary, the politer versions of the words tend ultimately to be derived from Sanksrit, while the vulgar or informal words are original Thai.

The body itself can be referred to in a number of ways in Thai. At the bottom of the rung, as it were, of informality, the body is tua (ตัว). This carries connotations beyond the physical: tua eng, for instance, means oneself, while tua lakorn is a character in a play. However, it is at the same time deeply rooted in the physical, being the classifier for animals (more on classifiers in a later post).

Even more physical is the word rang kai (ร่างกาย), which very much refers to the body as a physical, as opposed to psychological, entity. In certain contexts the body may also be referred to by either one of the two components of this word: rang or kai.

The head, meanwhile, is referred to in informal usage as hua (หัว), which extends into the metaphorical realm in the same way as the word ‘head’ does in (English (the head of an organization, for instance, is referred to as hua naa).  Much more specific to the physical human head is the polite word seesa (ศีรษะ), which is what you’ll normally see in written Thai, and is the word you would use when talking to, say, a doctor.

If you want to talk about the foot, meanwhile, you would use the word thao (เท้า), a word acceptable in both formal and informal usage. However, some people use the word dteen (ตีน), which is thought of as being considerably more vulgar, and indeed is found in the construction son dteen (ส้นตีน), which literally means ‘heel’, but by extension is used as a swearword to mean something (or someone) base and vulgar. Finally, you often come across the word baat (บาท) to mean ‘foot’, particularly in reference to the Buddha’s footprints. Baat is also found in the word baat withee (บาทวิถี), the formal word for a pavement, although a Thai version of the word ‘footpath’ is more often used in general conversation.

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