My last post went over words for beauty. So to keep balance, now for the ugly phrases . . . this will get a bit ugly . . . but before we start, here is one of my favorite all-time Thai songs called รูปไม่หล่อ (not handsome) by Modern Dog.

Most of these words are self-explanatory, but I’d like to point out the word อวบ. This word is a bit ambiguous, mainly because different people have different ideas of what ‘chubby’ is. อวบ best translates as ‘voluptuous’, a little fat but still decent-shaped. The Statue of Venus is a perfect example. Some people think being อวบ is sexy, others think of it as ‘too chubby’, making it hard to agree on exactly which actresses fit the definition . . . Lets say if I ask you if a girl is fat (อัวน), but you don’t want to say the truth to be polite, you can instead say อวบดี – it’ll come out as a bit funny in a non-offensive way.

Thai people will rarely use descriptive words to say someone is ugly. They’ll usually just describe the shape of the nose and skin color. As such, I divided up the vocabulary – the words at top are very common, below are extremely rare. Learn what you feel is useful for your skill level and skip the rest.

vocabulary (คำศัพท์):

ไม่สวย                             not beautiful

รูปไม่หล่อ                       not handsome

น่าเกลียด                        exceptionally ugly, disgusting

อวบ                                 voluptuous (see above note)

อัวน                                 fat

ผิวดำ                               dark skin

จมูกไม่สวย                    ugly nose

ผอม                                thin (neutral term)

ขาหนา                            thick legs

ก้นใหญ่                           big butt

ตูดใหญ่                           big ass

—-optional—-

สวยด้วยแพทย์              pretty because of plastic surgery (sarcasm)

เงาะป่า                            like a rambutan, not good looking on outside, but good on inside

กุ้งแห้ง                            scrawny (used for scrawny girls) (literally, dried shrimp)

ขาตะ่เกียบ                     boney legs (chopstick legs)

ขี้เหร่                               unattractive, homely

เหียก                              butt ugly

ดูไม่จืด                           irresistible (meant as sarcasm)

โบร้าณโบราณ              ancient (saying hes/shes too old to date)

ไดโนเสาร์                     dinosaur (saying hes/shes too old to date) (also used in Chinese)

ขายไม่ออก                  an unmarried, single women that no one wants

ตุ้ยนุ้ย                           chubby

ช้างน้ำ                           fat/ugly like a walrus