Píča (), sometimes short piča or pyča /, is a

Czech Czech may refer to: * Anything from or related to the Czech Republic, a country in Europe ** Czech language ** Czechs, the people of the area ** Czech culture ** Czech cuisine * One of three mythical brothers, Lech, Czech, and Rus *Czech (surnam ...

and Slovak

profanity Profanity, also known as swearing, cursing, or cussing, is the usage of notionally word taboo, offensive words for a variety of purposes, including to demonstrate disrespect or negativity, to relieve pain, to express a strong emotion (such a ...

that refers to the

vagina In mammals and other animals, the vagina (: vaginas or vaginae) is the elastic, muscular sex organ, reproductive organ of the female genital tract. In humans, it extends from the vulval vestibule to the cervix (neck of the uterus). The #Vag ...

similar to the English word

cunt "Cunt" () is a vulgar word for the vulva in its primary sense, and it is used in a variety of ways, including as a term of disparagement. "Cunt" is often used as a disparaging and obscene term for a woman in the United States, an unpleas ...

. It is often represented as a symbol of a

spear A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with Fire hardening, fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable materia ...

head, a

rhombus In plane Euclidean geometry, a rhombus (: rhombi or rhombuses) is a quadrilateral whose four sides all have the same length. Another name is equilateral quadrilateral, since equilateral means that all of its sides are equal in length. The rhom ...

standing on one of its sharper points with a vertical line in the middle, representing a

vulva In mammals, the vulva (: vulvas or vulvae) comprises mostly external, visible structures of the female sex organ, genitalia leading into the interior of the female reproductive tract. For humans, it includes the mons pubis, labia majora, lab ...

. The meaning is clear for

Czechs The Czechs (, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavs, West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common Bohemia ...

Slovaks The Slovaks ( (historical Sloveni ), singular: ''Slovák'' (historical: ''Sloven'' ), feminine: ''Slovenka'' , plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history ...

and

Hungarians Hungarians, also known as Magyars, are an Ethnicity, ethnic group native to Hungary (), who share a common Culture of Hungary, culture, Hungarian language, language and History of Hungary, history. They also have a notable presence in former pa ...

. In some other languages it has other spellings (e.g. in the non-Slavic

Hungarian language Hungarian, or Magyar (, ), is an Ugric language of the Uralic language family spoken in Hungary and parts of several neighboring countries. It is the official language of Hungary and one of the 24 official languages of the European Union. Out ...

it is written as "picsa"), but has similar pronunciation and carries the same meaning and profanity. Drawing this symbol is considered a

taboo A taboo is a social group's ban, prohibition or avoidance of something (usually an utterance or behavior) based on the group's sense that it is excessively repulsive, offensive, sacred or allowed only for certain people.''Encyclopædia Britannica ...

, or at least unaccepted by mainstream society. The word píča is of a

feminine gender In linguistics, a grammatical gender system is a specific form of a noun class system, where nouns are assigned to gender categories that are often not related to the real-world qualities of the entities denoted by those nouns. In languages wit ...

, in order to insult also men Czechs derived its masculine form ''píčus''.

Symbol in culture

This symbol has occurred in a few Czech movies, including Bylo nás pět. In the 1969 drama ''

The Blunder ''The Blunder'' () is a Czech play by Milan Kundera. Productions Činoherní klub, Prague *Directed by Ladislav Smoček. Preview was 9 June 2008, 11 June 2008 and 13 June 2008. The premiere was 19 September 2008 in The Drama Club, Prague ...

'' (Ptákovina),

Milan Kundera Milan Kundera ( ; ; 1 April 1929 – 11 July 2023) was a Czech and French novelist. Kundera went into exile in France in 1975, acquiring citizenship in 1981. His Czechoslovak citizenship was revoked in 1979, but he was granted Czech citizenship ...

describes the havoc, both public and private, that ensues after the headmaster of a school draws the symbol on a blackboard. In

Jára Cimrman Jára Cimrman or Jára da Cimrman (officially Jaroslav Cimrman) (), also known as "the Master", is a fictional Czech polymath, created by Ladislav Smoljak, and Zdeněk Svěrák. The fictional personality is presented as a universal genius, and o ...

's play ''

Akt Protein kinase B (PKB), also known as Akt, is the collective name of a set of three serine/threonine-specific protein kinases that play key roles in multiple cellular processes such as glucose metabolism, apoptosis, cell proliferation, tra ...

'' ("The Nude") one of the characters,

sexologist Sexology is the scientific study of human sexuality, including human sexual interests, behaviors, and functions. The term ''sexology'' does not generally refer to the non-scientific study of sexuality, such as social criticism. Sexologists app ...

Jan Turnovský, is caught drawing rhombi in his notepad.

Jaromír Nohavica Jaromír Nohavica or Jarek Nohavica (born 7 June 1953, in Ostrava) is a Czech recording artist, songwriter, lyricist and poet. Early life He was born in Ostrava and has played guitar since he was 13. He began studies at the Technical Unive ...

confessed, in the 1983-song ''Halelujá'', to "drawing short lines and rhombi on a plaster" (in

: ''tužkou kreslil na omítku čárečky a kosočtverce'').

František Ringo Čech František Ringo Čech (born 9 July 1943) is a Czech musician, politician, and writer. Life and career Early musical career: 1959–1965 František Čech was born in Prague in 1943 to František Čech Pražský, a musician of Viennese origin. F ...

named one of his provoking pictures ''The animals are admiring píča'' (in Czech: ''Zvířátka obdivují píču''). Czech punk band Tři sestry (Three sisters) uses modified symbol with three lines as its logo.

Píča in Ostrava region

Moravian-Silesian Region The Moravian-Silesian Region () is one of the 14 administrative regions of the Czech Republic. Before May 2001, it was called the Ostrava Region (). The region is located in the north-eastern part of its historical region of Moravia and in most ...

, especially in

Ostrava Ostrava (; ; ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 283,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rivers: Oder, Opava (river), Opa ...

, the word is used strictly in its short form pyča, mostly as a filler. The fans of football club

FC Baník Ostrava FC Baník Ostrava is a professional association football, football club from Ostrava in the Czech Republic. The club competes in the Czech First League, the top tier of Czech football. Founded in 1922 as SK Slezská Ostrava, Baník has won the ...

very often chant "Banik pyčo, Banik pyčo, FCB!". Pyča is used in plenty of meanings, there is even a joke ridiculing Ostrava inhabitants; according to this joke the people there have a lack of vocabulary so if a man says "Pyča v pyči, pyčo!", he means "I broke up with my wife, my friend!". To clarify, in the Ostrava region, the word "píča" is not commonly used with the letter "y." Instead, the pronunciation typically replaces the accented "í" with a regular "i." This local variation in pronunciation is specific to Ostrava and differs from the standard pronunciation found in other regions.

Notes

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Pica Culture of the Czech Republic Human gender and sexuality symbols Profanity Culture of Slovakia Yonic symbols

Symbol in culture

Píča in Ostrava region

See also

Notes

External links