About

Translate "Sharp Knife" Into Latvian refers to a series of memes, including don't Google memes, asking viewers not to translate the phrase "sharp knife" from English to Latvian, resulting in the translation, "ass nazis." Posts about the translation can be found online as early as 2013, with memes about the translation becoming increasingly popular around 2020.

Origin

On October 31st, 2013, Redditor u/LaPlaya^[1] made a post to /r/todayilearned^[1] sharing the wiktionary page for the Latvian word "ass," which means "sharp," writing, "TIL that 'ass nazis' in Latvian means 'sharp knife,' garnering around 50 upvotes in 10 years. This is the earliest known post to share the translation.

The knowledge gained some spread throughout the late 2010s, including through a post by X^[2] user @Dace_Shh on October 18th, 2018 and a comment by Redditor u/LatvianLio nto /r/askreddit^[3] on August 17th, 2019, garnering roughly 240 upvotes in four years. On November 18th, 2020, u/Ripuru-kun posted the translation to /r/memes,^[4] garnering over 54,000 upvotes and marking the first iteration of the translation to gain notable virality (shown below).

Spread

The meme spread over the following years, often through "don't Google" formats such as the Don't Do X. For example, on November 16th, 2021, a Redditor posted a meme using the "Don't Do X" format to relay the translation to /r/memes,^[5] garnering around 30 upvotes in two years (shown below). On January 5th, 2023, u/r-ShadowNinja posted a version of the meme to /r/okbuddyretard,^[6] garnering over 600 upvotes in 11 months.

On December 12th, X^[7] user @LocalBateman posted a Peter I Told You version of the meme, garnering over 7,000 likes and 300 reposts in under 24 hours (shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References