What is this soft-shell turtle doing here?

[Lu]

Asking for help with my homework, for a course in Chinese to Dutch literary translation I'm taking (this is lesson one and it's already harder than I had expected).

 

Guy named 大甲 has his name embroidered into his clothes, but the embroidery is so artsy that the characters look like 公用. Fitting, since he is forever borrowing other people's things, and other people just borrow his 公用 things in return. He can't object when he is wearing someone else's shirt as well. But: 他只是讨厌别人叫他“ 公用哥”或 “公用佬”或“ 公用鳖”，似乎 “公用”只能与公共厕所一类相联系，充其量只能派给虾兵蟹将一类角色。

 

I don't understand what on earth 公用鳖 is. 'Common-use soft-shell turtle'?? But why?? I've never heard of people calling other people 鳖, as nickname, 骂 name or otherwise. Does anyone have any idea?

 

The homework has to be handed in tomorrow, if I don't find an answer I'll just translate it out.

[大块头]

《汉语大词典 》says 鳖 can mean "lousy" or "inferior". 《现代汉语规范词典》says the colloquial name for this turtle is “王八”, which has many negative connotations.

[Tomsima]

I was pretty sure I had heard this being used as a swear word in Hubei. My way of testing? I just shouted out to my wife 你这个鳖 and she immediately responded 你才是鳖乌龟王八蛋 shortly followed by 瘪三 (which apparently can also be said as 鳖三 in the local dialect. Hopefully that answers your question! 

[大块头]

I appreciate Tomsima sacrificing his domestic tranquility to answer this question.

[TheBigZaboon]

Many more years ago than I would ever admit, a bunch of workmates and I were sharing insults and swear words in the native languages of our parents and grandparents. Some of the words, especially those from Italian and Sicilian, had already passed into American English in a bastardized way. A couple of Chinese guys offered the phrase "滚， 滚..." or the equivalent of “Roll away, roll away...”.  The explanation they gave was that the actual insult was to call someone a turtle egg, because turtles laid their eggs in the sand, and then abandoned them. Calling someone a turtle egg, or the near equivalent, telling them to "roll away," implied that that person did not know his or her ancestors, and was therefore a bastard.

 

Also, I'd like to second the praise of @Tomsima and his courage. I wouldn't dare do that under any circumstances. My wife's hobby is kickboxing...

 

TBZ

[Lu]

Thanks everyone, I can make something of that! Special thanks to Tomsima for field-testing his theory, and special thanks to Tomsima's wife for putting up with it.