Probably the strongest word in the sense of an expletive or a “curse word” that you’ll ever see me cover here is naiba (nye-buh).
If you are looking for even “stronger” words, there are plenty of resources online for that. Also Romanians will be quite happy to teach you those, so if that’s your inclination, I wish you the best.
I am including naiba precisely because I learned it by watching Romanian TV (lo these many moons ago) and it’s used quite frequently in the subtitles. It is a real word used by real people as well, although pretty darn infrequently.
Literally naiba means “the devil”. So the most common cursing epithet (esp as translated on TV) is “la naiba”, which just means “to the devil”.
Imagine, if you will, an elderly Scottish man standing on top of one of his mountains, calmly smoking a pipe and gazing off into the hazy distance. Then he clears his throat and says, “Och, to the devil with ye”. That’s roughly what “la naiba” means.
American movies and television shows are usually left non-dubbed and so any cursing expletive phrases uttered by the actors are usually translated in Romanian as “la naiba” in the subtitles on the bottom of the screen.
Again, this is a kind of cursing or cussing and so not something you’d want to use in front of your grandmother. But as far as insults or shock value, this is fairly weak tea.
The way to yell this in someone’s face is: du-te la naiba!
AND NOW YOU KNOW!
All Things Romania 
I thought it rather came from the phrase “da eba” (fuck it) our Slavic neighbours use? :O
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De obicei nu folosesc “naiba” ci direct pe al’ cu coarne (adica zic “la dracu’!”/ “ce dracu’?”/ “ce draci carliontati?”)
:)
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meet*.
Plus, I haven’t really met any people who use “la naiba!” to express disappointment. It’s usually “pula calului!”, “o, căcat!” or “no-mi bag pula”.
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wow…then you have met the best ones :D
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Actually I didn’t even know “naiba” is an offensive word or that it meant “devil”.
So “ce naiba?” means the same thing (and is as offensive as) ” What is this i don’t even?”
“Ce dracu?” -||- “What the hell?”.
To romanians it’s only cursing if it involves genitalia or if you wish harm on someone.
So saying “ce dracu?” is socially acceptable even when you meat your significant other’s parents for the first time.
“Du-te dracu” isn’t.
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In my parts, Dobrogea, “du-te dracu'” is a lot more powerful than “du-te naiba”. “Naiba” is quite mild.
Also, what you can say in front of your grandma depends a lot. Mild expletives are okay as long as it doesn’t involve vulgar genital references or sexual acts. She can say them, I can’t :)
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What the devil? :D
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You can say “ce naiba?” in front of your grandma.
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