Spanish profanity
Encyclopedia
This article is a summary of Spanish profanity
, referred to in the Spanish language
as lenguaje soez (low language), maldiciones (curse words), malas palabras (bad words), insultos (insults), vulgaridades (vulgarities), juramentos (oaths, or swearing), palabrotas (lit.: "big words"), tacos (in Spain
), palabras sucias (dirty words in Panama
), lisuras (in Peru
), puteadas (in Peru, Chile
, Argentina
and Uruguay
), desvergue in El Salvador
, majaderías or maldiciones in Mexico
, garabatos (gibberish or shootings/firings in Chile), plebedades (pleb talk) in the Colombian Caribbean or groserías (impolite words or acts). Spanish profanity varies in Spanish-speaking nations, and even in regions of the same nation. Several of these words have linguistic and historical significance.
Idiom
atic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other languages, and so most of the English translations offered in this article are very rough and most likely do not reflect the full meaning of the expression they intend to translate.
," used in farms for cattle
and other animals to lie on): the expression hacerse la paja is used in Spain
, South America, Puerto Rico
, Cuba
, the Dominican Republic
, Colombia
and Panama, meaning "to masturbate."; in Chile, Peru and Ecuador, correrse la paja is used instead. In most parts of Central America
and the Spanish Caribbean
(and Chile as well) to masturbate is to pajearse. Pajero, or pajillero ("one who does paja") in Spain, is a masturbator (wanker
) and also can imply a weakling or a fool, due to a cultural association of masturbation with mental weakness.
In certain regions, such as Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pajero (fem. pajera) can refer to someone who is lazy. In Guatemala
and Honduras
it means "liar." For example: Vos sos
bien pajero,"You're such a liar." In Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras and El Salvador, hablar paja can mean either "to talk nonsense" (Tú solo hablas (pura) paja, "You're just talking nonsense") or "small talk
" (Estuve hablando paja con un amigo, "I was making small talk with a friend"). Calling someone pajoso or pajosa means he or she either lies a lot or speaks nonsense. Someone who is ignorant may be called a pajudo/a or pajúo/a' (lit.: "full of paja").
Japan
ese automaker Mitsubishi Motors
introduced a sport utility
model called the Pajero
. The name was derived from a South American wildcat, but became a running joke. In the Americas and in Spain, the vehicle was rebadged as the Montero. (It has since been replaced in North America by the Mitsubishi Endeavor
.)
In Peru, paja can also mean cool: Qué paja tu carro ("Your car is cool/nice.")
By itself, it is used as a vulgar expression of any strong emotional reaction. For example, one may say ¡Puñeta! when noticing at a beautiful woman, or when hitting oneself on the head. Una puñeta means a "yank," in reference to male masturbation. It does not refer to female masturbation, which is dar dedo ("to give the finger)" or apuñalar(se) ("to stab with a puñal, i.e.: a knife
"). Hacerse una puñeta means to pleasure oneself. Puñetero ("wanker") is also very commonly used.
To refer to masturbation, the word is used generally in the singular. When used in the plural, it carries a completely different meaning. For example: Vete a hacer puñetas could be translated as "Go to hell". It refers to the adornments that lawyers and judges wear in the wrist (puño) of shirts. These adornments require many hours of labor, so making such adornments (hacer puñetas) is supposed to be unpleasant and tedious.
¡Ay, puñeta! is a favorite expression of pornstar Carmen Luvana
, who commonly uses it to show excitement during sex scenes. She often uses it when she reaches (presumed) orgasm. Luvana was raised in Puerto Rico, where the expression is relatively common.
A common expression in Spain is anything to the effect of … hace lo que le sale de los cojones ("… does whatever comes out of his/her balls"), meaning "… does whatever the fuck he/she wants." Variations are sale de los huevos, sale de las pelotas, etc. A common Basque
catchphrase is los de Bilbao nacemos donde nos sale de los cojones ("we Bilbao
natives are born wherever the fuck we want").
Sometimes, to denote obnoxious or overbearing behavior from someone else, idiom tocar los cojones/huevos/pelotas/ … ("to touch someone else's balls") comes to play. For instance: Venga, dame eso y para ya de tocarme los cojones ("Come on, give me that and stop bothering me.") It can sometimes be an understatement: a principios de los treinta, los nazis ya empezaban a tocar los cojones.
It is also frequent to derive other words, such as adjectival form cojonudo (lit.: "ballsy"), indicating admiration. A famous Navarran brand of asparagus
has this name.
It is sometimes used, at least in Spain, as a suffix, complement or termination to a word or name in order to confer it a derisive or overbearing quality. For instances: el Marcos de los cojones ("That fucking guy Marcos"), ¡Dame ya la maleta de los cojones! ("Give me the fucking suitcase already!")
The phrases … me importa un cojón or … me importa un huevo mean "I don't give a fuck about …." In alternative variations one would raise the number, usually to three: … me importa tres cojones.
Cojones alone can also be used much like the four-word exclamations, though less usually; it is frequently a giveaway for native Catalan speakers when they speak Spanish, as collons is used much more profusely in situations akin to those for "fuck," "shit," etc.
Tocarse los cojones/los huevos/las pelotas (lit. "to touch one's own balls") stands for idleness or laziness. The fact that this is a not well-known expression in the United States may have been the excuse, according to some sources, for the April 2011 dismissal of a Princeton
Spanish senior lecturer, with tragic consequences
. In Chile, this term is unused; the preferred expression is rascarse las huevas (lit. "to scratch one's own balls").
," or, metaphorically, or a small cup of coffee) is used in Spain in reference to the penis. In Latin America (except Chile), it is a commonly used generic interjection similar to "fuck!" "shit!" or "damn it!" in English. For example: Nos vamos a morir, ¡carajo! ("We're gonna die, fuck!") or a far away place, likened to hell
: ¡Vete al carajo!.
There is a historical incident during the Venezuelan War of Independence, the Battle of Las Queseras del Medio
, where the phase "¡Vuelvan, carajo!" ("Go back -to battle-, dammit!") was most famously used by the Venezuelan general (and later president) José Antonio Páez
.
The diminutive carajito is used in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela to refer to (usually annoying) children, or to scold someone for acting immaturely, e.g. No actúes como un carajito ("Don't act like a brat!").
Caray is a mild minced oath for this word. Ay caray could be translated "Dang it" or "Darn it!" The word caracho is also considered mild like caray.
The connotation of "far away place" is supposedly based on the name of the Cargados Carajos
, which belong to Mauritius
. Nationalistic chants commonly use the phrase: ¡Viva Cuba, carajo!, ¡Viva el Ecuador, carajo!, and ¡Viva el Perú, carajo!
It is said that the term carajo originated during the Moorish invasion in Spain. The Moors were described as —or "garlic
-face"/"garlic-shaped face"—which was later contracted to carajo.
In Venezuela, it can be used as an interjection.
In El Salvador, it is commonly used as the slang equivalent of "kids".
In Nicaragua, and some parts of Costa Rica, bicho is used to reference the vagina.
In Spain, it refers to people (both male and female) who are a negative influence on others, often used as mal bicho ("bad bug"). When applied to children, it can mean one who is misbehaving.
s"), pelotas (literally: "balls"), bolas (literally: "balls") and albóndigas (literally: meatball
s) all refer to testicle
s in a profane manner. They are equivalent to cojones in many situations. In Mexico, the word is not used in a potentially ambiguous situation; instead, one may use the inoffensive blanquillos (literally: "little white ones").
Sometimes the words lavahuevos ("egg-washer") or lamehuevos ("egg-sucker") are used in the same context as "brown-noser" (meaning ambitious and self-effacing) in English.
Highly offensive Dominican insults involving this term are mamagüevo/mamagüevos ("egg-sucker") and mamagüevazo ("huge egg-sucker"). Mamagüevo is also used in Venezuela where it's considered less offensive.
Huevada/Huevá (lit.: "covered in egg") is used in Chile in reference to objects ("¡Qué huevá más grande!" may translate to "What an annoyance!"). Shortened forms huevá or even weá are usuallly intended to be less offensive. Many expressions using cojones in other countries are used in Chile with huevas replacing the former word. There's also a local expression: "¿Me hai visto las weas?" (lit. "Have you taken a look at my testicles?") means "How much of a fool do you think I am?".
Ñema (a corruption of yema, meaning "yolk") refers to the glans
. The word mamañema is functionally similar to mamagüevo.
"—a part of a ship's mast
that holds the sails) occurs in a number of Romance languages
, including Spanish and Italian.
In Venezuela it can be used as a vulgar generic filler, as well as a boastful self-reference (similar to the English "That shit" or "I'm the shit"). For example, ¡Soy bien verga! (lit.: "I'm very dick!") means "I'm very good at it!", and ¡Soy la verga andando! (lit.: "I'm the walking dick!") means "I'm the best that there is!"
In Mexico it refers only to the penis; "Te voy a meter la verga" means "I'm going to insert my penis in you"; referring to somebody else, "Le metió la verga" o "se la metió" means "he fucked her" or "he fucked him" which may be the literal meaning, or more likely, it means that in a business, he got away with what he wanted for little money.
A common expression in Mexico is ¡Vete a la verga!, meaning "Get the fuck out of here!" In Mexico can be used as difficult or impossible: ¡Está de la verga!, "This is very difficult!"
In Guatemala
, it also refers to a state of drunkenness as in ¡Está bien a verga!, meaning "He's drunk as Hell!" or "He's shit-faced!" It can also be used with an ironically positive connotation as in ¡Se ve bien vergón!, which means "It looks great!"
In Honduras the expression no vale la verga is used as a vulgar form of no vale la pena, meaning "It's not worth it."
or hen) is used in Spain, Nicaragua, El Salvador and in Puerto Rico (to a lesser extent). It is also used to mean a (young) female (similar to "chick"). Some years ago, in Costa Rica, the term jupa de pollo ("head of a chicken") was popular slang for "penis". The term todo el jupa de pollo was a popular way to say "the whole shebang" or "it's complete now".
In Spain, to say that something, especially a situation or an arrangement, is la polla is to have a high opinion of it. Esto es la polla. El hotel está al lado de la playa y además es muy barato means "This is fucking great. The hotel is close to the beach and it's cheap, too."
Polla in Spain also means penis.
In Mexico, huevón is a pejorative term that usually translates as "slacker
."
In Panama and El Salvador it can be loosely translated as "couch potato." One may also say tengo hueva, meaning "I'm feeling lazy."
In the Dominican Republic, Peru and Venezuela, güevón/güebón is the preferred form.
In Venezuela, it is pronounced more like güevón and, often, ueón.
In Chile, the preferred form to use is huevón (often shortened to hueón or weón) and ahuevonado.
In Panama, awebao is the popular form, and a good example of the clipping of consonants (and sometimes vowels) in informal Spanish.
Youth in Argentina tend to use it as a culturally appropriated term of endearment.
In Chile and in the Quito region of Ecuador Ni cagando huevón ("Nor[will I be] shitting out a giant egg") is a phrase commonly used among youth meaning "Don't even think about it" or "Absolutely not."
In Argentina, boludo, refers to a man who is brave, but not too clever and apt to make too many mistakes.
Chile
is famous for its absurd amount of alternate names and euphemism
s for the penis. These range from the inoffensive (pito (lit. "whistle
"), diuca (after a small bird
)), through vulgar (pichula, pico) and euphemistic (cabeza de bombero (lit. "firefighter
's head"), dedo sin uña ("nail-less finger")) to markedly euphemistic and humorous ("taladro de carne" (lit. "meat drill
", "cíclope llorón" (lit. "crying cyclops
"), "chacal de las zorras" (lit. "cunt
jackal
", in the sense of the jackal being a relentless predator), et cetera).
) in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico. In the rest of Latin America and Spain however, the word is only used with its literal meaning. In such regions, it is commonly heard in the phrase ¡(La) concha (de) tu madre! ("Go fuck your mother"), which may be used as an expression of surprise or grief, or as a highly disrespectful insult. The contracted term conchatumaddre/conchetumadre is very common and very offensive in Chile, as well as in Ecuador.
In Mexico concha, which is used for in its literal meaning, is also a type of sweet bread, round conch-shaped and covered in sugar, as well as having the aforementioned meaning and is offensive when used in said context. In Spain and Mexico, "Concha" is a common name for females (corruption of Concepción). Also in Puerto Rico there is a popular hotel called La Concha Resort
(The Seashell). Key West, Florida also has a famous hotel named La Concha
.
Chucha/¡Chuchamadre! and ¡Chucha de tu madre! (respectively) are Panamanian, Chilean, Ecuadorian, Peruvian or southern Colombian equivalents. Random examples and expressions: Vení, oleme la chucha ("Come and sniff my pussy"), Ella solo tenia puesto un par de tacones y lencería transparente, hasta se le podía ver la chucha a través de la tela, me dejó hechizado." ("She only had on a pair of heels and transparent lingerie, one could even see her pussy through the fabric, she left me spellbound"), ¡Ándate a la chucha! (roughly "Fuck off").
Chocha (or chocho) employed term for "pussy" predominantly in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, and Dominican Republic. The word is a homonym
as it's also synonymous of "senile" when used as "He/she is chocho/chocha".
In Venezuela, chocha is also a type of round seed or a particular type of bird
The name of the Latin American restaurant Chimi-Changa originated as a minced oath of chocha.
or vagina. It is frequently translated as "cunt
" but is considered less offensive (it is much more common to hear the word coño on Spanish television than the word cunt on British television, for example).
In Puerto Rico, Spain, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic it is amongst the most popular of curse words. The word is frequently used as an interjection, expressing surprise, anger or frustration. It is also common to use the expression ¿Pero qué coño? to mean "What the fuck?"
Its usage was so common among Spaniards living in the Philippines that konyo became a Tagalog
word for upper-class people.
In Ecuador and Chile it means stingy, tight-fisted, although in the latter country the variation coñete is becoming more common.
In Colombia it also means "diaper
."
). In New Mexico
it means a sprouted-wheat pudding
. In the southwestern United States (and northern Mexico and some places in Cuba), however, it often refers to the female genitalia. Use of this word has been known to cause embarrassment among Mexicans from Mexico and their American-born relatives.
The word is a combination of penuche and panoja meaning "ear of corn", from the Latin panicula (from whence comes the English word "panicle"—pyramidal, loosely branched flower cluster).
In the Dominican Republic it is a common term for a parrot.
In Chile it is criminal slang for paddy wagon.
It is also an inoffensive word for penis that many children use in Spain. It also has a slightly archaic use in Spain.
In Latin America it may describe a congenial, outgoing person with a gift for flattery ("Julia is very cuca") or ("Eddie is so cuco; look at all the friends he has.").
In Nicaragua, it is used as slang for "penis."
Differences in regional Spanish can sometimes produce awkward situations in communication between two Spanish speakers of different countries, but such differences are usually known internationally and taken humorously, although some can cause awkward confusions. The word culantro refers to cilantro, but in Puerto Rico
it can be used as a play on "culo." Also, the phrase Esa señora tiene muy buena cuchara translates literally as "That lady has a very good spoon" and means "that lady cooks very well", referring to the use of a cuchara/spoon while cooking. However, in Guatemala, the word cuchara is used as a synonym of "vagina", which can lead to misunderstanding.
Vete a tomar por culo ("Go and take it in the ass") is an expression used in Spain, it's like Vete a la mierda but more offensive.
In Chile
, culo is considered offensive (as it sounds very much like culear); poto is used instead.
. It carries about the same weight as the American usages of the words "(someone's) asshole" or "the crack of (someone's) ass." Fundío refers literally to the anus
and is not used as a personal insult. For example, ¡Métetelo en fundío! (or in Mexico, Métetelo por el fundillo) is an expression of reproach. ("Shove it up your ass!") The variant fondillo is also found in Puerto Rico and Cuba. In the Dominican Republic, the milder term fullín and the very offensive cieso may also be used.
in Mexico among schoolchildren is OGT; when the letters are pronounced in Spanish, they sound like ojete.
In Argentina, "ojete" and also its synonyms culoand orto can all be used to mean "good luck": "¡Qué ojete tiene ese tipo!" (He's such a lucky guy!), "Ganó de puro ojete!" (He won just because he was so terribly lucky).
[bad] milk!"). "Me cago en el coño de tu madre"(Lit: I shit on your mother's cunt) is the strongest offense among Cubans. In Cuba, to soften the word in social gatherings, the "g" is substituted by the "s". See below.
In Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Cuba, and Chile it also means to make a big mistake, e.g.: La cagaste (lit.: "you shat on it"). In Argentina and Chile, it can also mean "you screwed" or "scolded" somebody (e.g.: Te cagaste a ese cabrón, "You took a shit on that guy").
In Mexico City it may be used ironically to refer to a fortunate outcome: Te cagaste ("You really shat on yourself").
In Chile and Cuba, cagado ("full of shit") means "stingy" or "miserly". It can also mean "depressed" in some contexts ("Está cagado porque la polola lo pateó." translates as "He's depressed because his girlfriend dumped him.").
In Puerto Rico and Cuba, comemierda (shit-eater) refers to a clueless idiot, someone absurdly pretentious, or someone out of touch with his or her surroundings. Ex. "que comemierderia" (what an stupidity), "comerán mierda?" (are they foolish or what?) or "vamos a prestar atención y dejar de comer mierda" (Let's pay attention and stop goofing off). It's also used in both countries to describe someone who is "stuffy" and unnecessarily formal.
In Peru, irse a la mierda or estar hecho mierda can also mean "to be drunk as Hell." However, in Mexico, Cuba and Chile estar hecho mierda means to be very exhausted.
It is also used generally to describe anything that is vexing or unpleasant, such as tiempo de mierda ("shitty weather") or auto de mierda ("piece-of-shit car"). A less common use is as a translation of the British profanity "bugger
". The euphemism
s miércoles (Wednesday) and eme (the letter m
) are sometimes used as minced oath
s.
Caca is a mild word used mostly by children, loosely comparable to the English "poop" or "doo-doo." Comecaca is functionally similar to comemierdas.
'Mojon' A term originally meaning a little marker of the name of the street or a particular place in a road, came into general use later as a synonim of shit and used freely as a substitute. In Cuba, the term "comemojones" is frequently used instead of "comemierda"; "Es un mojón." ("He's a piece of shit.") is also commonly used in said country.
In Spain, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Cuba the word has a stronger meaning with a very negative emphasis; akin to "faggot" or "poof" in the English language. In Argentina, Chile, and Mexico maricón or marica is especially used to denote a "chicken" (coward). In Chile, maricón also means "irrationally sadistic." Gay groups in several countries have adopted the term in an affirmative fashion.
Some examples of the uses of this word are:
One important exception is Colombia, where marica is used as a slang term of affection among male friends or as a general exclamation ("¡Ay, marica!" being equivalent to "Aw, man!" or "Dude!" in English). This often causes confusion or unintended offense among Spanish-speaking first-time visitors to Colombia. Maricón, however, remains an insulting and profane term for homosexuals in Colombia as well. A similar case is seen in Venezuela, where the word Marico is an insult; However, the word is widely used among Venezuelans as "dude" or "man." For example, "que paso marico" would mean "what's up dude"; the word carries at least a third meaning in Venezuela because it often is used to show that someone is being very funny. For instance, after hearing a joke or funny comment from your friend, you laugh and say "haha si eres marico haha" which would be equivalent to "haha you crack me up man."
Derivatives of marica/maricón:
) are used in Mexico and in the US to refer, usually pejoratively, to a homosexual female or lesbian
. It is used in very much the same way as the English word "dyke." For example: Oye, güey, no toques a esa chica; todos ya saben que es monflora. ("Hey, dude, don't hit on that girl; everyone knows she's a dyke.").
It can be used as an ironic term of endearment between friends, especially within the gay and lesbian communities.
With Spanish being a grammatically gendered
language, one's sexuality can be challenged with a gender-inapproriate adjective, much as in English one might refer to a flamboyant man or as a transgendered male as her. Some words referring to a male homosexual end in an "a" but have the masculine article "el"—a deliberate grammatical violation for a paradoxical effect. For example, although maricona refers to females, it may also be used as an compounded offensive remark towards a homosexual male, and vice-versa.
In Mexico, Central and Northern South America, pendejo refers to a stupid person (estúpido), synonymous with idiota ("idiot") or imbécil ("imbecile"), although much more offensive. It is considered very offensive in Mexico and Central America, and less so in Panama (although it is still considered impolite among older adults).
In Peru it means a person who is opportunistic in an immoral or deceptively persuasive manner (usually involving sexual gain and promiscuity, but not limited to it), and if used referring to a female (ella es pendeja) it means she is promiscuous (or perhaps a swindler). There the word pendejada and a whole family of related words have meanings that stem from these.
In South America
pendejo is also a vulgar, yet inoffensive word, for children. It also signifies a person with a disorderly or irregular life.
In Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, it has different meanings depending on the situation. It can range from ¡Te cogieron de pendejo! ("You were swindled!") to ¡Qué tipa pendeja! ("What a dumbass!" as when a strange woman behaves offensively, then suddenly leaves). In Mexico and some countries of Central America—especially El Salvador—una pendejada/pendeja is used to describe something incredibly stupid that someone has done.
In many regions, especially in Cuba, pendejo also means coward (with a stronger connotation), as in ¡No huyas, pendejo! "Don't run away, chicken-shit!" or "No seas pendejo!" ("Don't be such a coward!").
In South America it refers to a person regarded with an obnoxiously determined advancement of one's own personality, wishes, or views (a "smartass").
In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pendejo or pendeja refers to a child, usually with a negative connotation, like that of immaturity or a "brat". Also, in Argentina, as "pendejo" literally means "pubic hair" it usually refers to someone of little to no social value.
In Peru, however, it does not necessarily have a negative connotation, and can just refer to someone who is clever and street-smart.
In North Sulawesi
, Indonesia
, pendo (a derivative of pendejo) is used as profanity but with the majority of the population not knowing its meaning. The word was adopted during the colonial era when Spanish and Portuguese merchants sailed to this northern tip of Indonesia for spices.
In Spain, this word is hardly ever used.
In the film Idiocracy
, Joe's lunk-headed lawyer is named Frito Pendejo.
In Spain Spanish (original Spanish), the meaning is an adult male goat. Cabra is an adult female goat.
The Mexican Spanish version is very offensive as it means "fucker" and other insults in English. The seven-note musical flourish known as a shave and a haircut
(two bits), commonly played on car horns
, is associated with the seven-syllable phrase ¡Chinga tu madre, cabrón! (Fuck your mother, asshole!). Playing the jingle on a car horn can result in a hefty fine for traffic violation if done in the presence of police, or road rage
if aimed at another driver or a pedestrian.
The expression ¡Ah cabrón! is used sometimes when one is shocked/surprised by something. Among close friends, the term is often inoffensive; however, it is not a word to be used casually with strangers.
As an adjective it is equivalent to "tough" as "It is tough" (Está cabrón).
To some extent, it can also be used with an ironically positive connotation meaning great, amazing, phenomenal, or bad-ass. Such expressions would be said as: ¡Estás cabrón! or ¡Yo soy cabrón!. The word is quite flexibly used in Puerto Rico, and it can even have completely opposite meanings depending on the context. Best friends call each other "cabrón" in a friendly manner, while it may also be used in an offensive manner. One might say, "Esta cabrón" to describe something as very good or very bad depending on the circumstance.
In Panama, it is used as an adjective to mean something/someone very annoying (that pisses you off). The verb cabrear can mean "to piss off (someone)."
In Peru, cabro is a reference to a homosexual, hence cabrón is a superlative form ("big faggot"/"flaming faggot").
The term cabrón also means a handler of prostitutes, comparable to "pimp
" in English. The most common way to refer to a pimp is Spanish is by using the term chulo as a noun. In some countries chulo can be used as an adjective somewhat equivalent to "cool" (Ese hombre es un chulo = "That man is a pimp" versus Ese libro es chulo = "That book is cool"). The word chula is a completely benign reference to an adorable female or feminine object
, as in "¡Ay, que chula!"
", "jackass
", "douchebag" or "asshole
" (in English), con (in French
), and boludo or pendejo (in Latin American Spanish, see below), there sometimes is a subtlety missing therein which is seldom captured in languages other than European Spanish – to wit, the word may imply self-aware idiocy or incompetence, with this self-awareness occasionally stressed to the point of (presumably futile) complacence. Nevertheless, this is not always the case and the common ground for every accepted meaning of the word is limited to either one of the following:
When selecting a word denoting low intelligence, most Spanish speakers have three options:
The etymology of the word itself immediately confirms its genuinely Peninsular Spanish origins and preponderance, as opposed to other profanities perhaps more linked to Latin America: it is the combination of the Caló
jili, usually translated as "candid", "silly" or "idiot", and a word which according to different sources is either polla (listed above) or a colloquial evolution thereto of the Latin pulla (bladder
).
Gilipollas is also a very old sport of the 17th and 18th centuries, invented by the Greeks in Spain. The word "gilipollas" comes from (gilus-pola). It is played with two balls with a radius of 4 inches and with a bat of two inches wide and 9 long. At stake may only be two teams, usually of boys against girls, each with between 6 and 9 players.
Perhaps due to the alternative origins of the latter part of the word, there has been some controversy concerning its status as a real profanity, although its clear phonetic evocation of the word polla leaves little room for doubt, at least in its common daily use. It is due to this that attempts at an euphemism
have at times become popular, as is the case with gilipuertas (puerta standing for door
). Recently, similar phrases have appeared, especially in Spain, although most of them (such as soplapollas, "cock-blower") delve much further into plain profanity. A cognate in Catalan
is gilipolles.
A usual derivation of the word gilipollas into an adjective
form (or a false adjectival participle
) is agilipollado/agilipollada. For example: … está agilipollado/a would mean "… is behaving like a gilipollas." Regardless of whether or not such condition or irreversible, the verb estar is always used, as opposed to ser. Gilipollat/da' would be the Catalan cognate. Another Spanish construction with similar rationale is atontado, derived from tonto ("silly").
A noun from of the word is gilipollez, meaning "stupidity" or "nonsense."
" or "flower
bud") is nearly always interchangeable with that of gilipollas. The main difference between the two of them is that while a gilipollas normally behaves like he does out of sheer stupidity, a capullo normally acts like one by applying certain amount of evil intentions to his acts. While one can act like a gilipollas without being one, in the capullo instance that is not possible. In English to be means at the same time both the permanent/ fundamental characteristics and the non permanent/ circumstantial ones of anything, in Spanish to be separates into two distinct verbs: ser and estar which respectively reflect the aforementioned characteristics. So, to say about anyone that es un gilipollas means that he is stupid/ annoying permanently, while to say está agilipollado reflects both his present state and the fact that it could change at any time to a non agilipollado one. This is not true for a capullo: if someone thinks about someone else that he is a capullo, he thinks so permanently, because the degree of evil he sees in the capullo's actions tends to be thought of as a permanent characteristic, inherent to the capullos personality. So the correspondent verb ser would be used: es un capullo, and the estar verb would never be used.
Whenever used as an affectionate or heavily informal form of teasing rather than as an insult, though, capullo is used a bit more often. This may be because someone who does not have an intention to offend will resort to a lower amount of syllables, hence rendering the expression less coarse and ill-sounding. Therefore, expressions such as venga va, no seas ___ ("come on, don't be silly") would use capullo more frequently than gilipollas.
It can be used as a less offensive substitute for cabrón when used among close friends. Mexican teenagers and young Chicano
men use this word routinely in referring to one another, similar to "dude" in English. "Vato" is the older Mexican word for this.
) is used in Mexico and the southwestern United States, usually pejoratively, in reference to an over-sexed male. Arguably more offensive than maricón, joto usually refers to a man who is indifferent to pertinent matters, or who is a "loser", with perhaps a hinted accusation of closeted
homosexuality. For example, a gay
man in Mexico might derisively refer to himself as a maricón, but probably not as a joto. Recently the use of joto in Mexico have changed, and is being embraced by the gay community
, mainly as an adjective: Es una película muy jota ("It's a very gay movie"). Not to be confused with the word jota, which refers to a traditional Spanish, Mexican or Argentine parlor dance.
). Chinga tu madre is considered the extremely offensive.
Madre could be used to reference objects, like ¡Que poca madre! ("That's terrible!") and Esta madre no funciona ("This shit doesn't work"). It can also be used with an ironically positve connotation, as in ¡Está de poca/puta madre! ("It's fucking awesome!").
Madrazo, in Colombia, refers to insults in general, and "echar madrazos" means "to insult/curse somebody out."
In Spain, it mainly means a restaurant chef assistant or a kitchen helper who helps cook the food and clean the utensils. Another meaning is used as an insult, as in pinche güey ("loser"), or to describe an object of poor quality, está muy pinche ("It really sucks").
In Mexico, it is very offensive and is often equivalent to the English terms "damn", "freakin'" or "fuckin'", as in estos pinches aguacates están podridos… ("These damn avocados are rotten…"); Pinche Mario ya no ha venido… ("Freakin' Mario hasn't come yet"); or ¿¡Quieres callarte la pinche boca!? ("Would you like to shut your fuckin' mouth?"). Sometimes pinchudo(a) is said instead.
In Puerto Rico pinche simply refers to a hairpin, while pincho has the same meaning in Dominican Spanish.
The word is used in quite a few common expressions. hijo de puta is the Spanish equivalent of "son of a bitch" in English. The use of puta as "bitch" has led to its use as slang for the word "bitch" in the US by Spanish-speaking immigrants.
In Honduras
, and El Salvador, the word puta is a very common part of everyday speech, and it is not such a strong word as it is in the rest of Central America.
It is also widely used in the Philippines as a curse word. The phrase Putang ina mo would translate to "Your mother is a whore" or "Your mother the whore."
Hayao Miyazaki
's Japanese film 天空の城ラピュタ (Laputa: Castle in the Sky) was marketed outside Japan with the title "Castle in the Sky" because la puta means "the whore" in Spanish; this expression is used for denoting surprise or just insulting someone. Film's title was a reference to Jonathan Swift
's book Gulliver's Travels
, in which Laputa
is the name of a flying island. In the Spanish-language version of the movie, the flying island was referred as Lapuntu as a euphemism
. There was also a Japanese car with the same name: the Mazda Laputa
.
The expression hijo de puta is often transformed to hijo de la gran puta (literally: "son of the great bitch"), hijo de la grandísima puta (literally: "son of the really great bitch"), maldito hijo de puta ("cursed son of a bitch") or simply hijo de la gran … (literally: "son of the great …") to add emphasize to another insult. Another possible derivation is hijo de mil putas (literally: "son of a thousand bitches").
Also, when referring to a specific person rather than arbitrarily blurting hijo de puta, one may proclaim hijo de su puta madre in order to specify a certain person with whom the speaker is displeased.
In Spain, puta (as well as its masculine form puto) is very frequently used as an adjective. It is then sometimes little more than an expletive devoid of meaning: vamos a la puta calle, lit.: "we are going to the whore street." To be somebody or something de puta madre (lit.: "from a whore mother") means to be excellent, to be the best possible: Lo pasamos de puta madre "We had a bloody brilliant time." It can be also ironic: De puta madre, ¿ahora qué hacemos? "Bloody brilliant. What are we supposed to do now?"
Oddly, in Dominican Republic, the phrase Tu maldita madre! ("Your damned mother") is used instead.
(similar to the use of "bitch" between English-speaking women or incarcerated homosexuals). In many places, such as Mexico, it is a pejorative reference to a gay man (this usage is present in Don Quixote). In others, like Cuba and Puerto Rico for example, puto is simply a comment on a man who is promiscuous and a womanizer (depending on context or tone, it can be extremely offensive or teasing). In Puerto Rico puto or palgo may refer to a womanizer.
An expression used in Spain is ¡Me cago en la puta Virgen! (literally "I shit on the virgin whore!" but better translated as "I shit on the fucking Virgin!").
Puta madre (lit.: "whore or fucking mother")—used in phrases such as de puta madre in Spain, Mexico, Peru and Chile. It can also be used as an ironic expression of praise. For example: Me siento de puta madre can be translated as "I feel motherfucking great". So, the use of puta madre is comparable to how "motherfucker" can be used positively in English, although more uniformly positive: Escribe como la puta madre (in Spain: escribe de puta madre) might mean "He writes motherfucking great"; Es una tía de puta madre can mean "She's a motherfucking awesome chick." There is also a pejorative way of saying it, which is ¡Vete con la puta madre que te parió! which means "Leave with the whore-of-a-mother who gave birth to you!"
The phrases En mi puta vida … and En la vida de mi puta madre … mean "Never in my life …" and are considered vulgar although not personally insulting, per se.
The verbal form putear could mean: "piss off", "harass", "mistreat", "tease", "beat up".
, but in Spain and Puerto Rico and Malta (whose natives speak Maltese
, a language heavily influenced by Romance languages) it also has profane connotations:
The phrase cagando hostias (lit.: "shitting hosts [over and over]") means "as fast as possible" – or even faster than possible. Cuando llegó la pasma, nos abrimos cagando hostias, "When the cops arrived, we got the fuck away immediately."
Compare "hostie" in Quebec profanity.
, or from the milk that one had from his mother as a baby. Tener mala leche—literally, "to have bad milk", figuratively referring to the child of a promiscuous or otherwise despicable woman—refers to someone who is mean-spirited.
Minced oaths for mala leche include mala idea or mala baba (lit.: "bad drool").
, but also shares virtually the same profane usage as the second listed definition for hostia. For instance: Mas feo que el copón roughly translates to "uglier than the ciborium", but means "uglier than Hell." ¡Copón bendito! ("Blessed chalice!"), would means something like "Holy crap!"
Compare "ciboire" and "câlice" in Quebec profanity.
are the openly scathing remarks directly aimed at Catholic
iconography or Catholic rites. Many of them involve acts of , such as cagar, "to shit", e.g.:
There are some creative variations, usually involving to addition of puta/puto ("fucking") to any of the above or combining words (e.g. Me cago en Dios y en su puta madre). Occasionally, the rather incongruous Me cago en San Dios, when heard, is usually indicative of a low social standing. In Spain, youths perpetuate such idiomatic expressions as a form of linguistic audacity; often phrases that seem most shocking, archaic or otherwise eccentric are favored. Thus it is not uncommon to hear Cago en tu dios ("I shit on your god"), or the more elaborate and blasphemous Me cago en la boca del Papá ("I take a shit into the mouth of the Pope"), Me cago en el copón ("I take a shit into the Holy Chalice") or Me cago en el sagrado corazón de Jesús ("I take a shit onto the Sacred Heart of Jesus"). Expressions like these are considered more offensive than those previously listed and, surprisingly, are actually condemned as blasphemous - even by those who would not hesitate to utter an occasional "Me cago en Dios."
Common stereotypes characterize this region as the birthplace of "eccentric" characters (some of them famous. e.g. Salvador Dalí
, Josep Pla
or Alexandre Deulofeu
) and one of the most usual attributes of this stereotype is the very casual use of blasphemous profanity—to the point of it being indicative of other states of mind aside from outrage, such as joy or surprise.
Minced oaths include Me cago en diez (lit.: "I shit on ten"), La madre de Dios (without the me cago en) or La madre del cordero ("the lamb's mother"). Once again, Spaniards rejoice in elaborating on existing swear expressions and thus one may hear Cago en el copón de la baraja ("I shit into the ace of cups" (from deck of cards)) or Cago en la copiona ("I shit onto the copy-cat") instead of Cago en el copón. In this case copón, literally "large cup" is the subject of the pun. Another source of neologisms in the field of profanity is the elaboration of intricate rebuttals (often rhymed ones) that are uttered consensually by several speakers, i. e.: a person may say "Cago en diez" "I shit on ten" and somebody else may add Cago en veinte que es más potente "I shit on twenty, because it's much more plenty" and so forth.
A common way that new phrases are developed is through the habitual avoidance of formal swears by substituting euphemisms. Instead of Me cago en Dios one may hear such expressions as Me cago en Dena ("I shit on Dena") or Me cago en Diógenes ("I shit on Diogenes") or Me cago en Dío ("I shit on Dío") or Me cago en Diosle ("I shit on Diosle") or Me cago en diéresis ("I shit on the umlaut"). Some of these rhymes and euphemisms are rather obscure but once they spread, they become common lore among those speakers who rejoice in discovering new expressions. A prime example of an incongruous swear expression would be Me cago en Mahoma que tiene los huevos (cojones) de plástico y de goma ("I shit on Mohammed, who has balls of plastic and of rubber").
Compare to Italian porco Dio, porca Madonna or the numerous possible bestemmie (see: Italian profanity
), French
Nom de Dieu or Nom de Nom or Romanian anafora mă-tii! ("Your mother's host!").
The reason why these expressions are so prevalent in Romance languages might be the totem
ic or comic cults practiced by the ancient peoples of the Italian Peninsula
and the Northern Mediterranean Basin
, or by the indigenous peoples of what would eventually become the largest area of expansion of the Roman Empire
. There are villages, at least in Italy
, where it is still customary to insult and boisterously poke fun at an effigy of the Virgin Mary as a sign of awe and belief (however contradictory this might seem to foreigners). Nevertheless, this is not the only reason, as open Maltheism
is not unusual, especially among intellectuals or elder educated people in rural zones of Catalonia
, both as a consequence of the above phenomena and of the volatile relationship established between the peasantry and working class and the upper echelons of the Catholic Church. A common phrase, sometimes attributed to philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventós
, is Déu, si existeix, és un fill de puta ("God, if He exists, is a son of a bitch"). This phenomenon is also found in Quebec
, which is also of Catholic Romance background, but it would appear, rarely in Ireland
, German
-speaking, or Catholic Slavic
countries like Poland
. The Irish, for example, are famous for their profanity but usually limit it to secular words.
Profanity
Profanity is a show of disrespect, or a desecration or debasement of someone or something. Profanity can take the form of words, expressions, gestures, or other social behaviors that are socially constructed or interpreted as insulting, rude, vulgar, obscene, desecrating, or other forms.The...
, referred to in the Spanish language
Spanish language
Spanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
as lenguaje soez (low language), maldiciones (curse words), malas palabras (bad words), insultos (insults), vulgaridades (vulgarities), juramentos (oaths, or swearing), palabrotas (lit.: "big words"), tacos (in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
), palabras sucias (dirty words in Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
), lisuras (in Peru
Peru
Peru , officially the Republic of Peru , is a country in western South America. It is bordered on the north by Ecuador and Colombia, on the east by Brazil, on the southeast by Bolivia, on the south by Chile, and on the west by the Pacific Ocean....
), puteadas (in Peru, Chile
Chile
Chile ,officially the Republic of Chile , is a country in South America occupying a long, narrow coastal strip between the Andes mountains to the east and the Pacific Ocean to the west. It borders Peru to the north, Bolivia to the northeast, Argentina to the east, and the Drake Passage in the far...
, Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...
and Uruguay
Uruguay
Uruguay ,officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay,sometimes the Eastern Republic of Uruguay; ) is a country in the southeastern part of South America. It is home to some 3.5 million people, of whom 1.8 million live in the capital Montevideo and its metropolitan area...
), desvergue in El Salvador
El Salvador
El Salvador or simply Salvador is the smallest and the most densely populated country in Central America. The country's capital city and largest city is San Salvador; Santa Ana and San Miguel are also important cultural and commercial centers in the country and in all of Central America...
, majaderías or maldiciones in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
, garabatos (gibberish or shootings/firings in Chile), plebedades (pleb talk) in the Colombian Caribbean or groserías (impolite words or acts). Spanish profanity varies in Spanish-speaking nations, and even in regions of the same nation. Several of these words have linguistic and historical significance.
Idiom
Idiom
Idiom is an expression, word, or phrase that has a figurative meaning that is comprehended in regard to a common use of that expression that is separate from the literal meaning or definition of the words of which it is made...
atic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other languages, and so most of the English translations offered in this article are very rough and most likely do not reflect the full meaning of the expression they intend to translate.
Paja
Paja (lit.: "strawStraw
Straw is an agricultural by-product, the dry stalks of cereal plants, after the grain and chaff have been removed. Straw makes up about half of the yield of cereal crops such as barley, oats, rice, rye and wheat. It has many uses, including fuel, livestock bedding and fodder, thatching and...
," used in farms for cattle
Cattle
Cattle are the most common type of large domesticated ungulates. They are a prominent modern member of the subfamily Bovinae, are the most widespread species of the genus Bos, and are most commonly classified collectively as Bos primigenius...
and other animals to lie on): the expression hacerse la paja is used in Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, South America, Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, the Dominican Republic
Dominican Republic
The Dominican Republic is a nation on the island of La Hispaniola, part of the Greater Antilles archipelago in the Caribbean region. The western third of the island is occupied by the nation of Haiti, making Hispaniola one of two Caribbean islands that are shared by two countries...
, Colombia
Colombia
Colombia, officially the Republic of Colombia , is a unitary constitutional republic comprising thirty-two departments. The country is located in northwestern South America, bordered to the east by Venezuela and Brazil; to the south by Ecuador and Peru; to the north by the Caribbean Sea; to the...
and Panama, meaning "to masturbate."; in Chile, Peru and Ecuador, correrse la paja is used instead. In most parts of Central America
Central America
Central America is the central geographic region of the Americas. It is the southernmost, isthmian portion of the North American continent, which connects with South America on the southeast. When considered part of the unified continental model, it is considered a subcontinent...
and the Spanish Caribbean
Spanish Caribbean
The Spanish Caribbean refers to the Spanish-speaking areas in the Caribbean Sea, namely Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico. The phrase, thus, excludes countries such as Jamaica, Haiti, and the Lesser Antilles...
(and Chile as well) to masturbate is to pajearse. Pajero, or pajillero ("one who does paja") in Spain, is a masturbator (wanker
Wanker
Wanker is a pejorative term of English origin, common in Commonwealth and ex-Commonwealth countries, including Britain, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa. It initially referred to an onanist but has since become a general insult. It is synonymous with tosser.-Meaning:The term wanker...
) and also can imply a weakling or a fool, due to a cultural association of masturbation with mental weakness.
In certain regions, such as Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pajero (fem. pajera) can refer to someone who is lazy. In Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
and Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
it means "liar." For example: Vos sos
Voseo
Voseo is the use of the second person singular pronoun vos in many dialects of Spanish. In dialects that have it, it is used either instead of tú, or alongside it....
bien pajero,"You're such a liar." In Costa Rica, Colombia, Venezuela, Honduras and El Salvador, hablar paja can mean either "to talk nonsense" (Tú solo hablas (pura) paja, "You're just talking nonsense") or "small talk
Small talk (phatic communication)
Small talk is an informal type of discourse that does not cover any functional topics of conversation or any transactions that need to be addressed....
" (Estuve hablando paja con un amigo, "I was making small talk with a friend"). Calling someone pajoso or pajosa means he or she either lies a lot or speaks nonsense. Someone who is ignorant may be called a pajudo/a or pajúo/a' (lit.: "full of paja").
Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese automaker Mitsubishi Motors
Mitsubishi Motors
is a multinational automaker headquartered in Minato, Tokyo. In 2009 it was the fifth-largest Japan-based automaker and the 17th-largest in the world measured by production...
introduced a sport utility
Sport utility vehicle
A sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...
model called the Pajero
Mitsubishi Pajero
The Mitsubishi Pajero is a sport utility vehicle manufactured by Mitsubishi Motors. It was named after Leopardus pajeros, the Pampas Cat which is native to the Patagonia plateau region of southern Argentina. However, since pajero is an offensive term for "wanker" in Spanish, alternative names have...
. The name was derived from a South American wildcat, but became a running joke. In the Americas and in Spain, the vehicle was rebadged as the Montero. (It has since been replaced in North America by the Mitsubishi Endeavor
Mitsubishi Endeavor
The Mitsubishi Endeavor is a mid-size crossover SUV built by Mitsubishi Motors at their manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois. Based on the PS platform, it was the first vehicle built under Mitsubishi's "Project America", a program aimed at introducing vehicles for North America without having...
.)
In Peru, paja can also mean cool: Qué paja tu carro ("Your car is cool/nice.")
Puñeta
Puñeta (lit.: "related to 'puño' meaning 'fist'", metaphorically, "masturbation"; it may also be derived from the French poignet, which means "wrist") is an expression widely used in several Spanish-speaking regions and in the Philippines. Over the centuries, it has become a more generalized interjection (¿Dónde puñeta has estado?/"Where the fuck have you been?").By itself, it is used as a vulgar expression of any strong emotional reaction. For example, one may say ¡Puñeta! when noticing at a beautiful woman, or when hitting oneself on the head. Una puñeta means a "yank," in reference to male masturbation. It does not refer to female masturbation, which is dar dedo ("to give the finger)" or apuñalar(se) ("to stab with a puñal, i.e.: a knife
Knife
A knife is a cutting tool with an exposed cutting edge or blade, hand-held or otherwise, with or without a handle. Knives were used at least two-and-a-half million years ago, as evidenced by the Oldowan tools...
"). Hacerse una puñeta means to pleasure oneself. Puñetero ("wanker") is also very commonly used.
To refer to masturbation, the word is used generally in the singular. When used in the plural, it carries a completely different meaning. For example: Vete a hacer puñetas could be translated as "Go to hell". It refers to the adornments that lawyers and judges wear in the wrist (puño) of shirts. These adornments require many hours of labor, so making such adornments (hacer puñetas) is supposed to be unpleasant and tedious.
¡Ay, puñeta! is a favorite expression of pornstar Carmen Luvana
Carmen Luvana
Carmen Luvana is the stage name of a former American pornographic actress.- Biography :Born in Brooklyn, New York on 23 August 1981, Luvana's family moved to Puerto Rico when she was five. She moved to Miami, Florida, at the age of 18 and got her start as a dancer in Miami strip clubs.Luvana...
, who commonly uses it to show excitement during sex scenes. She often uses it when she reaches (presumed) orgasm. Luvana was raised in Puerto Rico, where the expression is relatively common.
Other references to male masturbation
- chaquetear (lit.: "to use a jacket")—a verb that can be used as "to masturbate" mainly in MexicoMexican SpanishMexican Spanish is a version of the Spanish language, as spoken in Mexico and in various places of Canada and the United States of America, where there are communities of Mexican origin....
. Used in European Spanish by fighters on both sides of the Spanish Civil WarSpanish Civil WarThe Spanish Civil WarAlso known as The Crusade among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War among Carlists, and The Rebellion or Uprising among Republicans. was a major conflict fought in Spain from 17 July 1936 to 1 April 1939...
, used as "traitor or coward." In ChileChilean SpanishChilean Spanish is the variety of Spanish spoken in most of Chile. Though still entirely mutually intelligible with standard Spanish, Chilean Spanish has distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usage...
and Spain, it means "to change one's posture rapidly".
- In Mexico, is has another meaning – "to create false hopes" or "to hallucinate." Hacerse una chaqueta mental ("to engage in mental masturbation") is similar to paja mental.
- güirero (lit.: "one who uses a güiraGüiraA güira is a percussion instrument from the Dominican Republic, generally used in merengue, bachata, and its subgenres, that sounds like a maraca or hi-hat but in fact is a sheet of metal—in practice, often from a five gallon oil can—evenly perforated with a nail, shaped into a cylinder or...
," a short, thick pole that is played as an instrument by rubbing it with a stick)—used as an insult, similar to "huevón." - Macaquear(se) (lit.: "to act as a macaqueMacaqueThe macaques constitute a genus of Old World monkeys of the subfamily Cercopithecinae. - Description :Aside from humans , the macaques are the most widespread primate genus, ranging from Japan to Afghanistan and, in the case of the barbary macaque, to North Africa...
")—used in Chile. Implies frequent masturbation; derives from the belief that macaques are wankers. - (Hacerse una) Manuela (lit: "to pull a Manuela")-used in Chile and Cuba and considered vulgar. It's a play on the words "Manuela" (a female name) and "mano" (hand), because (most) masturbation is done with one's hand. The name "Manuela de Palma" (a further wordplay between the De Palma surname and "palma", a hand's palm) is used in a derogatory manner, being referred to as somebody's (nonexisting) girlfriend, with the implication this person can't get a girl.
- sobo (lit.: "abrasion")—used in Costa Rica.
- güirero (lit.: "one who uses a güira
Cojones
Cojón (plural cojones) is slang for "testicle" and may be used as a synonym for "guts" or "[having] what it takes," hence making it equivalent to English balls or bollocks.A common expression in Spain is anything to the effect of … hace lo que le sale de los cojones ("… does whatever comes out of his/her balls"), meaning "… does whatever the fuck he/she wants." Variations are sale de los huevos, sale de las pelotas, etc. A common Basque
Basque people
The Basques as an ethnic group, primarily inhabit an area traditionally known as the Basque Country , a region that is located around the western end of the Pyrenees on the coast of the Bay of Biscay and straddles parts of north-central Spain and south-western France.The Basques are known in the...
catchphrase is los de Bilbao nacemos donde nos sale de los cojones ("we Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
natives are born wherever the fuck we want").
Sometimes, to denote obnoxious or overbearing behavior from someone else, idiom tocar los cojones/huevos/pelotas/ … ("to touch someone else's balls") comes to play. For instance: Venga, dame eso y para ya de tocarme los cojones ("Come on, give me that and stop bothering me.") It can sometimes be an understatement: a principios de los treinta, los nazis ya empezaban a tocar los cojones.
It is also frequent to derive other words, such as adjectival form cojonudo (lit.: "ballsy"), indicating admiration. A famous Navarran brand of asparagus
Asparagus
Asparagus officinalis is a spring vegetable, a flowering perennialplant species in the genus Asparagus. It was once classified in the lily family, like its Allium cousins, onions and garlic, but the Liliaceae have been split and the onion-like plants are now in the family Amaryllidaceae and...
has this name.
It is sometimes used, at least in Spain, as a suffix, complement or termination to a word or name in order to confer it a derisive or overbearing quality. For instances: el Marcos de los cojones ("That fucking guy Marcos"), ¡Dame ya la maleta de los cojones! ("Give me the fucking suitcase already!")
The phrases … me importa un cojón or … me importa un huevo mean "I don't give a fuck about …." In alternative variations one would raise the number, usually to three: … me importa tres cojones.
Cojones alone can also be used much like the four-word exclamations, though less usually; it is frequently a giveaway for native Catalan speakers when they speak Spanish, as collons is used much more profusely in situations akin to those for "fuck," "shit," etc.
Tocarse los cojones/los huevos/las pelotas (lit. "to touch one's own balls") stands for idleness or laziness. The fact that this is a not well-known expression in the United States may have been the excuse, according to some sources, for the April 2011 dismissal of a Princeton
Princeton University
Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....
Spanish senior lecturer, with tragic consequences
Death of Antonio Calvo
Antonio Calvo was a senior lecturer in Spanish at Princeton University who committed suicide in April 2011 after learning either that he had been suspended from his job or that his employment contract had been abruptly terminated by Princeton. The cause of death, as determined by the New York City...
. In Chile, this term is unused; the preferred expression is rascarse las huevas (lit. "to scratch one's own balls").
Carajo
Carajo (lit.: "crow's nestCrow's nest
A crow's nest is a structure in the upper part of the mainmast of a ship or structure, that is used as a lookout point.This position ensured the best view of the approaching hazards, other ships or land. It was the best device for this purpose until the invention of radar.In early ships it was...
," or, metaphorically, or a small cup of coffee) is used in Spain in reference to the penis. In Latin America (except Chile), it is a commonly used generic interjection similar to "fuck!" "shit!" or "damn it!" in English. For example: Nos vamos a morir, ¡carajo! ("We're gonna die, fuck!") or a far away place, likened to hell
Hell
In many religious traditions, a hell is a place of suffering and punishment in the afterlife. Religions with a linear divine history often depict hells as endless. Religions with a cyclic history often depict a hell as an intermediary period between incarnations...
: ¡Vete al carajo!.
There is a historical incident during the Venezuelan War of Independence, the Battle of Las Queseras del Medio
Battle of Las Queseras del Medio
The Battle of Las Queseras del Medio was an important battle of the Venezuelan War of Independence. It took place on April 2, 1819. The forces of José Antonio Páez consisted of 153 lancers, who were llaneros. They were pitted against more than 1,000 Spanish cavalry...
, where the phase "¡Vuelvan, carajo!" ("Go back -to battle-, dammit!") was most famously used by the Venezuelan general (and later president) José Antonio Páez
José Antonio Páez
José Antonio Páez Herrera was General in Chief of the army fighting Spain during the Venezuelan Wars of Independence, in addition to becoming the President of Venezuela once it was independent of the Gran Colombia...
.
The diminutive carajito is used in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela to refer to (usually annoying) children, or to scold someone for acting immaturely, e.g. No actúes como un carajito ("Don't act like a brat!").
Caray is a mild minced oath for this word. Ay caray could be translated "Dang it" or "Darn it!" The word caracho is also considered mild like caray.
The connotation of "far away place" is supposedly based on the name of the Cargados Carajos
Cargados Carajos
Cargados Carajos Shoals are a group of about 16 small islands and islets on an extended reef in the Indian Ocean northeast of Mauritius. The islands have a total land area of 1.3 km². The reef measures more than 50 km from north to south, and is 5 km wide, cut by three passes. The...
, which belong to Mauritius
Mauritius
Mauritius , officially the Republic of Mauritius is an island nation off the southeast coast of the African continent in the southwest Indian Ocean, about east of Madagascar...
. Nationalistic chants commonly use the phrase: ¡Viva Cuba, carajo!, ¡Viva el Ecuador, carajo!, and ¡Viva el Perú, carajo!
It is said that the term carajo originated during the Moorish invasion in Spain. The Moors were described as —or "garlic
Garlic
Allium sativum, commonly known as garlic, is a species in the onion genus, Allium. Its close relatives include the onion, shallot, leek, chive, and rakkyo. Dating back over 6,000 years, garlic is native to central Asia, and has long been a staple in the Mediterranean region, as well as a frequent...
-face"/"garlic-shaped face"—which was later contracted to carajo.
Bicho
Bicho (lit.: "bug", "baitworm") is one of the most commonly used references to the penis in Puerto Rico. It is similar to the much less commonly used word pinga. In most other regions it is a non-vulgar reference to an insect or several species of small animals.In Venezuela, it can be used as an interjection.
In El Salvador, it is commonly used as the slang equivalent of "kids".
In Nicaragua, and some parts of Costa Rica, bicho is used to reference the vagina.
In Spain, it refers to people (both male and female) who are a negative influence on others, often used as mal bicho ("bad bug"). When applied to children, it can mean one who is misbehaving.
Huevos/Pelotas/Bolas/Albóndigas/Ñema
Huevos (literally: "eggEgg (biology)
An egg is an organic vessel in which an embryo first begins to develop. In most birds, reptiles, insects, molluscs, fish, and monotremes, an egg is the zygote, resulting from fertilization of the ovum, which is expelled from the body and permitted to develop outside the body until the developing...
s"), pelotas (literally: "balls"), bolas (literally: "balls") and albóndigas (literally: meatball
Meatball
A meatball is made from an amount of ground meat rolled into a small ball, sometimes along with other ingredients, such as breadcrumbs, minced onion, spices, and possibly eggs...
s) all refer to testicle
Testicle
The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...
s in a profane manner. They are equivalent to cojones in many situations. In Mexico, the word is not used in a potentially ambiguous situation; instead, one may use the inoffensive blanquillos (literally: "little white ones").
Sometimes the words lavahuevos ("egg-washer") or lamehuevos ("egg-sucker") are used in the same context as "brown-noser" (meaning ambitious and self-effacing) in English.
Highly offensive Dominican insults involving this term are mamagüevo/mamagüevos ("egg-sucker") and mamagüevazo ("huge egg-sucker"). Mamagüevo is also used in Venezuela where it's considered less offensive.
Huevada/Huevá (lit.: "covered in egg") is used in Chile in reference to objects ("¡Qué huevá más grande!" may translate to "What an annoyance!"). Shortened forms huevá or even weá are usuallly intended to be less offensive. Many expressions using cojones in other countries are used in Chile with huevas replacing the former word. There's also a local expression: "¿Me hai visto las weas?" (lit. "Have you taken a look at my testicles?") means "How much of a fool do you think I am?".
Ñema (a corruption of yema, meaning "yolk") refers to the glans
Glans
The glans is a vascular structure located at the tip of the penis in men or a homologous genital structure of the clitoris in women.-Structure:...
. The word mamañema is functionally similar to mamagüevo.
Verga
Verga (lit.: a "yardarmYard (sailing)
A yard is a spar on a mast from which sails are set. It may be constructed of timber, steel, or from more modern materials, like aluminium or carbon fibre. Although some types of fore and aft rigs have yards , the term is usually used to describe the horizontal spars used with square sails...
"—a part of a ship's mast
Mast (sailing)
The mast of a sailing vessel is a tall, vertical, or near vertical, spar, or arrangement of spars, which supports the sails. Large ships have several masts, with the size and configuration depending on the style of ship...
that holds the sails) occurs in a number of Romance languages
Romance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
, including Spanish and Italian.
In Venezuela it can be used as a vulgar generic filler, as well as a boastful self-reference (similar to the English "That shit" or "I'm the shit"). For example, ¡Soy bien verga! (lit.: "I'm very dick!") means "I'm very good at it!", and ¡Soy la verga andando! (lit.: "I'm the walking dick!") means "I'm the best that there is!"
In Mexico it refers only to the penis; "Te voy a meter la verga" means "I'm going to insert my penis in you"; referring to somebody else, "Le metió la verga" o "se la metió" means "he fucked her" or "he fucked him" which may be the literal meaning, or more likely, it means that in a business, he got away with what he wanted for little money.
A common expression in Mexico is ¡Vete a la verga!, meaning "Get the fuck out of here!" In Mexico can be used as difficult or impossible: ¡Está de la verga!, "This is very difficult!"
In Guatemala
Guatemala
Guatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
, it also refers to a state of drunkenness as in ¡Está bien a verga!, meaning "He's drunk as Hell!" or "He's shit-faced!" It can also be used with an ironically positive connotation as in ¡Se ve bien vergón!, which means "It looks great!"
In Honduras the expression no vale la verga is used as a vulgar form of no vale la pena, meaning "It's not worth it."
Polla
Polla (lit.: "female pollo", i.e.: chickenChicken
The chicken is a domesticated fowl, a subspecies of the Red Junglefowl. As one of the most common and widespread domestic animals, and with a population of more than 24 billion in 2003, there are more chickens in the world than any other species of bird...
or hen) is used in Spain, Nicaragua, El Salvador and in Puerto Rico (to a lesser extent). It is also used to mean a (young) female (similar to "chick"). Some years ago, in Costa Rica, the term jupa de pollo ("head of a chicken") was popular slang for "penis". The term todo el jupa de pollo was a popular way to say "the whole shebang" or "it's complete now".
In Spain, to say that something, especially a situation or an arrangement, is la polla is to have a high opinion of it. Esto es la polla. El hotel está al lado de la playa y además es muy barato means "This is fucking great. The hotel is close to the beach and it's cheap, too."
Polla in Spain also means penis.
Oversized testicles as a marker of complacency
- Huevón (lit.: "giant huevo")/Ahueonao/Ahuevoneado/Ahuevado (lit.: "one who has/was gifted large huevos)/Boludo (lit.: "one who has large bolas") is a strong personal reference in many Latin American countries. At times it can be used as an ironic term of endearment, especially in Chile and Panama, the same way as dude or "dawg" in North America (much like wey in Mexico), comparably with Greek malakaMalakasMalakas is a Greek slang word, whose literal translation is wanker but the usage of the term varies. Common alternative meanings include arsehole or jerk, and the contrasting dude, or mate depending on the context. It derives from the Greek word malakos , which means "soft" or "spoilt, well-used to...
. For example, in Chile one would understand a sentence like Puta el huevón huevón, huevón. as "Fuck! That guy is an asshole, dude."
In Mexico, huevón is a pejorative term that usually translates as "slacker
Slacker
The term "slacker" is used to refer to a person who habitually avoids work. Slackers may be regarded as belonging to an antimaterialistic counterculture, though in some cases their behavior may be due to other causes ....
."
In Panama and El Salvador it can be loosely translated as "couch potato." One may also say tengo hueva, meaning "I'm feeling lazy."
In the Dominican Republic, Peru and Venezuela, güevón/güebón is the preferred form.
In Venezuela, it is pronounced more like güevón and, often, ueón.
In Chile, the preferred form to use is huevón (often shortened to hueón or weón) and ahuevonado.
In Panama, awebao is the popular form, and a good example of the clipping of consonants (and sometimes vowels) in informal Spanish.
Youth in Argentina tend to use it as a culturally appropriated term of endearment.
In Chile and in the Quito region of Ecuador Ni cagando huevón ("Nor
In Argentina, boludo, refers to a man who is brave, but not too clever and apt to make too many mistakes.
Other terms denoting male genitalia
- armado (lit.: "armed")—similar to the American word "hung." It is used in Mexico and South America to describe a man with a large penis.
- buzzarino—a famous Mexican pimp whose name is now slang for penis
- goma (lit.: "rubber" or "glue")—can be used as a minced oathMinced oathA minced oath is an expression based on a profanity or a taboo term that has been altered to reduce the objectionable characteristics.Many languages have such expressions...
. For example, vete a la goma can replace vete a la verga or vete a la mierda. The word "goma" literally refers to a number of products derived from rubber sap, such as natural rubber, glueGlueThis is a list of various types of glue. Historically, the term "glue" only referred to protein colloids prepared from animal flesh. The meaning has been extended to refer to any fluid adhesive....
, crude gum baseGum baseGum base is the non-nutritive, non-digestible, water-insoluble masticatory delivery system used to carry sweeteners, flavors and any other desired substances in chewing gum and bubble gum. It provides all the basic textural and masticatory properties of gum....
, car tireTireA tire or tyre is a ring-shaped covering that fits around a wheel rim to protect it and enable better vehicle performance by providing a flexible cushion that absorbs shock while keeping the wheel in close contact with the ground...
s or latexLatexLatex is the stable dispersion of polymer microparticles in an aqueous medium. Latexes may be natural or synthetic.Latex as found in nature is a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants . It is a complex emulsion consisting of proteins, alkaloids, starches, sugars, oils, tannins, resins,...
condomCondomA condom is a barrier device most commonly used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy and spreading sexually transmitted diseases . It is put on a man's erect penis and physically blocks ejaculated semen from entering the body of a sexual partner...
s.
- In Chile, goma is also an offensive term for an assistant. The plural form, gomas, refers to a woman's breasts.
- In Puerto Rico, a goma is a rubber tire.
- In Guatemala, Honduras, Panama and El Salvador, goma means "hangover." For example ¡José está de goma! means "José has a hangover." In Panama, the past participle engomado ("glued on") is also used. For example: José está engomado.
- An old tradition among TaínaTainaTaina might refer to one of the following:* A female from the Taíno culture* Taina , an American sitcom that aired on Nickelodeon from 2001 to 2002* Taina , a Puerto Rican model named Noris Díaz...
prostitutes was to signal their availability by chewing gum (comiendo chicleChicleManilkara chicle is a tropical evergreen tree native to Mexico and Central America. The tree ranges from Veracruz in Mexico south to Atlántico in Colombia...
). The chicle was made with the goma from the rubber tree.
- pito (lit.: "whistle") aside from it literal meaning it is commonly used in Mexico, Cuba, Uruguay, and Spain as "dick". Although informal, it's not considered too vulgar.
- pipí—used in Panama. For example, Se me paró el pipí ("My dick has become erect"). It's also used by children in other Spanish-speaking countries to reference the penis.
- paloma (lit.: "dove")—commonly used in Guatemala, El Salvador, Venezuela and also Nicaragua.
- turca (the name for a species of birdMoustached TurcaThe Moustached Turca is a passerine bird which is endemic to Chile. It belongs to the tapaculo group and is a member of the genus Pteroptochos, along with the two species of huet-huet....
) is commonly used in Nicaragua. The verb "turquear" means to physically beat someone up—perhaps as a verb form of a la turca (in reference to the Muslim ("Turkish") invasion into Spain). - pinga or less commonly pingo is considered offensive in most regions, although in Argentina, for example, its male form (pingo) may describe a horseHorseThe horse is one of two extant subspecies of Equus ferus, or the wild horse. It is a single-hooved mammal belonging to the taxonomic family Equidae. The horse has evolved over the past 45 to 55 million years from a small multi-toed creature into the large, single-toed animal of today...
. However, in Mexico it is also used as a term of endearment for an anti-heroAnti-heroIn fiction, an antihero is generally considered to be a protagonist whose character is at least in some regards conspicuously contrary to that of the archetypal hero, and is in some instances its antithesis in which the character is generally useless at being a hero or heroine when they're...
, such as PuckPuck (Shakespeare)Puck, also known as Robin Goodfellow, is a character in William Shakespeare's play A Midsummer Night's Dream that was based on the ancient figure in English mythology, also called Puck. Puck is a clever and mischievous elf and personifies the trickster or the wise knave...
, Huckleberry FinnHuckleberry Finn (character)Huckleberry "Huck" Finn is a fictional character created by Mark Twain, who first appeared in the book The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and is the protagonist and narrator of its sequel, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. He is 12 or 13 years old during the former and a year older at the time of the latter...
or Dennis the MenaceDennis the Menace (U.S.)Dennis the Menace is a daily syndicated newspaper comic strip originally created, written and illustrated by Hank Ketcham. It debuted on March 12, 1951 in 16 newspapers and was originally distributed by Post-Hall Syndicate...
. The equivalent word in other regions for such people is travieso/traviesa (which in turn means "transvestite" in Argentina).
- In Mexico, Central America and other parts of South America, verga is more commonly used, also, to say ¡La verga! could mean "Fuck!" or "No way!" (the second in a sense of "I can't believe it").
- Pinga de la madre, pinga 'e la madre and pinga-la-madre are commonly used interjections.
- In Panama and Costa Rica, picha is used in the Chiriqui region, whereas pinga is used elsewhere in the country.
- pija—very common in Argentina and Uruguay. The word pijudo ("one who has a big pija") is also used.
- pico—used in Chile.
Chile
Chilean Spanish
Chilean Spanish is the variety of Spanish spoken in most of Chile. Though still entirely mutually intelligible with standard Spanish, Chilean Spanish has distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usage...
is famous for its absurd amount of alternate names and euphemism
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
s for the penis. These range from the inoffensive (pito (lit. "whistle
Whistle
A whistle or call is a simple aerophone, an instrument which produces sound from a stream of forced air. It may be mouth-operated, or powered by air pressure, steam, or other means...
"), diuca (after a small bird
Common Diuca-finch
The Common Diuca-finch is a species of bird in the Emberizidae family. It is found in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, and Uruguay. Its natural habitats are subtropical or tropical dry shrubland, subtropical or tropical high-altitude shrubland, and heavily degraded former forest.-References:*...
)), through vulgar (pichula, pico) and euphemistic (cabeza de bombero (lit. "firefighter
Firefighter
Firefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
's head"), dedo sin uña ("nail-less finger")) to markedly euphemistic and humorous ("taladro de carne" (lit. "meat drill
Drill
A drill or drill motor is a tool fitted with a cutting tool attachment or driving tool attachment, usually a drill bit or driver bit, used for drilling holes in various materials or fastening various materials together with the use of fasteners. The attachment is gripped by a chuck at one end of...
", "cíclope llorón" (lit. "crying cyclops
Cyclops
A cyclops , in Greek mythology and later Roman mythology, was a member of a primordial race of giants, each with a single eye in the middle of his forehead...
"), "chacal de las zorras" (lit. "cunt
Cunt
Cunt is a vulgarism, primarily referring to the female genitalia, specifically the vulva, and including the cleft of Venus. The earliest citation of this usage in the 1972 Oxford English Dictionary, c 1230, refers to the London street known as Gropecunt Lane...
jackal
Jackal
Although the word jackal has been historically used to refer to many small- to medium-sized species of the wolf genus of mammals, Canis, today it most properly and commonly refers to three species: the black-backed jackal and the side-striped jackal of sub-Saharan Africa, and the golden jackal of...
", in the sense of the jackal being a relentless predator), et cetera).
Concha / Chucha / Chocha
Concha (lit.: "mollusk shell" or "inner ear") is an offensive word for a woman's vulva or vagina (i.e. something akin to English cuntCunt
Cunt is a vulgarism, primarily referring to the female genitalia, specifically the vulva, and including the cleft of Venus. The earliest citation of this usage in the 1972 Oxford English Dictionary, c 1230, refers to the London street known as Gropecunt Lane...
) in Argentina, Chile, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay and Mexico. In the rest of Latin America and Spain however, the word is only used with its literal meaning. In such regions, it is commonly heard in the phrase ¡(La) concha (de) tu madre! ("Go fuck your mother"), which may be used as an expression of surprise or grief, or as a highly disrespectful insult. The contracted term conchatumaddre/conchetumadre is very common and very offensive in Chile, as well as in Ecuador.
In Mexico concha, which is used for in its literal meaning, is also a type of sweet bread, round conch-shaped and covered in sugar, as well as having the aforementioned meaning and is offensive when used in said context. In Spain and Mexico, "Concha" is a common name for females (corruption of Concepción). Also in Puerto Rico there is a popular hotel called La Concha Resort
La Concha Resort
La Concha Resort is a modern chic luxury resort located at the Condado oceanfront within the district of Santurce in San Juan, Puerto Rico.-History:...
(The Seashell). Key West, Florida also has a famous hotel named La Concha
La Concha
The Crown Plaza Key West - La Concha, more commonly known as the La Concha, is a hotel and the tallest building in downtown Key West, Florida, United States. It was completed in 1926....
.
Chucha/¡Chuchamadre! and ¡Chucha de tu madre! (respectively) are Panamanian, Chilean, Ecuadorian, Peruvian or southern Colombian equivalents. Random examples and expressions: Vení, oleme la chucha ("Come and sniff my pussy"), Ella solo tenia puesto un par de tacones y lencería transparente, hasta se le podía ver la chucha a través de la tela, me dejó hechizado." ("She only had on a pair of heels and transparent lingerie, one could even see her pussy through the fabric, she left me spellbound"), ¡Ándate a la chucha! (roughly "Fuck off").
Chocha (or chocho) employed term for "pussy" predominantly in Cuba, Puerto Rico, Colombia, Spain, Mexico, Venezuela, and Dominican Republic. The word is a homonym
Homonym
In linguistics, a homonym is, in the strict sense, one of a group of words that often but not necessarily share the same spelling and the same pronunciation but have different meanings...
as it's also synonymous of "senile" when used as "He/she is chocho/chocha".
In Venezuela, chocha is also a type of round seed or a particular type of bird
The name of the Latin American restaurant Chimi-Changa originated as a minced oath of chocha.
Coño
Coño (from the Latin cunnus) is a vulgar word for a woman's vulvaVulva
The vulva consists of the external genital organs of the female mammal. This article deals with the vulva of the human being, although the structures are similar for other mammals....
or vagina. It is frequently translated as "cunt
Cunt
Cunt is a vulgarism, primarily referring to the female genitalia, specifically the vulva, and including the cleft of Venus. The earliest citation of this usage in the 1972 Oxford English Dictionary, c 1230, refers to the London street known as Gropecunt Lane...
" but is considered less offensive (it is much more common to hear the word coño on Spanish television than the word cunt on British television, for example).
In Puerto Rico, Spain, Venezuela, Cuba, and the Dominican Republic it is amongst the most popular of curse words. The word is frequently used as an interjection, expressing surprise, anger or frustration. It is also common to use the expression ¿Pero qué coño? to mean "What the fuck?"
Its usage was so common among Spaniards living in the Philippines that konyo became a Tagalog
Tagalog language
Tagalog is an Austronesian language spoken as a first language by a third of the population of the Philippines and as a second language by most of the rest. It is the first language of the Philippine region IV and of Metro Manila...
word for upper-class people.
In Ecuador and Chile it means stingy, tight-fisted, although in the latter country the variation coñete is becoming more common.
In Colombia it also means "diaper
Diaper
A nappy or a diaper is a kind of pant that allows one to defecate or urinate on oneself discreetly. When diapers become soiled, they require changing; this process is often performed by a second person such as a parent or caregiver...
."
Panocha
In Mexico, panocha refers generally to sweet breads or cakes, or, more specifically, to a raw, coarse form of sugar produced there. It is also a fudge made with brown sugar, butter, cream or milk, and nuts (penuchePenuche
Penuche is a fudge-like candy made from brown sugar, butter, and milk, using no flavorings except for vanilla. Penuche often has a tannish color to it and is lighter than regular fudge. It is formed by the caramelization of brown sugar, and thus its flavor is said to be reminiscent of caramel...
). In New Mexico
New Mexico
New Mexico is a state located in the southwest and western regions of the United States. New Mexico is also usually considered one of the Mountain States. With a population density of 16 per square mile, New Mexico is the sixth-most sparsely inhabited U.S...
it means a sprouted-wheat pudding
Panocha
Panocha, in New Mexico and southern Colorado, means a pudding made from ground sprouted wheat and piloncillo. It is traditionally eaten during Lent. The sprouted-wheat flour is called "panocha flour" or simply "panocha" as well....
. In the southwestern United States (and northern Mexico and some places in Cuba), however, it often refers to the female genitalia. Use of this word has been known to cause embarrassment among Mexicans from Mexico and their American-born relatives.
The word is a combination of penuche and panoja meaning "ear of corn", from the Latin panicula (from whence comes the English word "panicle"—pyramidal, loosely branched flower cluster).
Cuca
Cuca (short for cucaracha, lit.: "cockroach") is used in Honduras, Guatemala, Venezuela, southeastern México and Colombia. Slightly milder than coño, and is almost inoffensive in the Dominican Republic.In the Dominican Republic it is a common term for a parrot.
In Chile it is criminal slang for paddy wagon.
It is also an inoffensive word for penis that many children use in Spain. It also has a slightly archaic use in Spain.
In Latin America it may describe a congenial, outgoing person with a gift for flattery ("Julia is very cuca") or ("Eddie is so cuco; look at all the friends he has.").
In Nicaragua, it is used as slang for "penis."
Other terms denoting female genitalia
- almeja (lit.: "clam")—used in Spain
- bizcocho (lit.: "cake")—used in Central America
- bollo—used in Cuba (and to a lesser extent Puerto Rico).
- cajeta (lit.: a type of dulce de lecheDulce de lecheDulce de leche is a thick,creamy, caramel-like milk-based sauce or spread.Literally translated, dulce de leche means "sweet from milk". It is prepared by slowly heating sweetened milk to create a product that derives its taste from caramelised sugar. It is a popular sweet in Latin America, where...
made from goats' milk) - chumino/chuminaco—used in Spain
- conejo (lit.: "rabbit")—used in Spain. In Cuba as "coneja" (she-rabbit).
- crica (lit.: "cove")—similar to the French crique, also used in Cuba.
- cuca-used in Cuba.
- micha (lit.: a type of bread)—used in Panama
- pan (lit.: "bread")—used in Guatemala
- papaya—in some regions this word is only understood a vulgar reference to the vagina. There are tales of American tourists who asked a grocer for a papayaPapayaThe papaya , papaw, or pawpaw is the fruit of the plant Carica papaya, the sole species in the genus Carica of the plant family Caricaceae...
(fruit) and were angrily informed that he was not a pimpPimpA pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
. Very common use in the Western part of Cuba. - papo—used in Venezuela
- pepa—used in Uruguay, like a "soft" way
- pupusa (lit.: a type of traditional cuisine in El Salvador)
- sapo (lit.: "toad")—used in Chile
- toto/tota—used in Cuba, the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico
- torta—a variant of "tota", and a pun that also describes a type of small pastry.
- totona—used in Venezuela. It is similar to tostones, which is a serving of fried plantain slices.
- zorra (lit.: "female zorro" ("fox")—used in Chile
Differences in regional Spanish can sometimes produce awkward situations in communication between two Spanish speakers of different countries, but such differences are usually known internationally and taken humorously, although some can cause awkward confusions. The word culantro refers to cilantro, but in Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico , officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico , is an unincorporated territory of the United States, located in the northeastern Caribbean, east of the Dominican Republic and west of both the United States Virgin Islands and the British Virgin Islands.Puerto Rico comprises an...
it can be used as a play on "culo." Also, the phrase Esa señora tiene muy buena cuchara translates literally as "That lady has a very good spoon" and means "that lady cooks very well", referring to the use of a cuchara/spoon while cooking. However, in Guatemala, the word cuchara is used as a synonym of "vagina", which can lead to misunderstanding.
Culo
Culo is the most commonly used Spanish word for "ass." In El Salvador and Honduras, culero ("one who uses the culo") refers to a male homosexual, while in Mexico it refers to an unjust, unkind or insensitive person.Vete a tomar por culo ("Go and take it in the ass") is an expression used in Spain, it's like Vete a la mierda but more offensive.
In Chile
Chilean Spanish
Chilean Spanish is the variety of Spanish spoken in most of Chile. Though still entirely mutually intelligible with standard Spanish, Chilean Spanish has distinctive pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary, and slang usage...
, culo is considered offensive (as it sounds very much like culear); poto is used instead.
Fundillo/Fundío
Fundillo/Fundío—heard in Mexico and the southwestern United States as an obscene term specifically for the human anusAnus
The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...
. It carries about the same weight as the American usages of the words "(someone's) asshole" or "the crack of (someone's) ass." Fundío refers literally to the anus
Anus
The anus is an opening at the opposite end of an animal's digestive tract from the mouth. Its function is to control the expulsion of feces, unwanted semi-solid matter produced during digestion, which, depending on the type of animal, may be one or more of: matter which the animal cannot digest,...
and is not used as a personal insult. For example, ¡Métetelo en fundío! (or in Mexico, Métetelo por el fundillo) is an expression of reproach. ("Shove it up your ass!") The variant fondillo is also found in Puerto Rico and Cuba. In the Dominican Republic, the milder term fullín and the very offensive cieso may also be used.
Ojete
Ojete (lit.: "eyelet")—refers to the anus in some countries, and also is used to mean "asshole": Se portó muy ojete conmigo ("He was a really bad person with me", or "He was an asshole to me"). A popular obscene graffitoGraffito
Graffito is the singular form of the Italian graffiti, meaning "little scratch".Graffito may also refer to:*Graffito *Graffito...
in Mexico among schoolchildren is OGT; when the letters are pronounced in Spanish, they sound like ojete.
In Argentina, "ojete" and also its synonyms culoand orto can all be used to mean "good luck": "¡Qué ojete tiene ese tipo!" (He's such a lucky guy!), "Ganó de puro ojete!" (He won just because he was so terribly lucky).
Orto
Orto (an anagram of roto, lit.: "broken")—in Argentina, refers to buttocks (as either an object of appreciation or disgust): "Qué tremendo orto tiene esa mina" (in praise of a woman's buttocks), "Qué cara de orto" ("What an ugly/bitter/moody face"); or luck—either good or bad. "Me fue para el orto" means "I had an awfully bad luck on that". "Tiene un orto que no se puede creer" may mean "He/She is incredibly lucky" but can also be an appraisal of a someone's derrier, depending on context.Other references to one's backside
- cola
- de pedo ("by farting")—another Argentinean expression meaning "fortunate." For example: Lo adiviné de pedo ("I was lucky enough to guess it").
- al peo ("in a farty fashion")—used in Chile to express something done poorly or in a careless manner.
- nalga (butt cheek).
- roto/rota (lit.: "route")—specifically refers to the anus.
Cagar
Cagar is a verb meaning "to shit." It also means to screw (something) up, e.g. ¡Te cagaste los pantalones! ("You shit your pants!"). Particularly in Spain and Cuba, there are a number of commonly used interjections incorporating this verb, many of which refer to shitting on something sacred, e.g. Me cago en Dios ("I shit on God"), Me cago en la Virgen ("I shit on the Virgin"), Me cago en la hostia ("I shit on the communion host"), Me cago en tu madre ("I take a shit on your mother"), Cágate en tu madre ("Take a shit on your mother"), ¡Me cago en la leche! ("I take a shit in yourIn Venezuela, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Argentina, Cuba, and Chile it also means to make a big mistake, e.g.: La cagaste (lit.: "you shat on it"). In Argentina and Chile, it can also mean "you screwed" or "scolded" somebody (e.g.: Te cagaste a ese cabrón, "You took a shit on that guy").
In Mexico City it may be used ironically to refer to a fortunate outcome: Te cagaste ("You really shat on yourself").
In Chile and Cuba, cagado ("full of shit") means "stingy" or "miserly". It can also mean "depressed" in some contexts ("Está cagado porque la polola lo pateó." translates as "He's depressed because his girlfriend dumped him.").
Mierda
Mierda is a noun meaning "shit." However, phrases such as Vete a la mierda (literally: "Go to (the) shit") would translate as "Go to hell."In Puerto Rico and Cuba, comemierda (shit-eater) refers to a clueless idiot, someone absurdly pretentious, or someone out of touch with his or her surroundings. Ex. "que comemierderia" (what an stupidity), "comerán mierda?" (are they foolish or what?) or "vamos a prestar atención y dejar de comer mierda" (Let's pay attention and stop goofing off). It's also used in both countries to describe someone who is "stuffy" and unnecessarily formal.
In Peru, irse a la mierda or estar hecho mierda can also mean "to be drunk as Hell." However, in Mexico, Cuba and Chile estar hecho mierda means to be very exhausted.
It is also used generally to describe anything that is vexing or unpleasant, such as tiempo de mierda ("shitty weather") or auto de mierda ("piece-of-shit car"). A less common use is as a translation of the British profanity "bugger
Bugger
Bugger is a slang word used in the vernacular British English, Australian English, Canadian English, New Zealand English, South African English, Caribbean English, Sri Lankan English and occasionally also in Malaysian English and Singaporean English, and rarely American English...
". The euphemism
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
s miércoles (Wednesday) and eme (the letter m
M
M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water...
) are sometimes used as minced oath
Minced oath
A minced oath is an expression based on a profanity or a taboo term that has been altered to reduce the objectionable characteristics.Many languages have such expressions...
s.
Caca is a mild word used mostly by children, loosely comparable to the English "poop" or "doo-doo." Comecaca is functionally similar to comemierdas.
'Mojon' A term originally meaning a little marker of the name of the street or a particular place in a road, came into general use later as a synonim of shit and used freely as a substitute. In Cuba, the term "comemojones" is frequently used instead of "comemierda"; "Es un mojón." ("He's a piece of shit.") is also commonly used in said country.
Maricón
Maricón (lit.: "big Mary" {see below for explanation]) and its derivative words marica and marico are words used for referring to a man as a gay, or for criticizing someone for doing something that, according to stereotypes, only a gay person would do (marica was originally the diminutive of the very common female name María del Carmen, a usage that has been lost). The suffix is -on is often added to nouns to intensify their meaning.In Spain, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, Venezuela and Cuba the word has a stronger meaning with a very negative emphasis; akin to "faggot" or "poof" in the English language. In Argentina, Chile, and Mexico maricón or marica is especially used to denote a "chicken" (coward). In Chile, maricón also means "irrationally sadistic." Gay groups in several countries have adopted the term in an affirmative fashion.
Some examples of the uses of this word are:
- Eres una marica. ("You are a faggot.")
- Mano, eres tremendamente maricón. ("Bro, you are so gay!"; here maricón is used as an adjective)
- Yo sí soy maricón, ¿y qué? ("I am certainly gay—so what?")
- No seas maricón. ("Don't chicken out", "Don't be a pussy.", "Don't be an asshole.")
- ¡Qué maricón de mierda, ¿eh?! ("He's such a damn faggot, right?!")
- Devuelve la mamadera al bebé, que lo haces llorar. ¡No seas maricón! ("Give the baby back his bottle, because now you've made him cry. Don't be cruel!")
One important exception is Colombia, where marica is used as a slang term of affection among male friends or as a general exclamation ("¡Ay, marica!" being equivalent to "Aw, man!" or "Dude!" in English). This often causes confusion or unintended offense among Spanish-speaking first-time visitors to Colombia. Maricón, however, remains an insulting and profane term for homosexuals in Colombia as well. A similar case is seen in Venezuela, where the word Marico is an insult; However, the word is widely used among Venezuelans as "dude" or "man." For example, "que paso marico" would mean "what's up dude"; the word carries at least a third meaning in Venezuela because it often is used to show that someone is being very funny. For instance, after hearing a joke or funny comment from your friend, you laugh and say "haha si eres marico haha" which would be equivalent to "haha you crack me up man."
Derivatives of marica/maricón:
- maricona—used in southern Spain to refer to a drag queenDrag queenA drag queen is a man who dresses, and usually acts, like a caricature woman often for the purpose of entertaining. There are many kinds of drag artists and they vary greatly, from professionals who have starred in films to people who just try it once. Drag queens also vary by class and culture and...
, in an often humorous manner. Elsewhere, maricona refers to a lesbian. In Cuba it's used in a friendly manner among gays. - mariquita (diminiuitive of marica)— means a wimp or sissy in Spain. For example, ¡Eres una mariquita!, means "You're a pussy!" It also means ladybug. In Cuba, however, the term refers both to a dish of fried plantains and to being gay.
- marimacha (combination of maricon and macha)—an insult common in Peru, Chile and Cuba, usually referring to lesbians or to women trying to do something seen as a males-only activity. It is considered offensive as mari prolongs the original insult macha. In Colombia, Macha is the feminine form of macho and thus refers to a tomboy (it is not really an insult, but more of a derogaroty way to describe a masculine/unlady-like girl).
- maricueca (combination of maricon and cueca (female cueco, see below))—used in Chile
- mariconzón (combination of maricón and colizón) In Cuba, a slang term of affection among gays.
- mariposa (lit.: "butterfly")—used as a minced oath. The word mariposón ("big ol' butterfly") may also be used.
Manflor
Manflor (combination of the English loanword "man" and the word flor meaning "flower") and its variant manflora (a play on manflor using the word floraFlora
Flora is the plant life occurring in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring or indigenous—native plant life. The corresponding term for animals is fauna.-Etymology:...
) are used in Mexico and in the US to refer, usually pejoratively, to a homosexual female or lesbian
Lesbian
Lesbian is a term most widely used in the English language to describe sexual and romantic desire between females. The word may be used as a noun, to refer to women who identify themselves or who are characterized by others as having the primary attribute of female homosexuality, or as an...
. It is used in very much the same way as the English word "dyke." For example: Oye, güey, no toques a esa chica; todos ya saben que es monflora. ("Hey, dude, don't hit on that girl; everyone knows she's a dyke.").
It can be used as an ironic term of endearment between friends, especially within the gay and lesbian communities.
Other homosexual expressions
Many terms offensive to homosexuals imply spreading, e.g.: the use of wings to fly.- bámbaro—used in the south of Colombia
- bugarrón/bufarrón/bujarrón/bujarra—used in Puerto Rico. In Cuba, the expression "bugarrón y bugarra" refers to a macho man fucking gays.
- cabro
- cueco—used in Panama
- cundango—used in the Dominican Republic and Cuba. In Cuba, cundango refers specifically to a male sex partner ("Tommy has been Robert's cundango for years"). It may mean "effeminate" or "sensitive" with a negative connotation
- cochón—used in Nicaragua
- cola (lit.: "tail")
- desviado (lit.: "deviant")
- fresa (lit.: "strawberry")—used to mean "fag" and can also refer to people who are preppyPreppyPreppy, preppie, or prep refers to a modern, widespread United States clique, often considered a subculture...
or yuppy. For example, pinche fresa means "fucking fag." - fran (lit.:"fran")-used to mean "gay".
- hueco (lit.: "hole")—used in GuatemalaGuatemalaGuatemala is a country in Central America bordered by Mexico to the north and west, the Pacific Ocean to the southwest, Belize to the northeast, the Caribbean to the east, and Honduras and El Salvador to the southeast...
. In Chile, depending on context, it can mean either "homosexual" or "vapid." - invertido (lit.: "inverted"). A term ubiquitously used in old times to avoid the strong word "maricón". It was the official word used by the regime of Spanish dictator Francisco FrancoFrancisco FrancoFrancisco Franco y Bahamonde was a Spanish general, dictator and head of state of Spain from October 1936 , and de facto regent of the nominally restored Kingdom of Spain from 1947 until his death in November, 1975...
in Spain. - joto (see below)
- loca (lit.: "crazy woman")—used in Puerto Rico and Cuba (where "loquita" and "loquísima" are commonly used as well). Although normally derogatory, this term is also used as a culturally appropriated term of endearment among male and female homosexuals
- macha (feminine form of macho)—refers to a "dyke". In Costa Rica, however, macho or macha is not derogatory but common slang for caucasoid, or similar to "blondie."
- mamapinga (lit. "cock-sucker"). Extensively used in Cuba.
- mamaverga/mamavergas (lit.: "cock-sucker").
- maraco—used in Chile, only against male homosexuals; see maraca below.
- muerdealmohadas (lit.: "pillow-biter")—used in Peru.
- pargo (lit.: "porgy" or "red snapperRed snapper (fish)The red snapper, Lutjanus campechanus, is a fish found in the Gulf of Mexico and the southeastern Atlantic coast of the United States and, much less commonly, northward as far as Massachusetts. In Latin American Spanish it is known as huachinango or pargo...
")—used in Venezuela and Cuba, to mean "gay" or "flamboyant". This, as well as other fish in the grouperGrouperGroupers are fish of any of a number of genera in the subfamily Epinephelinae of the family Serranidae, in the order Perciformes.Not all serranids are called groupers; the family also includes the sea basses. The common name grouper is usually given to fish in one of two large genera: Epinephelus...
generaGeneraGenera is a commercial operating system and development environment for Lisp machines developed by Symbolics. It is essentially a fork of an earlier operating system originating on the MIT AI Lab's Lisp machines which Symbolics had used in common with LMI and Texas Instruments...
("cherna" in spanish) are used in Cuba as well. - pájaro (lit.: "bird")—used in the Dominican Republic and Cuba; in the latter country, the feminine forms "pájara" and "pajaruca" are also used. In each case, the use is either affectionate or derogatory, depending on context.
- partido (or partí'o (lit:"broken one"; also also "political party")-used derogatively in Cuba.
- pato (lit.: "duck")—used in Puerto Rico, Panama and Cuba. This word is probably related to the Latin pathus meaning "sexually receptive.". In Cuba, by extension, other palmipedes's names are used to denote gayness: "oca" (Greylag GooseGreylag GooseThe Greylag Goose , Anser anser, is a bird with a wide range in the Old World. It is the type species of the genus Anser....
, "cisne" (swanSwanSwans, genus Cygnus, are birds of the family Anatidae, which also includes geese and ducks. Swans are grouped with the closely related geese in the subfamily Anserinae where they form the tribe Cygnini. Sometimes, they are considered a distinct subfamily, Cygninae...
), "ganso" (gooseGooseThe word goose is the English name for a group of waterfowl, belonging to the family Anatidae. This family also includes swans, most of which are larger than true geese, and ducks, which are smaller....
) and even "gaviota" (seagull). - playo ("flat")—used in Costa Rica.
- plumífero (lit. "feathered (bird)"). Common derogative use in Cuba.
- puto (see below).
- raro/rarito (lit.: "weird").
- tortillera (lit.: "a female who makes tortillaTortillaIn Mexico and Central America, a tortilla is a type of thin, unleavened flat bread, made from finely ground maize...
s")—one of the most common insults to lesbians. Lesbian sex is often referred to as tortillear or hacer tortilla ("to make a tortilla"). - parcha/parchita (corruption of "parga", a female pargo)
- sucia (lit.: "dirty woman")—used as an ironic term of endearment among male homosexuals
- trolo—used in Argentina
- trucha (lit.: "trout")
- tragaleche (lit.: "milk-swallower," with "milk" as a metaphor for ejaculate).
- Other terms: afeminado, chivo, colizón, comilón, fleto, homo, homogay (combination of the English loanwords "homo" and "gay"), julandrón, julai (shortened form of julandrón), plon, plumón, puñal, rosquete, sarasa, roscón, tragasable, et cetera.
- In Cuba, bombero (firefighterFirefighterFirefighters are rescuers extensively trained primarily to put out hazardous fires that threaten civilian populations and property, to rescue people from car incidents, collapsed and burning buildings and other such situations...
), capitán (captainCaptainCaptain or The Captain is derived from the Greek word katepánō which was a senior Byzantine military rank and office.It may refer to:...
), general (generalGeneralA general officer is an officer of high military rank, usually in the army, and in some nations, the air force. The term is widely used by many nations of the world, and when a country uses a different term, there is an equivalent title given....
) and other military (male) grades showing masculinity are used as slurs against lesbians, painting them with a un-feminine, dykelike appeareance.
With Spanish being a grammatically gendered
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
language, one's sexuality can be challenged with a gender-inapproriate adjective, much as in English one might refer to a flamboyant man or as a transgendered male as her. Some words referring to a male homosexual end in an "a" but have the masculine article "el"—a deliberate grammatical violation for a paradoxical effect. For example, although maricona refers to females, it may also be used as an compounded offensive remark towards a homosexual male, and vice-versa.
Pendejo
Pendejo (lit.: "a pubic hair') may be translated as "dumbass" in many situations, though it carries an extra implication of willful incompetence, or innocent gullibility that's ripe for others to exploit. The less extreme meaning, which is used in most Spanish speaking countries, translates more or less as "jackass." The term however, has very high offensive connotations in Puerto Rico. An older usage was in reference to a man who is in denial about being cheated (for example, by his wife).In Mexico, Central and Northern South America, pendejo refers to a stupid person (estúpido), synonymous with idiota ("idiot") or imbécil ("imbecile"), although much more offensive. It is considered very offensive in Mexico and Central America, and less so in Panama (although it is still considered impolite among older adults).
In Peru it means a person who is opportunistic in an immoral or deceptively persuasive manner (usually involving sexual gain and promiscuity, but not limited to it), and if used referring to a female (ella es pendeja) it means she is promiscuous (or perhaps a swindler). There the word pendejada and a whole family of related words have meanings that stem from these.
In South America
South America
South America is a continent situated in the Western Hemisphere, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere. The continent is also considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered on the west by the Pacific Ocean and on the north and east...
pendejo is also a vulgar, yet inoffensive word, for children. It also signifies a person with a disorderly or irregular life.
In Puerto Rico and Dominican Republic, it has different meanings depending on the situation. It can range from ¡Te cogieron de pendejo! ("You were swindled!") to ¡Qué tipa pendeja! ("What a dumbass!" as when a strange woman behaves offensively, then suddenly leaves). In Mexico and some countries of Central America—especially El Salvador—una pendejada/pendeja is used to describe something incredibly stupid that someone has done.
In many regions, especially in Cuba, pendejo also means coward (with a stronger connotation), as in ¡No huyas, pendejo! "Don't run away, chicken-shit!" or "No seas pendejo!" ("Don't be such a coward!").
In South America it refers to a person regarded with an obnoxiously determined advancement of one's own personality, wishes, or views (a "smartass").
In Argentina, Chile and Uruguay, pendejo or pendeja refers to a child, usually with a negative connotation, like that of immaturity or a "brat". Also, in Argentina, as "pendejo" literally means "pubic hair" it usually refers to someone of little to no social value.
In Peru, however, it does not necessarily have a negative connotation, and can just refer to someone who is clever and street-smart.
In North Sulawesi
North Sulawesi
North Sulawesi is a province of Indonesia. It is on the island of Sulawesi, and borders the province of Gorontalo to the west . The islands of Sangihe and Talaud form the northern part of the province, which border Davao del Sur in the Philippines.The capital and largest city in North Sulawesi is...
, Indonesia
Indonesia
Indonesia , officially the Republic of Indonesia , is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania. Indonesia is an archipelago comprising approximately 13,000 islands. It has 33 provinces with over 238 million people, and is the world's fourth most populous country. Indonesia is a republic, with an...
, pendo (a derivative of pendejo) is used as profanity but with the majority of the population not knowing its meaning. The word was adopted during the colonial era when Spanish and Portuguese merchants sailed to this northern tip of Indonesia for spices.
In Spain, this word is hardly ever used.
In the film Idiocracy
Idiocracy
Idiocracy is a 2006 American film, a satirical science fiction comedy, directed by Mike Judge and starring Luke Wilson, Maya Rudolph, Dax Shepard, and Terry Crews....
, Joe's lunk-headed lawyer is named Frito Pendejo.
Cabrón
Cabrón (lit.: "big goat" or "stubborn goat") is used in Spain, Mexico, Cuba and Puerto Rico, as a generic insult. An old usage is similar to that of "pendejo", namely, to imply that the subject is stubborn or in denial about being cheated, hence the man has "horns" like a goat (extremely insulting).In Spain Spanish (original Spanish), the meaning is an adult male goat. Cabra is an adult female goat.
The Mexican Spanish version is very offensive as it means "fucker" and other insults in English. The seven-note musical flourish known as a shave and a haircut
Shave and a Haircut
Shave and a Haircut and the associated response "two bits" is a simple, 7-note musical couplet popularly used at the end of a musical performance, usually for comic effect....
(two bits), commonly played on car horns
Vehicle horn
A vehicle horn is a sound-making device used to warn others of the approach of the vehicle or of its presence. Automobiles, trucks, ships, and trains are all required by law to have horns...
, is associated with the seven-syllable phrase ¡Chinga tu madre, cabrón! (Fuck your mother, asshole!). Playing the jingle on a car horn can result in a hefty fine for traffic violation if done in the presence of police, or road rage
Road rage
Road rage is an aggressive or angry behavior by a driver of an automobile or other motor vehicle. Such behavior might include rude gestures, verbal insults, deliberately driving in an unsafe or threatening manner, or making threats. Road rage can lead to altercations, assaults, and collisions...
if aimed at another driver or a pedestrian.
The expression ¡Ah cabrón! is used sometimes when one is shocked/surprised by something. Among close friends, the term is often inoffensive; however, it is not a word to be used casually with strangers.
As an adjective it is equivalent to "tough" as "It is tough" (Está cabrón).
To some extent, it can also be used with an ironically positive connotation meaning great, amazing, phenomenal, or bad-ass. Such expressions would be said as: ¡Estás cabrón! or ¡Yo soy cabrón!. The word is quite flexibly used in Puerto Rico, and it can even have completely opposite meanings depending on the context. Best friends call each other "cabrón" in a friendly manner, while it may also be used in an offensive manner. One might say, "Esta cabrón" to describe something as very good or very bad depending on the circumstance.
In Panama, it is used as an adjective to mean something/someone very annoying (that pisses you off). The verb cabrear can mean "to piss off (someone)."
In Peru, cabro is a reference to a homosexual, hence cabrón is a superlative form ("big faggot"/"flaming faggot").
The term cabrón also means a handler of prostitutes, comparable to "pimp
Pimp
A pimp is an agent for prostitutes who collects part of their earnings. The pimp may receive this money in return for advertising services, physical protection, or for providing a location where she may engage clients...
" in English. The most common way to refer to a pimp is Spanish is by using the term chulo as a noun. In some countries chulo can be used as an adjective somewhat equivalent to "cool" (Ese hombre es un chulo = "That man is a pimp" versus Ese libro es chulo = "That book is cool"). The word chula is a completely benign reference to an adorable female or feminine object
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
, as in "¡Ay, que chula!"
Gilipollas
Gilipollas is a term used mostly in Spain and lacking an exact translation to English. Although the most frequent equivalents when translated in books, films other media are "jerkJerk
In physics, jerk, also known as jolt , surge and lurch, is the rate of change of acceleration; that is, the derivative of acceleration with respect to time, the second derivative of velocity, or the third derivative of position...
", "jackass
Jackass
A jackass is a male donkey.Jackass may also refer to:In entertainment:* Jackass ** Jackass: The Movie, 2002** Jackass Number Two, 2006 film** Jackass 2.5, a DVD release** Jackass: The Game, a video game...
", "douchebag" or "asshole
Asshole
The word asshole, a variant of arsehole, which is still prevalent in British and Australian English, is a term used pejoratively to describe the anus.-History:...
" (in English), con (in French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
), and boludo or pendejo (in Latin American Spanish, see below), there sometimes is a subtlety missing therein which is seldom captured in languages other than European Spanish – to wit, the word may imply self-aware idiocy or incompetence, with this self-awareness occasionally stressed to the point of (presumably futile) complacence. Nevertheless, this is not always the case and the common ground for every accepted meaning of the word is limited to either one of the following:
- a person displaying a mix of obnoxiousness and stupidityStupidityStupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, wit, or sense. It may be innate, assumed, or reactive - 'being "stupid with grief" as a defence against trauma', a state marked with 'grief and despair...making even simple daily tasks a hardship'....
; - stupidity in its own right, to the point of eliciting animosity, whether faked or real, in whoever uses the word.
When selecting a word denoting low intelligence, most Spanish speakers have three options:
- using a merely descriptive term, or one which, although insulting, can be used as a mild or at times even affectionate form of teasing: tonto ("silly"), burro (lit.: "donkey"), etc.
- using a more explicitly insulting expression, although one which still does not qualify as a real profanity: imbécil, idiota, estúpido.
- one which delves into profanity. Gilipollas and capullo would correspond to such case.
The etymology of the word itself immediately confirms its genuinely Peninsular Spanish origins and preponderance, as opposed to other profanities perhaps more linked to Latin America: it is the combination of the Caló
Caló (Spanish Romani)
Caló is a language spoken by the Spanish and Portuguese Romani. It is a mixed language based on Romance grammar, with an adstratum of Romani lexical items through language shift by the Romani community. It is often used as an argot, a secret language for discreet communication amongst Iberian...
jili, usually translated as "candid", "silly" or "idiot", and a word which according to different sources is either polla (listed above) or a colloquial evolution thereto of the Latin pulla (bladder
Bladder
Bladder usually refers to an anatomical hollow organBladder may also refer to:-Biology:* Urinary bladder in humans** Urinary bladder ** Bladder control; see Urinary incontinence** Artificial urinary bladder, in humans...
).
Gilipollas is also a very old sport of the 17th and 18th centuries, invented by the Greeks in Spain. The word "gilipollas" comes from (gilus-pola). It is played with two balls with a radius of 4 inches and with a bat of two inches wide and 9 long. At stake may only be two teams, usually of boys against girls, each with between 6 and 9 players.
Perhaps due to the alternative origins of the latter part of the word, there has been some controversy concerning its status as a real profanity, although its clear phonetic evocation of the word polla leaves little room for doubt, at least in its common daily use. It is due to this that attempts at an euphemism
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
have at times become popular, as is the case with gilipuertas (puerta standing for door
Door
A door is a movable structure used to open and close off an entrance, typically consisting of a panel that swings on hinges or that slides or rotates inside of a space....
). Recently, similar phrases have appeared, especially in Spain, although most of them (such as soplapollas, "cock-blower") delve much further into plain profanity. A cognate in Catalan
Catalan language
Catalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
is gilipolles.
A usual derivation of the word gilipollas into an adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
form (or a false adjectival participle
Adjectival participle
Adjectival participles are participles which are derived from verbs and which are used like adjectives. They contrast with verbal participles, which are considered to be forms of verbs rather than adjectives. In English for instance, adjectival participles may appear with modifiers typical of...
) is agilipollado/agilipollada. For example: … está agilipollado/a would mean "… is behaving like a gilipollas." Regardless of whether or not such condition or irreversible, the verb estar is always used, as opposed to ser. Gilipollat/da' would be the Catalan cognate. Another Spanish construction with similar rationale is atontado, derived from tonto ("silly").
A noun from of the word is gilipollez, meaning "stupidity" or "nonsense."
Capullo
Capullo (lit: "cocoonCocoon
Cocoon may refer to:*Cocoon , a pupal casing made by moth caterpillars and other insect larvae*Apache Cocoon, web development software*Cocoon , a 1985 science fiction film**Cocoon: The Return, 1988 sequel to Cocoon...
" or "flower
Flower
A flower, sometimes known as a bloom or blossom, is the reproductive structure found in flowering plants . The biological function of a flower is to effect reproduction, usually by providing a mechanism for the union of sperm with eggs...
bud") is nearly always interchangeable with that of gilipollas. The main difference between the two of them is that while a gilipollas normally behaves like he does out of sheer stupidity, a capullo normally acts like one by applying certain amount of evil intentions to his acts. While one can act like a gilipollas without being one, in the capullo instance that is not possible. In English to be means at the same time both the permanent/ fundamental characteristics and the non permanent/ circumstantial ones of anything, in Spanish to be separates into two distinct verbs: ser and estar which respectively reflect the aforementioned characteristics. So, to say about anyone that es un gilipollas means that he is stupid/ annoying permanently, while to say está agilipollado reflects both his present state and the fact that it could change at any time to a non agilipollado one. This is not true for a capullo: if someone thinks about someone else that he is a capullo, he thinks so permanently, because the degree of evil he sees in the capullo's actions tends to be thought of as a permanent characteristic, inherent to the capullos personality. So the correspondent verb ser would be used: es un capullo, and the estar verb would never be used.
Whenever used as an affectionate or heavily informal form of teasing rather than as an insult, though, capullo is used a bit more often. This may be because someone who does not have an intention to offend will resort to a lower amount of syllables, hence rendering the expression less coarse and ill-sounding. Therefore, expressions such as venga va, no seas ___ ("come on, don't be silly") would use capullo more frequently than gilipollas.
Huey/Güey
Huey/Güey is a common term in Mexico, coming from the word buey that literally means "ox" or "steer." It means "stupid" or a "cheated husband/boyfriend/cuckold."It can be used as a less offensive substitute for cabrón when used among close friends. Mexican teenagers and young Chicano
Chicano
The terms "Chicano" and "Chicana" are used in reference to U.S. citizens of Mexican descent. However, those terms have a wide range of meanings in various parts of the world. The term began to be widely used during the Chicano Movement, mainly among Mexican Americans, especially in the movement's...
men use this word routinely in referring to one another, similar to "dude" in English. "Vato" is the older Mexican word for this.
Joto
Joto (lit.: the "jack" or a "knave" in a Western deck of cardsCard game
A card game is any game using playing cards as the primary device with which the game is played, be they traditional or game-specific. Countless card games exist, including families of related games...
) is used in Mexico and the southwestern United States, usually pejoratively, in reference to an over-sexed male. Arguably more offensive than maricón, joto usually refers to a man who is indifferent to pertinent matters, or who is a "loser", with perhaps a hinted accusation of closeted
Closeted
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors used to describe lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning and intersex people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior.-Background:In late 20th...
homosexuality. For example, a gay
Gay
Gay is a word that refers to a homosexual person, especially a homosexual male. For homosexual women the specific term is "lesbian"....
man in Mexico might derisively refer to himself as a maricón, but probably not as a joto. Recently the use of joto in Mexico have changed, and is being embraced by the gay community
Gay community
The gay community, or LGBT community, is a loosely defined grouping of LGBT and LGBT-supportive people, organizations and subcultures, united by a common culture and civil rights movements. These communities generally celebrate pride, diversity, individuality, and sexuality...
, mainly as an adjective: Es una película muy jota ("It's a very gay movie"). Not to be confused with the word jota, which refers to a traditional Spanish, Mexican or Argentine parlor dance.
Gonorrea
Gonorrea is commonly used in Colombia to express strong contempt. For instance, it would be used to insult an unremorseful murderer, e.g.: Ese hombre es una gonorrea ("That man is a despicable person"). In some cases it may be similar to hijo de puta/hijueputa. Gonorrea can also refer to objects: ¡Este trabajo es una gonorrea! ("This work is very hard"); ¡¡Una gonorrea de trabajo!! ("An absolutely disgusting work").Madre
Madre, depending on its usage (for example: madrear—"to beat," or hasta la madre—"full"), can be profane in Mexico, where there is a cultural taboo against matriarchial families (due to associations with pagan witchcraftWitchcraft
Witchcraft, in historical, anthropological, religious, and mythological contexts, is the alleged use of supernatural or magical powers. A witch is a practitioner of witchcraft...
). Chinga tu madre is considered the extremely offensive.
Madre could be used to reference objects, like ¡Que poca madre! ("That's terrible!") and Esta madre no funciona ("This shit doesn't work"). It can also be used with an ironically positve connotation, as in ¡Está de poca/puta madre! ("It's fucking awesome!").
Madrazo, in Colombia, refers to insults in general, and "echar madrazos" means "to insult/curse somebody out."
Pinche
Pinche has different meaningsIn Spain, it mainly means a restaurant chef assistant or a kitchen helper who helps cook the food and clean the utensils. Another meaning is used as an insult, as in pinche güey ("loser"), or to describe an object of poor quality, está muy pinche ("It really sucks").
In Mexico, it is very offensive and is often equivalent to the English terms "damn", "freakin'" or "fuckin'", as in estos pinches aguacates están podridos… ("These damn avocados are rotten…"); Pinche Mario ya no ha venido… ("Freakin' Mario hasn't come yet"); or ¿¡Quieres callarte la pinche boca!? ("Would you like to shut your fuckin' mouth?"). Sometimes pinchudo(a) is said instead.
In Puerto Rico pinche simply refers to a hairpin, while pincho has the same meaning in Dominican Spanish.
Puta
Puta literally means whore, and can be extended to any woman who is sexually promiscuous. This word is common to all other Romance languages (it is puta also in Portuguese and Catalan, pute/putain in French, puttana in Italian, and so on) and almost certainly comes from Vulgar Latin putta (from puttus, alteration of putus "boy"), although the Royal Spanish Academy lists its origins as "uncertain" (unlike other dictionaries, such as the María Moliner, which state putta as its origin).The word is used in quite a few common expressions. hijo de puta is the Spanish equivalent of "son of a bitch" in English. The use of puta as "bitch" has led to its use as slang for the word "bitch" in the US by Spanish-speaking immigrants.
In Honduras
Honduras
Honduras is a republic in Central America. It was previously known as Spanish Honduras to differentiate it from British Honduras, which became the modern-day state of Belize...
, and El Salvador, the word puta is a very common part of everyday speech, and it is not such a strong word as it is in the rest of Central America.
It is also widely used in the Philippines as a curse word. The phrase Putang ina mo would translate to "Your mother is a whore" or "Your mother the whore."
Hijo de puta
While hijo de puta is a common insult in Latin American countries (and is even dismissed as a not very offensive one), saying tu madre es una puta ("your mother is a whore"), while just a slight rewording, is much more offensive to the average Latin American, since it is perceived more as a personal insult to one's mother than to oneself. In informal spoken Spanish, hijo de puta may often be contracted to hijueputa or jueputa. In Spain, the contraction hijoputa is commonplace. Milder corruptions include juepuña and juepucha.Hayao Miyazaki
Hayao Miyazaki
is a Japanese manga artist and prominent film director and animator of many popular anime feature films. Through a career that has spanned nearly fifty years, Miyazaki has attained international acclaim as a maker of animated feature films and, along with Isao Takahata, co-founded Studio Ghibli,...
's Japanese film 天空の城ラピュタ (Laputa: Castle in the Sky) was marketed outside Japan with the title "Castle in the Sky" because la puta means "the whore" in Spanish; this expression is used for denoting surprise or just insulting someone. Film's title was a reference to Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift
Jonathan Swift was an Irish satirist, essayist, political pamphleteer , poet and cleric who became Dean of St...
's book Gulliver's Travels
Gulliver's Travels
Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World, in Four Parts. By Lemuel Gulliver, First a Surgeon, and then a Captain of Several Ships, better known simply as Gulliver's Travels , is a novel by Anglo-Irish writer and clergyman Jonathan Swift that is both a satire on human nature and a parody of...
, in which Laputa
Laputa
Laputa is a fictional place from the book Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.Laputa is a fictional flying island or rock, about 4.5 miles in diameter, with an adamantine base, which its inhabitants can maneuver in any direction using magnetic levitation...
is the name of a flying island. In the Spanish-language version of the movie, the flying island was referred as Lapuntu as a euphemism
Euphemism
A euphemism is the substitution of a mild, inoffensive, relatively uncontroversial phrase for another more frank expression that might offend or otherwise suggest something unpleasant to the audience...
. There was also a Japanese car with the same name: the Mazda Laputa
Mazda Laputa
The Mazda Laputa is a clone of the aptly named Suzuki Kei. It was a kei car from Mazda in Japan. The Laputa was introduced in 1999 as a sort of SUV/kei car mix. The Laputa was restyled slightly for 2001 and was retired in 2006. The Laputa was available with front- or all wheel drive and as a...
.
The expression hijo de puta is often transformed to hijo de la gran puta (literally: "son of the great bitch"), hijo de la grandísima puta (literally: "son of the really great bitch"), maldito hijo de puta ("cursed son of a bitch") or simply hijo de la gran … (literally: "son of the great …") to add emphasize to another insult. Another possible derivation is hijo de mil putas (literally: "son of a thousand bitches").
Also, when referring to a specific person rather than arbitrarily blurting hijo de puta, one may proclaim hijo de su puta madre in order to specify a certain person with whom the speaker is displeased.
In Spain, puta (as well as its masculine form puto) is very frequently used as an adjective. It is then sometimes little more than an expletive devoid of meaning: vamos a la puta calle, lit.: "we are going to the whore street." To be somebody or something de puta madre (lit.: "from a whore mother") means to be excellent, to be the best possible: Lo pasamos de puta madre "We had a bloody brilliant time." It can be also ironic: De puta madre, ¿ahora qué hacemos? "Bloody brilliant. What are we supposed to do now?"
Oddly, in Dominican Republic, the phrase Tu maldita madre! ("Your damned mother") is used instead.
Puto
Perhaps the most offensive word referring to a homosexual male is puto; literally male prostitute. It is highly offensive, but is sometimes used by members of the gay community to refer to themselves, as a form of cultural appropriationCultural appropriation
Cultural appropriation is the adoption of some specific elements of one culture by a different cultural group. It describes acculturation or assimilation, but can imply a negative view towards acculturation from a minority culture by a dominant culture. It can include the introduction of forms of...
(similar to the use of "bitch" between English-speaking women or incarcerated homosexuals). In many places, such as Mexico, it is a pejorative reference to a gay man (this usage is present in Don Quixote). In others, like Cuba and Puerto Rico for example, puto is simply a comment on a man who is promiscuous and a womanizer (depending on context or tone, it can be extremely offensive or teasing). In Puerto Rico puto or palgo may refer to a womanizer.
Less-offensive uses of puto/puta
Puta or puto can also be used as adjectives, roughly corresponding to the equivalent of "fucking", "shitty", "bitch" or "bloody"; ¡Dame el puto dinero! means "Give me the fucking money!"An expression used in Spain is ¡Me cago en la puta Virgen! (literally "I shit on the virgin whore!" but better translated as "I shit on the fucking Virgin!").
Puta madre (lit.: "whore or fucking mother")—used in phrases such as de puta madre in Spain, Mexico, Peru and Chile. It can also be used as an ironic expression of praise. For example: Me siento de puta madre can be translated as "I feel motherfucking great". So, the use of puta madre is comparable to how "motherfucker" can be used positively in English, although more uniformly positive: Escribe como la puta madre (in Spain: escribe de puta madre) might mean "He writes motherfucking great"; Es una tía de puta madre can mean "She's a motherfucking awesome chick." There is also a pejorative way of saying it, which is ¡Vete con la puta madre que te parió! which means "Leave with the whore-of-a-mother who gave birth to you!"
The phrases En mi puta vida … and En la vida de mi puta madre … mean "Never in my life …" and are considered vulgar although not personally insulting, per se.
The verbal form putear could mean: "piss off", "harass", "mistreat", "tease", "beat up".
Other attacks against fornicators
- cuero (lit.: "leather" or, metaphorically, "skin")—used in Puerto Rico and the Dominican Republic to mean a "hooker." It is also used in Panama for referring to women Mira ese cuero ("Check out that woman"). Botas de cuero ("leather boots") is a pun that also means "hooker boots" (literally, "boots for a hooker").
- In Mexico, it may be a playful reference to any sexually attractive woman.
- avión (lit.: "airplane") and avionazo (lit.: "big airplane") are Dominican equivalents to the English word slut.
- In Colombia, avion is an ironic reference to someone who is street-smart or clever. For example: El es mucho avion ("He's very clever").
- furcia
- ramera
- maraco/maraca: in Chile and Argentina, the former (male) form means maricón, as stated above. However, the latter (female) form means "prostitute", not "lesbian". Not to be confused with maracas which is a pair of rattles used as a traditional musical instrument.
Other attacks against one's character
- analfabestia (contraction of analfabeto, "illiterate" and bestia, "beast")—refers to someone who has made a fundamental error in spelling or grammar. In Latin America, education is highly valued and some people have little patience for native Spanish-speaking adults whose mastery of the Spanish language is questionable.
- chocha (see above) can also refer to a senile person.
- cerote (lit.: "a wad of wax", or, metaphorically, a wad of dry feces)—used in Guatemala and El Salvador as an insult similar to "piece of shit"
- connorito—slang for a male Spanish prostitute
- mal nacido or mal parido (lit.: "badly born")—sometimes shortened in one word (malnacido/malparido), is used in many Latin American countries as synonyms for "motherfucker", particularly in Colombia.
- mal criado (lit.: "badly raised", "spoiled")—used to scold a misbehaving child or a delinquent adult.
- saco de huevas/"sacoweas" (lit.: "sack of huevas")—used in Chile to mean useless. This insult is directed much more to men or objects than to women.
Profanity related to religion
Perhaps paradoxically, there is a tendency in Spanish-speaking countries to religiously related, irreverent or even blasphemous profanity which is far more prevalent than in other countries with a lower percentage of Christian affiliates. Most, if not all, of the profanity is of Peninsular Spanish origin, has always been much more prevalent in Spain, and was already existing before the population in Spain and Latin America was exposed, to any degree, to Evangelical Christianity. Therefore, the etymology for these expressions arises from Christian terms, especially those concerning Catholic rites.Hostia
Hostia literally means a sacramental hostSacramental bread
Sacramental bread, sometimes called the lamb, altar bread, host or simply Communion bread, is the bread which is used in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist.-Eastern Catholic and Orthodox:...
, but in Spain and Puerto Rico and Malta (whose natives speak Maltese
Maltese language
Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic...
, a language heavily influenced by Romance languages) it also has profane connotations:
- Bodily destruction – whether by slapping, smacking, smashing or punching: e.g. se pegó una hostia con el coche (he/she smashed his car up badly). For example, Te voy a meter dos hostias ("I'll put two hostias in you") means I'll beat the shit out of you.
- A variation of this is no tener media hostia (lit.: "not having half a host"), which means having a weak or frail disposition—the implication being that the subject couldn't win a fight.
- An abstract or distant point of reference or comparison. For example, Hace un frío de la hostia means "It's freezing like Hell." Más feo que la hostia roughly translates to "Uglier than the host", but means "Uglier than Hell". Eres la hostia ("You're the host") might be a vulgar way of saying "You are something else."
- It's customary to describe something by saying la hostia de …, for instance Este chocolate está la hostia de bueno (lit.: "This chocolate is as good as the host") would mean "This chocolate is so fucking delicious."
- An idiom which is frequently used in Spanish (and sometimes in Catalan, without translating quinta to cinquena) is la quinta hostia (lit.: "the fifth host"), indicating a very long distance. Ahora vete a saber dónde trabaja Juan; me han dicho que se fue a la quinta hostia might mean "Who knows where Juan works now; I heard that they sent him to the boonies."
- A toda hostia means "quickly" or "hurriedly."
- It is also used as a generic interjection, such as many four-letter words in English. ¡(La) hostia! would simply mean "Shit!" or "Damn!" for instance denoting surprise or indignation. ¡(La) hostia puta! means "Fucking hostia!" but would translate to "Holy shit!" Minced oaths include ¡Ostras! (lit.: "Oysters!"), ¡Ondia! and ¡Óstima! (both derived from CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
).
- It is also used as a generic interjection, such as many four-letter words in English. ¡(La) hostia! would simply mean "Shit!" or "Damn!" for instance denoting surprise or indignation. ¡(La) hostia puta! means "Fucking hostia!" but would translate to "Holy shit!" Minced oaths include ¡Ostras! (lit.: "Oysters!"), ¡Ondia! and ¡Óstima! (both derived from Catalan
- The same variations are applicable to this meaning that to four-letter words. For instance ¿Qué hostias haces? would mean "what the fuck are you doing?."
- It can also be used to mean "bullshit", "stupidity" or anything trifling. Déjate/dejémonos de hostias would mean "just cut the crap" or "don't waste your time." Ya estoy harto de tanta hostia would mean "I've had it with this shit." … no se anda con hostias would mean "… is really no-nonsense" or "… doesn't fuck around."
- A very frequent use of the word is in mala hostia (lit.: "bad host"), which can stand for any of the following:
- a state of extreme anger: estoy de mala hostia would mean "I'm pissed off."
- a vicious, vindictive, malevolent, abrasive or aggressive character or disposition. It is usually the translation for English expressions such as "mean disposition", "bad attitude", "short temper."
- a tendency towards cynicism or callousness: tienes muy mala hostia insinuando eso ("that insinuation is so fucking disingenuous/ill-intentioned of you")
- bad luck: ya es mala hostia morirse el día de su cumpleaños would mean "it takes the hell of a bad luck to die on his birthday."
- Used to express anger, irritation, contempt, or disappointment: me cago en la hostia (lit.: "I shit on the communion host").
The phrase cagando hostias (lit.: "shitting hosts [over and over]") means "as fast as possible" – or even faster than possible. Cuando llegó la pasma, nos abrimos cagando hostias, "When the cops arrived, we got the fuck away immediately."
Compare "hostie" in Quebec profanity.
Leche
A word used almost interchangeably with all profane uses of hostia is leche (lit.: "milk"), possibly derived either from a common slang term for spermSperm
The term sperm is derived from the Greek word sperma and refers to the male reproductive cells. In the types of sexual reproduction known as anisogamy and oogamy, there is a marked difference in the size of the gametes with the smaller one being termed the "male" or sperm cell...
, or from the milk that one had from his mother as a baby. Tener mala leche—literally, "to have bad milk", figuratively referring to the child of a promiscuous or otherwise despicable woman—refers to someone who is mean-spirited.
- Te voy a meter una leche means I'll beat the fuck out of you.
- eres la leche: "you're unbelievable." (used with an ironically positive connotation, e.g.: Este juego es la leche. - This game is awesome.)
- leche or leches (minced oath: leñe) means "Goddamnit", usually inserted at the end of a sentence.
- Déjate de leches means "Just cut the bull" or "Let's get straight to the point".
- Estoy de mala leche would mean "I'm pissed off." This is extremely common in Spain. It can be used as a noun: el de la tienda de enfrente es un viejo mala leche would be "the desk clerk in the store across the street is a cranky old fucker." Mala leche or mala hostia are usually introduced as translations for concepts such as cynicismCynicismCynicism , in its original form, refers to the beliefs of an ancient school of Greek philosophers known as the Cynics . Their philosophy was that the purpose of life was to live a life of Virtue in agreement with Nature. This meant rejecting all conventional desires for wealth, power, health, and...
or schadenfreudeSchadenfreudeSchadenfreude is pleasure derived from the misfortunes of others. This German word is used as a loanword in English and some other languages, and has been calqued in Danish and Norwegian as skadefryd and Swedish as skadeglädje....
. - ¡Qué mala leche tienes! would mean "You're so mean!" or even "You're such a badass!"
- Siempre tuvo muy mala leche con sus inversiones—"He was always so damn down on his luck with his investments."
Minced oaths for mala leche include mala idea or mala baba (lit.: "bad drool").
Copón
Copón, used mostly in Spain, stands literally for the ciboriumCiborium
thumb|250px|[[Silver-gilt]] ciboriumA ciborium is a vessel, normally in metal...
, but also shares virtually the same profane usage as the second listed definition for hostia. For instance: Mas feo que el copón roughly translates to "uglier than the ciborium", but means "uglier than Hell." ¡Copón bendito! ("Blessed chalice!"), would means something like "Holy crap!"
Compare "ciboire" and "câlice" in Quebec profanity.
Openly blasphemous expressions
Perhaps unique to a number of Romance languagesRomance languages
The Romance languages are a branch of the Indo-European language family, more precisely of the Italic languages subfamily, comprising all the languages that descend from Vulgar Latin, the language of ancient Rome...
are the openly scathing remarks directly aimed at Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
iconography or Catholic rites. Many of them involve acts of , such as cagar, "to shit", e.g.:
- Me cago en Dios ("I shit on God"),
- Me cago en Cristo ("I shit on Christ"),
- Me cago en la madre de Dios / en la Virgen ("I shit on the Mother of God / on the Virgin"),
- Me cago en la hostia ("I shit on the Host").
- Me cago en tus muertos ("I shit on your ancestors").
- Me cago en vosotros ("I shit on you all", prevalent in Spain).
- Me cago en vos ("I shit on you", prevalent in Argentina).
- La concha de Dios ("The cunt of God", often used in Argentina as an insult, it is said to be the place where all human were born, as "The vagina of God")
- Me cago en Dios y en la puta Virgen ("I shit on God and on the fucking Virgin", prevalent in Spain and Argentina).
- ¡Maldita sea! (lit.: "May he/she/it be cursed
[by God] ")—a common interjectionInterjectionIn grammar, an interjection or exclamation is a word used to express an emotion or sentiment on the part of the speaker . Filled pauses such as uh, er, um are also considered interjections...
used almost universally across Spanish-speaking regions (except for Argentina). Despite the literal meaning, it is widely used in Spanish-speaking television, since it is not considered very offensive, it is always much more preferable than ¡Coño!, for instance.
- It is considered offensive when combine with other phrases to form a personal insult. For example: ¡Maldita sea la madre que te parió!' ("God damn the mother who bore you!"), ¡Maldita sea la chocha que te parió! ("God damn the cunt that bore you!")
- ¡Demonios! (lit.: "demons!")—used to express grief. For example: ¡Qué demonios! would be "What the hell!"
- Diablo or Diablos (lit.: "Devil" and "devils", respectively)—used as expletive fillers, similar to "Hell" in English and analogous to the BritishBritish slangBritish slang is English language slang used in the UK. Slang is informal language sometimes peculiar to a particular social class or group and its use in Britain dates back to before the 16th century...
usage of the word "devil." No sabemos qué diablo/diablos hará ese cabrón means "We don't know what the hell/devil that jerk will do!"
- Diablo is often used in the Dominican Republic to express extreme displeasure (El examen fue más difícil que el diablo = "The test was extremely difficult" - literally "The test was tougher than the Devil"). The phrase más que el diablo (which could translate as "Yeah, right!") is also used often in the Dominican Republic to express incredulity (Ese examen fue fácil – más que el diablo = "That exam was easy – yeah, right!").
- Diantre—used as a minced oathMinced oathA minced oath is an expression based on a profanity or a taboo term that has been altered to reduce the objectionable characteristics.Many languages have such expressions...
for diablo. Diañe, and Diache are also used as substitute terms in the Dominican Republic. Equivalents in English would be "dickens", "deuce", or "heck" (example: ¿¡Pero qué diantres has hecho!? - "Uh, what the heck have you done!?"). - "¡Santa María!"/"¡Ave María!" ("Goddamn it!")
- "Ay, Dios" ("Oh, God") or "Ay, Dios mío" ("Oh my God"). Alternatively, women may say "Ay, Virgen" or "Ay, Santa." Not considered personally offensive, but blasphemous nonetheless.
- Lavincompái (contracted form of "la Virgen compadre")—perhaps the strongest profane utterance used in Andalucía especially in the environs around Granada. Its equivalent in American English may be "motherfucker", and the Spanish term can be employed across the same spectrum of expression. One may use it to express anger, disgust, or even an extreme pleasure, but it should be employed judiciously and not in polite company.
- ¡San … (usually involving one or more Catholic SaintSaintA saint is a holy person. In various religions, saints are people who are believed to have exceptional holiness.In Christian usage, "saint" refers to any believer who is "in Christ", and in whom Christ dwells, whether in heaven or in earth...
s) - "¡Puñeta!" may be short for "¡Una puñeta en la cruz!" or "¡Me hago una puñeta en la cruz!" ("I masturbate onto the Cross!")
- The "… tu madre" component in a phrase can be changed to the elongated "… la madre de Dios." For example: "¡Maldita sea!" can be changed to "¡Maldita sea tu madre!" or "¡Maldita sea la madre de Dios!" ("Damn it", "Curse your mother", "Curse the Mother of God"). Similarly, "Concha-tu-madre" can be changed to "Concha-la-madre-de-Dios."
- Diantre—used as a minced oath
There are some creative variations, usually involving to addition of puta/puto ("fucking") to any of the above or combining words (e.g. Me cago en Dios y en su puta madre). Occasionally, the rather incongruous Me cago en San Dios, when heard, is usually indicative of a low social standing. In Spain, youths perpetuate such idiomatic expressions as a form of linguistic audacity; often phrases that seem most shocking, archaic or otherwise eccentric are favored. Thus it is not uncommon to hear Cago en tu dios ("I shit on your god"), or the more elaborate and blasphemous Me cago en la boca del Papá ("I take a shit into the mouth of the Pope"), Me cago en el copón ("I take a shit into the Holy Chalice") or Me cago en el sagrado corazón de Jesús ("I take a shit onto the Sacred Heart of Jesus"). Expressions like these are considered more offensive than those previously listed and, surprisingly, are actually condemned as blasphemous - even by those who would not hesitate to utter an occasional "Me cago en Dios."
- Again paradoxically, these are most common in rural regions of Spain, where Catholicism is most prevalent. However, the region in Spain where these expressions are used most profusely, and at times "creatively", is a non-Spanish speaking region, comprising EmpordàEmpordàEmpordà is a historical region of Catalonia divided since 1936 into two comarques, Alt Empordà and Baix Empordà....
and GarrotxaGarrotxaGarrotxa is a comarca in Catalonia, Spain. Its population in 2001 was 47,747, more than half of them in the capital city of Olot. It is roughly equivalent to the historical comarca of Besalú.-Geography:...
, where CatalanCatalan languageCatalan is a Romance language, the national and only official language of Andorra and a co-official language in the Spanish autonomous communities of Catalonia, the Balearic Islands and Valencian Community, where it is known as Valencian , as well as in the city of Alghero, on the Italian island...
is the prevalent language and the one in which all these expressions are used:- Em/me cago en Déu ("I shit on God"), by far the most usual, pronounced in abbreviated form cagondéu,
- Em/me cago en la Verge/la mare de Déu ("I shit on the Virgin"),
- Em/me cago en l'hòstia ("I shit on the Holy Form"), sometimes pronounced in abbreviated form cagonlhòstia,
- Collons de Déu (literally "God's balls", standing for "fucking God").
- variations which can be extremely convoluted. e.g. cagon' el Déu que t'aguanta (lit.: "I shit on the God that holds you"), cagon el Déu que et va parir (lit.: "I shit on the God that gave birth to you"), em/me cago en els tres/quatre puntals/pilars que aguanten la cagadera de Déu (lit.: "I shit on the three/four pillars holding God's toilet").
Common stereotypes characterize this region as the birthplace of "eccentric" characters (some of them famous. e.g. Salvador Dalí
Salvador Dalí
Salvador Domènec Felip Jacint Dalí i Domènech, Marquis de Púbol , commonly known as Salvador Dalí , was a prominent Spanish Catalan surrealist painter born in Figueres,Spain....
, Josep Pla
Josep Pla
Josep Pla i Casadevall was a Catalan Spanish journalist and a popular author. As a journalist he worked in France, Italy, England, Germany and Russia, from where he wrote political and cultural chronicles in Catalan.His figure is somewhat controversial for present day Catalans...
or Alexandre Deulofeu
Alexandre Deulofeu
Alexandre Deulofeu Torres was a Catalan politician and philosopher of history...
) and one of the most usual attributes of this stereotype is the very casual use of blasphemous profanity—to the point of it being indicative of other states of mind aside from outrage, such as joy or surprise.
Minced oaths include Me cago en diez (lit.: "I shit on ten"), La madre de Dios (without the me cago en) or La madre del cordero ("the lamb's mother"). Once again, Spaniards rejoice in elaborating on existing swear expressions and thus one may hear Cago en el copón de la baraja ("I shit into the ace of cups" (from deck of cards)) or Cago en la copiona ("I shit onto the copy-cat") instead of Cago en el copón. In this case copón, literally "large cup" is the subject of the pun. Another source of neologisms in the field of profanity is the elaboration of intricate rebuttals (often rhymed ones) that are uttered consensually by several speakers, i. e.: a person may say "Cago en diez" "I shit on ten" and somebody else may add Cago en veinte que es más potente "I shit on twenty, because it's much more plenty" and so forth.
A common way that new phrases are developed is through the habitual avoidance of formal swears by substituting euphemisms. Instead of Me cago en Dios one may hear such expressions as Me cago en Dena ("I shit on Dena") or Me cago en Diógenes ("I shit on Diogenes") or Me cago en Dío ("I shit on Dío") or Me cago en Diosle ("I shit on Diosle") or Me cago en diéresis ("I shit on the umlaut"). Some of these rhymes and euphemisms are rather obscure but once they spread, they become common lore among those speakers who rejoice in discovering new expressions. A prime example of an incongruous swear expression would be Me cago en Mahoma que tiene los huevos (cojones) de plástico y de goma ("I shit on Mohammed, who has balls of plastic and of rubber").
Compare to Italian porco Dio, porca Madonna or the numerous possible bestemmie (see: Italian profanity
Italian profanity
Italian profanity refers to a set of words considered blasphemous or inflammatory in the Italian language....
), French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
Nom de Dieu or Nom de Nom or Romanian anafora mă-tii! ("Your mother's host!").
The reason why these expressions are so prevalent in Romance languages might be the totem
Totem
A totem is a stipulated ancestor of a group of people, such as a family, clan, group, lineage, or tribe.Totems support larger groups than the individual person. In kinship and descent, if the apical ancestor of a clan is nonhuman, it is called a totem...
ic or comic cults practiced by the ancient peoples of the Italian Peninsula
Italian Peninsula
The Italian Peninsula or Apennine Peninsula is one of the three large peninsulas of Southern Europe , spanning from the Po Valley in the north to the central Mediterranean Sea in the south. The peninsula's shape gives it the nickname Lo Stivale...
and the Northern Mediterranean Basin
Mediterranean Basin
In biogeography, the Mediterranean Basin refers to the lands around the Mediterranean Sea that have a Mediterranean climate, with mild, rainy winters and hot, dry summers, which supports characteristic Mediterranean forests, woodlands, and scrub vegetation...
, or by the indigenous peoples of what would eventually become the largest area of expansion of the Roman Empire
Roman Empire
The Roman Empire was the post-Republican period of the ancient Roman civilization, characterised by an autocratic form of government and large territorial holdings in Europe and around the Mediterranean....
. There are villages, at least in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, where it is still customary to insult and boisterously poke fun at an effigy of the Virgin Mary as a sign of awe and belief (however contradictory this might seem to foreigners). Nevertheless, this is not the only reason, as open Maltheism
Maltheism
Maltheism is the belief that God exists as a cruel, arrogant, abusive, and untruthful being who is either not worthy of worship or worthy of worshipping only from mere fear and intimidation...
is not unusual, especially among intellectuals or elder educated people in rural zones of Catalonia
Catalonia
Catalonia is an autonomous community in northeastern Spain, with the official status of a "nationality" of Spain. Catalonia comprises four provinces: Barcelona, Girona, Lleida, and Tarragona. Its capital and largest city is Barcelona. Catalonia covers an area of 32,114 km² and has an...
, both as a consequence of the above phenomena and of the volatile relationship established between the peasantry and working class and the upper echelons of the Catholic Church. A common phrase, sometimes attributed to philosopher Xavier Rubert de Ventós
Catalan independentism
Catalan independentism is a political movement, derived from Catalan nationalism, which supports the independence of Catalonia or the so-called Catalan countries from Spain and France...
, is Déu, si existeix, és un fill de puta ("God, if He exists, is a son of a bitch"). This phenomenon is also found in Quebec
Quebec French profanity
The literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre....
, which is also of Catholic Romance background, but it would appear, rarely in Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
, German
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
-speaking, or Catholic Slavic
Slavic peoples
The Slavic people are an Indo-European panethnicity living in Eastern Europe, Southeast Europe, North Asia and Central Asia. The term Slavic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people, who speak languages belonging to the Slavic language family and share, to varying degrees, certain...
countries like Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
. The Irish, for example, are famous for their profanity but usually limit it to secular words.
Racial and ethnic derogatives
- word endings such as aco. arro, azo, ito or (in Spain) ata are used to confer a falsely augmentative or diminutive, usually derogative quality to different racial and cultural denominations: e.g. negrata or negraco (and, with a more condescending and less aggressive demeanor, negrito) are the usual Spanish translations for niggerNiggerNigger is a noun in the English language, most notable for its usage in a pejorative context to refer to black people , and also as an informal slang term, among other contexts. It is a common ethnic slur...
. Moraco would be the translation for "raghead" or "camel jockey". - Frijolero is the most commonly used Spanish word for beanerBeanerBeaner is a slang term, widely regarded as derogatory, that refers to people of Mexican descent. The term originates from the prevalence of frijoles pintos and other beans in Mexican food....
and is particularly offensive when used by a non-Mexican person towards a Mexican in the southwestern United States. - GabachoGabachoGabacho is a word used in the Spanish language to describe foreigners of different origins:* In Spain, it is used as a pejorative for French people. It comes from Occitan gavach...
, in Spain, is used as a derisive term for French people—and, by extension, any French-speaking individual. Among Latin American speakers, however, it is meant as a usually offensive term for white people. - mayate (lit.: dung beetle)-mostly used by Mexicans or Mexican-Americans referring to dark-skinned or black individuals.
- llanta (lit.: tire)-a general prison slang used by Mexicans or Mexican-Americans referring to very dark skinned individuals.
- Prieto Used to describe dark people. Source: people from Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico.
- Sudaca, in spite of its etymology (sudamericano, "South American"), is a derogative term used in Spain for all Latin Americans, South American or Central American in origin.
Other terms
- chucha—used in Colombia in reference to offensive body odor.
- so'—used to imply "such a …" but not always able to be directly translated in English. For example: "¡Cállate, so' puta!" ("Shut up, you bitch!")
- vaina (lit.: "sheath or pod")—in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia it is a commonly used generic filler. For example: Esta vaina se dañó ("This thing broke down").
- It can also be used in phrases to denote any strong emotion. For example: ¡Vea la vaina!, can mean "Isn't that something!" (expressing discontent or surprise). Esa vaina quedó muy bien (lit.: "That vaina came up really well") would translate to "It turned out really well" (expressing rejoice or happiness) and … y toda esa vaina would translate to "… and all that crap".
- In the Dominican Republic it is commonly used in combination with other profanities to express anger or discontent. For example: "¡Qué maldita vaina, coñazo!" meaning "Fuck, that's bullshit!" or "¡Vaina'el diablo coño!" which translates as "Damn, (this) thing (is) of the devil!" but would be used to refer to a situation as "fucking shit".
See also
- AlburAlburIn Mexico, an albur is a pun or a double entendre in which one of the possible meanings usually carries sexual undertones. It is very common among groups of predominately male friends; however, its use is considered rude or distasteful when not amongst friends, especially when in the presence of...
- Finnish profanityFinnish profanityMany Finns frequently use profanity in everyday speech even though their culture is considered more high context. While not all Finns swear, frequent swearing is a mark of youth culture...
- La MalincheLa MalincheLa Malinche , known also as Malintzin, Malinalli or Doña Marina, was a Nahua woman from the Mexican Gulf Coast, who played a role in the Spanish conquest of Mexico, acting as interpreter, advisor, lover and intermediary for Hernán Cortés...
- Latin profanityLatin profanityLatin profanity is the profane, indecent, or impolite vocabulary of Latin, and its uses. The profane vocabulary of early Vulgar Latin was largely sexual and scatological: the abundance of religious profanity found in some of the Romance languages is a Christian development, and as such does not...
- Mat (language) - Russian sexual slang
- Portuguese profanityPortuguese profanityPortuguese profanity is an assortment of words and phrases considered vulgar, blasphemous, inflammatory or offensive in the Portuguese language.-Overview:...
- Profanity filter
- Quebec French profanityQuebec French profanityThe literal translation of the French verb sacrer is "to consecrate". However, in Quebec it is the proper word for the form of profanity used in Quebec French. The noun form is sacre....
- Spanish languageSpanish languageSpanish , also known as Castilian , is a Romance language in the Ibero-Romance group that evolved from several languages and dialects in central-northern Iberia around the 9th century and gradually spread with the expansion of the Kingdom of Castile into central and southern Iberia during the...
Further reading
- Munier, Alexis; Martinez, Laura (2008). Talk dirty Spanish. Adams Media; Newton Abbot. ISBN 9781598697681
External links
- Real Academia Española - Details pendejo and other slang in its dictionary
- La página de la chingada - Different variations of chingar