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), bardeos (in Argentina), 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.
Idiomatic 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.
The following words are indicative of a variety of sexual acts, especially sexual intercourse and masturbation, though mostly limited to specific geographic regions.
Paja (lit.: "straw," 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").
Japanese 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.")
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"). 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.
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 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.[3]
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.[4][5] In Chile, this term is unused; the preferred expression is rascarse las huevas (lit. "to scratch one's own balls").
Carajo (lit.: "crow's nest," 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!.
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 Spanish: cara de ajo—or "garlic-face"/"garlic-shaped face"—which was later contracted to carajo.
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 (literally: "eggs"), pelotas (literally: "balls"), bolas (literally: "balls") and albóndigas (literally: meatballs) all refer to testicles 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.
Verga (lit.: a "yardarm"—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!". In El Salvador it can also be used with an ironically positive connotation as in ¡Se ve bien vergón! or ¡Está 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."
In the United States, the varient "a la verga" or "a la ver" for short, is very common in northern New Mexico, and is used frequently as an exclamatory expletive.
Polla (lit.: "female pollo", i.e.: chicken 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 euphemisms 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).[6]
Concha (lit.: "mollusk shell" or "inner ear") is an offensive word for a woman's vulva or vagina (i.e. something akin to English cunt) 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[7]/¡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[8]
The name of the Latin American restaurant Chimi-Changa originated as a minced oath of chocha.
Coño (from the Latin cunnus) is a vulgar word for a woman's vulva 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 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 (penuche). 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).
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."
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.
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, culo is considered offensive (as it sounds very much like culear); poto is used instead.
Fundillo/Fundío—heard in Mexico and the southwestern United States as an obscene term specifically for the human anus. 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.
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 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 (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.
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 your [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.").
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 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 Puerto Rico, comemierda refers solely to a snobbish person.
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 euphemisms miércoles (Wednesday) and eme (the letter m) are sometimes used as minced oaths.
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 (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:
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:
Manflor (combination of the English loanword "man" and the word flor meaning "flower") and its variant manflora (a play on manflor using the word flora) 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.
Many terms offensive to homosexuals imply spreading, e.g.: the use of wings to fly.
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 a compounded offensive remark towards a homosexual male, and vice-versa.
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 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.
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 (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.[9]
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!"
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 "jerk", "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."
Capullo (lit: "cocoon" 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 capullo's 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 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 men use this word routinely in referring to one another, similar to "dude" in English. "Vato" is the older Mexican word for this.
Joto (lit.: the "jack" or a "knave" in a Western deck of cards) 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.
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, 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 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 has different meanings
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.
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, 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."
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'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.
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 reappropriation (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.
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".
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 literally means a sacramental host, 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.
A word used almost interchangeably with all profane uses of hostia is leche (lit.: "milk"), possibly derived either from a common slang term for sperm, 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").
Copón, used mostly in Spain, stands literally for the ciborium, 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.
Perhaps unique to a number of Romance languages 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 totemic 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.