The Spanish language employs a wide range of swear words that vary between Spanish-speaking nations and in regions and subcultures of each nation. 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.
Overview In Spanish, as in most languages, swear words tend to come from semantic domains considered taboo, such as human excretions, sexuality, and religion,Espinosa, M. "Algo sobre la historia de las palabrotas". Razón y palabra. Primera revista digital en Iberoamérica especializada en comunicología 23 (2001). and swearing serves several functions in discourse.de Marlangeon, Silvia Beatriz Kaul, and Laura Alba Juez. "A typology of verbal impoliteness behaviour for the English and Spanish cultures". Revista española de lingüística aplicada 25 (2012): 69–92.Martínez, R. A., & Morales, P. Z. (2014). "¿Puras Groserías?: Rethinking the Role of Profanity and Graphic Humor in Latin@ Students' Bilingual Wordplay". Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 45(4), 337–354.Durán, Marco Antonio Pérez, and Oscar Arriaga Olguín. "Inventario fraseológico de las groserías en estudiantes de San Luis Potosí". Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas 9.1 (2014): 79–87.Sacher, Jason, and Toby Triumph. How to Swear Around the World. Chronicle Books, 2012.Mateo, J., & Yus, F. (2013). "Towards a cross-cultural pragmatic taxonomy of insults". Journal of Language Aggression and Conflict, 1(1), 87–114. Spanish insults are often of a sexual nature, taking the form of implying a lack of sexual decency if the insulted person is a woman (e.g. , "whore", "bitch") or implying a supposed lack of masculinity if the insulted person is male (e.g. "faggot", "male prostitute"). A particularly forceful Spanish insult is any mention of someone else's mother, including also in its strongest form (e.g. "fuck your whore of a mother!",Bakewell, Liza. Madre: Perilous Journeys with a Spanish Noun. WW Norton & Company, 2010.Ilarregui, G. M. (1997). "Es sexista la lengua espanola? Una investigacion sobre el genero gramatical" [Is the Spanish language sexist? An Investigation of Grammatical Gender]. Women and Language, 20(2), 64–66.González Zúñiga, J., & Hernández Arias, L. (2015). "Análisis semántico y sintáctico de las frases idiomáticas compuestas con las palabras 'padre' y 'madre' en el español de México" (Doctoral dissertation).Gregersen, E. A. (1979). "Sexual linguistics". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 327(1), 3–18.Santaemilia, J., 2008. "Gender, sex, and language in Valencia: attitudes toward sex-related language among Spanish and Catalan speakers". International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 2008(190), pp.5–26. in which out of context means "I shit", but in this sentence it expresses disregard). Emphatic exclamations, not aimed to insult but to express strong emotion, often include words for sexual relations (e.g. "fuck!", "fuckers!") or to excretions or sexual organs ( "shit!", "cunt!"). Sexual taboo words that describe a masculine sexuality may be used in a positive sense (e.g. "billy goat", "rooster", "pig").
References to sexual acts The following words are indicative of a variety of sexual acts, especially sexual intercourse, masturbation, and oral sex, though mostly limited to specific geographic regions.
Chingar — originating from the Basque verb , meaning "to burn with coal" or from Caló (Spanish Romani) word , meaning "to fight". In the work La Chingada, it was famously applied to La Malinche, the mistress of Hernán Cortés.
Chingado/da The word is derived from which means "to fuck." This word has many meanings in the Spanish language, most limited to Mexico:
Adjective for damage (e.g. "" – "This kid rode his bike and now his knee is fucked up/fucking damaged.") Noun for a bad place to go (e.g. "" – "I'm done with you! Go fuck yourself!/Get the fuck out of here!") Interjection (e.g. "" – "Did the dumb guy get all the questions right? Oh, fuck!") Adjective for awful (e.g. "" – "This restaurant is fucking awful.")
These words are often used in the following contexts:
(idiom, adjective) "Son/daughter of a fucker!" (interjection) = "Damn it!" (noun) = "Go fuck yourself!" or "Get the fuck out of here!"
Chingón/a Like , the word comes from . When used to describe a person, it describes someone who can "" others; in other words, "better", "the best" or even "badass".
Follar (used particularly in Spain and to a lesser extent in Cuba, but rarely found elsewhere) literally means "to blow air with the bellows" and probably refers to panting during sex.
Joder The verb (from older hoder, from Old Spanish , from Latin ) is a harsh way of saying "to bother" and its English equivalent is "fuck". It can literally mean "to fuck somebody" e.g. ("last night Juan and his girlfriend fucked"), or it can mean "to annoy", "to ruin", etc. (don't annoy/bother me), or (you've fucked it up). It can be used as an adjective, like the English "fucking" () and is often used as a light interjection: ("Fuck! I've forgotten my coat"). Alternative ways of referring to sexual intercourse include: (Argentina, Spain), (Argentina, Mexico), (Central America), (Argentina, Chile and Colombia), (Cuba), , (Argentina), (Peru) and (Uruguay).
Remojar el cochayuyo (to soak the cochayuyo) — used in Chile The expression alludes to the cochayuyo algae that are harvested on Chile's coast. The algae are preserved by sun-drying. To be used for cooking, they then need to be softened by soaking in water.
Coger can be confused with the verb "to take" but in the majority of Latin America is used to talk about taking someone sexually.
References to the male genitalia
Cojón (plural ) is slang for "testicle" and may be used as a synonym for "guts" or what it takes", hence making it equivalent to English balls or bollocks. A common expression in Spain is anything to the effect of ("does whatever comes out of their balls"), meaning "does whatever the fuck they want". Variations are , , etc. A common Basque aphorism is ("we Bilbao natives are born wherever the fuck we want"). Sometimes, to denote obnoxious or overbearing behavior from someone else, idiom ("to touch someone else's balls") comes to play. For instance: ("Come on, give me that and stop bothering me.") It can sometimes be an understatement: (meaning, roughly, "At the beginning of the 1930s, the Nazis were already being an annoyance."). It is also frequent to derive other words, such as adjectival form (), indicating admiration. A famous Navarran brand of asparagus has this name.
can also denotes courageous behavior or character. Acts of courage or bravery are expressed by using the word . For example, ("it takes cojones to do that"). 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 instance: ("That fucking guy Marcos"), ("Give me the fucking suitcase why don't you!") However, it is more common to use "de cojones" as a superlative, as in ("He's short as hell" or "He's short as fuck"). The phrases or mean "I don't give a fuck about". In alternative variations one would raise the number, usually to three: . alone can 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 is used much more profusely in situations akin to those for "fuck" or "shit". () refers to idleness or laziness; in Chile, the preferred variant is (). Unfamiliarity with this expression in the United States may have been a factor in the dismissal and suicide of Antonio Calvo, a senior lecturer at Princeton University, in April 2011.
+Derivative of English equivalentEnglish literal translationA damn/fucking lotA ballNo fucking way! / My ass! / Like hell!The balls!Cost a damn/fucking fortuneCost a ballNot fucking mind at allTo mind three ballsVery fucking difficultA thousand pairs of ballsTo be fucking braveTo have ballsTo be fucking upset about something / That's fucking crazy!(The thing) has balls!To fucking threatenTo cut (his) ballsTo fucking annoy somebodyTouch (his) ballsFucking scaredN/ATo piss oneself laughingDe-ball oneself with laughterVery damn/fucking funny/scaryN/AWhat a damn/fucking surprise! / You've got to be fucking kidding me! / Go fuck yourself!Touch your balls!Fucking awesome/perfectionBallsyFucking perfectlyOf ballsWith no other damn/fucking choiceBy ballsUp to the brink / Fucking fed upUp to the ballsIt fucking annoys meIt touches my ballsBravely, courageouslyWith two ballsWhatever the hell/fuck I wantWhat comes out of my ballsTo be a fucking cowardHave no ballsDon't give a shit/damn/fuckPass it by the ballsTo brave something out / To have the guts to do somethingThrow balls on somethingGood for you!Hurray your balls!Cold as hell/fuckPurple ballsI don't fucking believe you, liarMy balls thirty-threeIt fucking infuriates meIt kicks my ballsI fucking promiseBy my holy ballsBy doing whatever it fucking takesBy ballsWhat the hell/fuck?What the balls?
Carajo () 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: ("We're gonna die, fuck!") or a far away place, likened to hell: . In Argentina, the term "Vamos Carajo" was used in Quilmes advertising in advance of the 2014 FIFA World Cup as a statement or cheer that an Argentine supporter would use to urge their team to victory. The diminutive is used in Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Venezuela to refer to (usually annoying) children, or to scold someone for acting immaturely, e.g., ("Don't act like a little dick!").
is a mild minced oath for this word. could be translated "Dang it" or "Darn it!" The word is also considered mild like . 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: , , and
Bicho () is one of the most commonly used references to the penis in Puerto Rico. It is similar to the much less commonly used word . In most other regions it is a non-vulgar reference to an insect or several species of small animals. In the Caribbean coast of Colombia is used to reference the anus or the bottom. 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, is used to reference the vagina. In Spain, Dominican Republic, Mexico and many other Spanish speaking countries it refers to people (both male and female) who are a negative influence on others, often used as ("bad bug"). When applied to children, it can mean one who is misbehaving.
Huevos/pelotas/bolas/albóndigas/peras
(), and (both literally meaning 'balls'), (), and () all refer to testicles in a profane manner. They are equivalent to in many situations. In Mexico, the word is not used in a potentially ambiguous situation; instead, one may use the inoffensive (). Sometimes the words ('egg-washer') or ('egg-licker') are used in the same context as 'brown-noser' (meaning ambitious and self-effacing) in English. Highly offensive Dominican insults involving this term are ('egg-sucker') and ('huge egg-sucker'). is also used in Venezuela where it is considered less offensive.