Caralho

Caralho (Portuguese: [kɐˈɾaʎu]) is a vulgar Portuguese-language word with a variety of meanings and uses. Literally, it is a noun referring to the penis, similar to English dick, but it is also used as an interjection expressing surprise, admiration, or dismay in both negative and positive senses in the same way as fuck in English. Caralho is also used in the intensifiers para caralho, placed after adjectives and sometimes adverbs and nouns to mean "very much" or "lots of", and do caralho, both of which are equivalent to the English vulgarities fucking and as fuck.

Caralho written in graffiti in Lisbon

Caralho is cognate with Spanish carajo and caray, Galician carallo, Asturian carayu and Catalan carall. However, cognates have not been identified in other Iberian languages including Basque.^[1] Italian has cazzo, a word with the same meaning, but attempts to link it to the same etymology fail on phonological grounds because the /r/ of carajo (or its absence in cazzo) remains unexplained, and no Latin phonological sequence develops as both /x/ in Spanish and /tts/ in Italian.

Records show that the word has been in use since the 10th century in Portugal, appearing on the "poems of insult and mockery" in the Galician-Portuguese lyric. After the Counter-Reformation, the word became obscene and its original sense meaning the erect penis became less common. Nowadays, caralho is commonly used as a dysphemism and in erotism. The word is also used in the abbreviation form of "crl" and "krl".

Etymology

The etymology of caralho and its cognates is uncertain, but several hypotheses have been put forward. On the basis of both semantics and historical phonology, the most plausible source appears to be unattested Vulgar Latin *c(h)araculum, which would have been a Latinized diminutive of Ancient Greek χάραξ (khárax, "stick").

Philologist and Romanist Joan Coromines suggested that the word may have a Pre-Roman origin in the Celtic root cario.^[2]

Etymologist Christian Schmitt proposed that the etymon is Ancient Greek καρυον ("nut").^[2]

History

The islet of Carall Bernat in Costa Brava off northeastern Spain, which is named for its phallic shape

In the 10th century, the word was commonly used to name mounts that had a phallic shape. An early evidence of its vulgarity stems from 974, when the Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes received a donation from Gausfred, Count of Rossillon, which referred to mons Caralio, a nearby mount, as having "a dishonest and indecorous name, although well-known by everyone".^[3][4][5][6] In 982, King Lothair of France donated land to the same monastery: pervenit usque in sumitatem ipsius montis qui vocatur Caralio.^[7]

A vulgar Galician-language poem from the mid-13th century, by Castilian trovador Pedro Burgalês, uses the word in reference to a woman named Maria Negra, who had a strong desire for the phallus:

Maria Negra, desventuirada
E por que quer tantas pissas comprar?
Pois lhe na mão non queren durar
E lh´assi morren aa malfa[da]da?
E un caralho grande que comprou,
Oonte ao serão o esfolou,
E outra pissa tem ja amormada.

— ^[8]

Galician-Portuguese poet Martin Soares mentions an anti-hero named Dom Caralhote (a parody of Lancelot) who is kidnapped and locked for life by a damsel he once dishonored:

A bõa dona, molher mui leal,
pois que Caralhote houv'en seu poder,
mui ben soube o que dele fazer:
e meteu-o logu'en un cárcer atal,
u moitos presos jouveron assaz;
Ũa donzela jaz preto d'aquí

— ^[9]

See also

• Portuguese profanity
• Carajillo – Spanish drink combining coffee with alcohol
• Carajo – Argentine rock band
• Cargados Carajos, islands on the Indian Ocean