Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ˈkoɲo/ [ˈko.ɲo]
- Rhymes: -oɲo
- Syllabification: co‧ño
Interjection
¡coño!
- (Cuba, Spain, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic) damn!, fuck!, shit! what the fuck!!
Usage notes
- Coño is a common, somewhat vulgar Spanish idiom primarily used in Spain and the Spanish Caribbean. Its actual meaning differs according to use, but in Spain and several Latin American countries it is also used in its literal sense as slang for the female genitalia, the vulva.
Coño has become a feature of speech to express emphasis or to stress a wide variety of emotions, drifting from any of its original sexual references, in a situation similar to that of fuck in American English. The context, gender, pronunciation and tone of the speaker defines the emotion conveyed, almost as identically done with the word damn in English. An interlocutor may insert coño as an interjection in a sentence whenever the desire arises, even though it may be regarded as somewhat offensive if not carefully used. It is widely used in the Hispanic Caribbean and Spain but is completely absent from the speech of many other Latin Americans. Its most noticeable appearance in mainstream American pop culture may have been in the film Scarface, where it was frequently used among its fictional Cuban characters. Here are several examples of the word's use:
- Fear: low tone, short vowels, high-pitched
- ¡Coño, coño! ¡Esta abeja va a picarme! ― This bee will sting me!
- Anger: high tone, short vowels
- ¡Coño, ya te dije que no lo hicieras! ― Hey, I already told you not to do that!
- Surprise: low tone, dragging out the "o"
- Coooño... ¿Están saliendo juntos? ― Oh, really? Are they going out?
- Joy: dragging out the vowels, low-pitched
- ¡Cooñoo! ¡Nuestro equipo ganó! ― Thank goodness! Our team won!
Other examples include:
- ¡Coño, qué buena está! ― Damn she looks good!
- ¡Coño! ¡Mira qué pasó! ― Damn! look what happened!
- Yo no sé un coño de eso ― I don’t know shit about that
- ¿Dónde coño estás? ― Where the fuck are you?
- ¡Coñazo! (Dominican Republic) ― Fuck!
- ¡Coñazo! (Venezuela) ― a hard hit, a punch
- ¡Que se vaya pa'l coño de su madre (Venezuela, Cuba and Spain) ― He can go to hell (literally, “He can go to his mother's cunt”)
- In Spain, coñazo is generally used to describe something that is boring, irritating or tedious, etc.
Usage in the Philippines
- In the Philippines, coño (Tagalog: konyo) refers to a wealthy person raised and/or living in a gated community. The variety of English that these coños informally speak among themselves is termed coño English, or simply coño/conyo/konyo, which is comparable but not similar to Valley Speak. Furthermore, the term coño in the southern part of the country, Zamboanga City, is a vulgar term for cunt, or the entirety of the female genitalia.
Usage in Venezuela
- In Venezuela, the word is generally used in the expressions coño de su madre (like, "motherfucker") and el coño de tu madre (literally “your mother’s cunt”). The former is an adjective and the latter an extremely offensive insult.
- It is also locally common as a diminutive, coñito, in reference to unruly or nasty children.
- Inversely, one can use the augmentative coñísimo ("¡El coñísimo de su madre!") for emphasis or dramatic effect.
- It is often used as an extremely long unit of distance ("Juan vive en el coño de la madre").
- A fight is called a coñaza. A severe beatdown or large fight is a coñamentazón.
Usage in Cuba and the Canary Islands
- In Cuba and in the Canary Islands, the contraction ñooo frequently replaces coñó (stressed on the last syllable), but it is not offensive. It can mean darn or wow. For example:
- ¡Ñoooo! ¡Qué barato! ― Wow! How cheap!
- ¡Ñoo! Hay un examen mañana. ― Darn, there’s a test tomorrow.
- ¡Ya coño! !Yaa coñooo! ― Oh shit or Goddamn
- ¡Yaa coñooo, me cogió la policía! ― Oh shit, the police caught me.
Usage in the United States
- In the United States of America, unlike other Spanish words or expressions, the word coño is widely absent from English recognition. Among Puerto Rican, Dominican, and Cuban-Americans, coño is very common as a fairly mild expletive, equivalent to "damn" or "dammit". The main slang used for female genitalia is rather chocha / chocho (for Puerto Ricans).
Descendants
- ⇒ Chinese: 海公牛 (hǎigōngniú)