Cojones
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cojones (Spanish pronunciation: [koˈxones]) is a vulgar Spanish word for testicles, meant to denote courage; it corresponds to balls in English and bollocks in British English (though the latter is less commonly used as a synonym for courage).
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[edit] English usage
Cojones has entered popular usage in the US as slang, denoting “brazen, brave attitude”; its English-language pronunciations include /kəˈhoʊneɪz/ and /kəˈhuːnəz/, and its contextual usage is like that of the Yiddish chutzpah (nerve) and the Finnish sisu (perseverance). A common euphemistic mis-spelling is cajones (which in Spanish actually means "drawers", the piece of furniture, or "wooden box drums"; see cajón).
[edit] Popular culture US usages
In 1996, responding to the shooting down of an Hermanos al Rescate (Brothers to the Rescue) civilian aeroplane by defensive Cuban Air Force MiG 29s on 24 February 1996, Madeleine Albright, then-ambassadress to the United Nations, said: “Frankly, this is not cojones. This is cowardice” — in retort to the Cuban fighter pilot’s exclamation (in the radio traffic transcript): ¡Le partimos los cojones! (“We busted his balls!”). Later, to save face, she explained her cursing as “the only Spanish word I know.” [1]
In the book Plan of Attack, about the US preparations for the 2003 Iraq War, Bob Woodward reports that at a September 2002 meeting in Camp David, Maryland, U.S. President G.W. Bush remarked to Alastair Campbell, spokesman for PM Tony Blair: Your man has got cojones — referring to the PM’s continued support for the US attacking Iraq, despite Labour Party and popular British opposition; President Bush later referred to that meeting as “the cojones meeting”. [2][citation needed]
Political commentator James Carville insulted Sen. Barack Obama by saying that if Sen. Hillary Clinton were to give Sen. Barack Obama one of her cojones, then each 2008 Democratic presidential candidate would have two cojones — implying that Sen. Clinton has greater political stamina, and that Sen. Obama had only one testicle. [3]
In the Brunch of Disgust episode of Total Drama Island, Gwen said, “I’m digesting the most precious cojones”, after she and other members of the cast ate bull testicles. Moreover, cojones also is used in the USA syndication as a euphemistic alternative to saying “testicles”.
In the fourth episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit a sexually-assaulted woman said she grabbed her attacker’s cajones, because he was strangling her. Afterwards, detectives Stabler and Benson re-enact the sexual assault, and Det. Benson says cajones, like the special victim.
Former ECW and WWE commentator Joey Styles is known for often using the word cojones.
[edit] Spanish usage and etymology
Cojón ([koˈxon]; plural: cojones) along with huevos (“eggs”) is a common, vulgar Spanish usage for testicles as a curse-word. It contains the augmentative suffix -ón (implying largeness), and derives from Vulgar Latin coleonem, the accusative form of coleo (testicle), an augmentative form of cōleus (leather bag for liquids); its variants are cūleus and culleus.
The le → j or li → j pronunciation shift is common to Latin and Spanish, e.g. folia → hoja (leaf), which is a cognate with the English word "foliage".
It can be used as in English to imply virility or courage: tener cojones = "to have balls". Very frequently it is used as an exclamation to express different moods: pain, anger, excitement, irony, etc. In this use it can be to a big extent synonymous of coño (Spanish for "vulva").
The same word exists in Catalan as colló, very commonly used in the plural (collons) as an exclamation. Other cognates include the French couilles, Italian coglioni, Portuguese colhões, Romanian coaie, Leonese coyones, and the Welsh ceillion. In Galician, another language spoken in Spain, the word is collóns.
[edit] Books
- Collins Gem Latin Dictionary, ISBN 0-00-458644-1
- Diccionario Esencial Santillana de la Lengua Española, ISBN 84-294-3415-1
[edit] References
- ^ Transcript of a CNN interview with Albright that discusses the cojones quote
- ^ Reports on Bush's description of Blair
- ^ Clift: Obama Needs a Knockout Punch Against Clinton | Newsweek Voices - Eleanor Clift | Newsweek.com
[edit] External links
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Look up cojones in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
- Rincón de Chistes - humorous page in Spanish describing various slang uses of the term (in Spanish)
- Cojones Del Fuego - A London based rock band.
- Cojones Industries - Clothing brand.
- Co-Jones - UK based Function/Party Band
