Spanish Profanity - Other Terms

Other Terms

• chucha—used in Colombia in reference to offensive body odor.
• so'—used to imply "such a …" but not always able to be directly translated in English. For example: "¡Cállate, so' puta!" ("Shut up, you bitch!")
• vaina (lit.: "sheath or pod"; cf. Lat. vagina)—in the Dominican Republic, Panama, Venezuela and Colombia it is a commonly used generic filler. For example: Esta vaina se dañó ("This thing broke down").

It can also be used in phrases to denote any strong emotion. For example: ¡Vea la vaina!, can mean "Isn't that something!" (expressing discontent or surprise). Esa vaina quedó muy bien (lit.: "That vaina came up really well") would translate to "It turned out really well" (expressing rejoice or happiness) and … y toda esa vaina would translate to "… and all that crap".

In the Dominican Republic it is commonly used in combination with other profanities to express anger or discontent. For example: "¡Qué maldita vaina, coñazo!" meaning "Fuck, that's bullshit!" or "¡Vaina'el diablo coño!" which translates as "Damn, (this) thing (is) of the devil!" but would be used to refer to a situation as "fucking shit".

In the Spanish region of La Mancha is very common the formation of neologisms, to refer with humoristic sense to a certain way of being some people, by the union of two terms, usually a verb and a noun. E.g., capaliendres (lit. (person) who geld nits, "miser, niggard"), (d)esgarracolchas (lit. (person) who rends quilts, "awkward", "untrustworthy"), pisacristos (lit. (person) who tramples Christs—"blasphemous person"), and much more.