Etymologically
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macho

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Pronunciation

  • UK: /ˈmæt͡ʃ.əʊ/[1]
  • US: /ˈmɑ.t͡ʃoʊ/[1]

Etymology

It is borrowed from Spanish macho (“male; masculine, virile”),[2][3][4][5][6] used in Spanish chiefly of male animals;[7][4] the Shorter Oxford and the Oxford Dictionary of English take it from the Mexican Spanish use, where it meant a male animal or plant and, as an adjective, masculine or vigorous.[8][9] The Spanish word goes back to Latin masculus (“male”),[2][3][4][5][6] a diminutive in form of mās (“male”).[7] In popular Latin speech it was shortened to Vulgar Latin masclus, a form the “Appendix Probi” of about the 3rd century AD warns against,[7] and this became the Spanish word as well as Old French masle, now French mâle, the source of male.[7] The related masculīnus gave masculine.[7] Barnhart reports that Corominas rejects deriving the Spanish word from Portuguese macho, and takes the often-cited Spanish maslo for a variant of it.[5] The OED suggests that the pejorative sense may have arisen in English use.[2]

Earliest recorded meaning

A tough, virile man: 1928, by Etymonline's and Barnhart's dating, in American English.[4][5] Merriam-Webster dates the adjective, aggressively virile, to 1928 as well.[3] Earlier, from 1848, the word was used as in Spanish of male animals, especially hoofed ones.[4]

Semantic evolution

For several decades the word was used mostly in a Latin American setting, of a man who shows the cult of virility that Spanish calls machismo.[7] In the 1970s and 1980s it spread widely in the United States as sexual politics were being rethought: it was sometimes used approvingly or tolerantly, but more often with disapproval of old stereotypes of male behaviour.[7] G. Gordon Liddy said in a 1980 interview that it had been "a perfectly respectable Spanish term for a manly man" before it was turned into a pejorative.[7] From 1964 the noun was also used for machismo itself,[2][6] and Merriam-Webster records the adjective of women who show traditionally masculine traits.[3]

Timeline

  • 1848 – of male animals, as in Spanish.[4]
  • 1928 – a tough, virile man.[4][5] The OED's first record of the noun is from 1943, in the journal Hispania.[2]
  • 1943 – adjective, ostentatiously manly.[4] The OED's first record of the adjective is from 1949, in the American Anthropologist.[2]
  • 1964 – machismo, in Punch.[2]

Meanings

Adjective

  1. Showing machismo; aggressively or ostentatiously masculine and tough: He thought it was macho to drive without a seat belt.[3][10][2][6]
  2. Of a woman, showing traditionally masculine traits such as assertiveness.[3]

Noun

  1. A man who shows machismo; a tough guy.[3][10][2][6]
  2. Machismo.[3][2][6]

Word family

  • machoism
  • antimacho
  • supermacho
  • unmacho

Usage notes

The OED notes that usage guides have criticized the use of the noun for machismo, and that a pronunciation /ˈmakəʊ/ is also found, rarely, in the late 20th century.[2] MACHO, an acronym of massive compact halo object (sometimes read as massive astrophysical compact halo object), is a separate word from 1990 in astronomy for a dark, dense body such as a brown dwarf or black hole, coined in contrast to WIMP.[2][3][9] The OED also records a macho for the striped mullet (1882–1896), of uncertain origin.[2]

References

  1. ^ a b Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m Oxford English Dictionary Online (accessed March 2026), Oxford: Oxford University Press
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i Merriam-Webster Unabridged Dictionary (2024), online ed., Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
  5. ^ a b c d e Barnhart, Robert K. (1988), The Barnhart Dictionary of Etymology
  6. ^ a b c d e f The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language (online 2024), 5th ed., Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
  7. ^ a b c d e f g h Merriam-Webster's Book of Word Histories, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster
  8. ^ Shorter Oxford English Dictionary on Historical Principles (2002), 5th ed., ed. William R. Trumble and Angus Stevenson, Oxford: Oxford University Press
  9. ^ a b Stevenson, Angus, ed. (2010), Oxford Dictionary of English, 3rd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
  10. ^ a b Collins English Dictionary (2023), Glasgow: HarperCollins