cagar

Forms

cagar (first-person singular present cago, first-person singular preterite cagué, past participle cagado)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish cagar, inherited from Latin cacō (“to defecate”).^[2][3][4][1] Corominas calls the Latin verb an expressive formation, a word of children's speech, and compares caca.^[2][3][5]

The same Latin verb is Portuguese cagar, Galician cagar, Asturian cagar, Catalan cagar, Occitan cagar, French chier, Italian cacare and Romanian căca.^[6][7][1]

The Latin verb goes back to *kakāō.^[1] Its cognates include Middle Irish caccaim, Ancient Greek κακκάω (kakkáō) and Russian ка́кать (kákatʹ); the Germanic verbs such as German kacken may be borrowed from Latin.^[8] De Vaan considers it either a nursery word or an imitation of a sound, and Wiktionary traces it to a root Proto-Indo-European *kakka-.^[8][1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The CDH's earliest record is in the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes (1218–c. 1250), in a heading about whoever defecates at another person's door: Del que apuerta agena cagare.^[9][10] The Fuero de Béjar and the Fuero de Cuenca have the same rule, with a fine and the duty to sweep the mess away.^[9] Corominas had dated it only to the Cancionero de Baena, of the early 15th century: Aquel que con miedo se caga en la silla.^[2][3][11]

Semantic evolution

Covarrubias in 1611 counted it among the words to avoid for decency, “though it be of so natural a thing”.^[12] Autoridades called it indecent and gave obrar and hacer del cuerpo as the polite words; it also gave the figurative sense “to stain, spoil”, and that of a mean act that wrecks a business going well.^[13]

The current Academy dictionary labels every sense offensive: to defecate; to spoil something; and, as cagarse, to lose one's nerve.^[4] Cagarla is to make a mistake that is hard to put right, and me cago en... expresses contempt.^[4] Garzón recorded cagarla in Argentina in 1910, for spoiling something or blundering.^[14] In much of South America and the Caribbean it also means to harm someone, and in Chile and Uruguay to be unfaithful to one's partner.^[15]

Timeline

• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes has cagare.^[9]
• c. 1400 – the derivative cagajón “dung” appears in the Escorial glossary.^[2][3]
• early 15th century – the Cancionero de Baena, the DCECH's first record.^[2][3]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin caco and ventrem exonero; he also records cagarruta and cagón.^[16][3]
• 1571 – cagarse de miedo “to be scared stiff” in Mexico City.^[17]
• 1611 – Covarrubias calls it a word to avoid for decency.^[12]
• 1726–1739 – Autoridades adds the figurative “to spoil”.^[13]

Meanings

Verb

1. (vulgar) To shit, defecate; also transitive and reflexive.^[4][1]
2. (vulgar, colloquial, transitive) To stain, spoil or ruin something: Con ese comentario lo cagó todo.^[4][1]
3. (vulgar, colloquial, reflexive) To lose one's nerve, be scared stiff: cagarse de miedo.^[4][1]
4. (vulgar, reflexive, with en) To curse something or someone, expressing anger or contempt: me cago en la mar.^[18][1]
5. (vulgar, Latin America) To harm or cheat someone.^[15][1]
6. (vulgar, Chile, Uruguay) To be unfaithful to one's partner.^[15]

Word family

• cagajón
• cagalera
• cagarruta
• cagón
• cagalar
• cagatintas
• cagada
• cagadero

Related words

• caca
• cagadera
• cagado
• Latin cacō
• French chier
• Italian cacare

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 1, 736
3. ^ a b c d e f Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cagar
4. ^ a b c d e f Real Academia Española; Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2014–), Diccionario de la lengua española, 23rd ed., online version 23.8, https://dle.rae.es, p. s.v. cagar
5. ^ Bénaben, Michel (2000), Dictionnaire étymologique de l'espagnol, Paris: Ellipses, p. s.v. cagar
6. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. 1443
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1215
8. ^ a b de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill, p. s.v. cacō
9. ^ a b c Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cagar
10. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cagar
11. ^ Alonso Pedraz, Martín (1986), Diccionario medieval español: desde las Glosas Emilianenses y Silenses (s. X) hasta el siglo XV, 2 vols., Salamanca: Universidad Pontificia de Salamanca, p. 580
12. ^ a b Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastián de (1611), Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, Madrid: Luis Sánchez (Biblioteca Wordkers transcription, CC BY 4.0), p. 377
13. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 50
14. ^ Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 81
15. ^ a b c Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cagar
16. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 308
17. ^ Boyd-Bowman, Peter (2003), Léxico hispanoamericano 1493–1993, ed. Ray Harris-Northall and John J. Nitti, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies, p. s.v. cagar
18. ^ Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cagar