cojón

Forms

cojón m (plural cojones)^[1] Older forms are colyón (about 1100), the Navarrese coyllones (mid-13th century) and coiones (13th century).^[2][3]

Etymology

It is inherited from Late Latin cōleō (“testicle”), recorded in Latin glosses, a derivative of Latin cōleus (“testicles, scrotum”).^[2][4][1][5]

The same word is Portuguese colhão, Galician collón, Catalan colló, Occitan colhon, French couillon and Italian coglione;^[6][1][7] Corominas notes that only Romanian kept the base word.^[2][6][1][7]

De Vaan takes the Latin noun as a variant of culleus (“leather sack”), and with its Greek cognate Ancient Greek κολεόν (koleón, “sheath of a sword”) as probably a loanword from a non-Indo-European language, borrowed separately into Latin and Greek.^[8] Wiktionary connects it instead with cōlō (“to strain”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record is the form colyón in a glossary of about 1100 edited by Asín Palacios; the Navarrese coyllones follows in the mid-13th-century Fueros de la Novenera.^[2] The Fuero de Cáceres (c. 1234–1275) lists the testicles among the parts of the body for whose injury a fine is due: de pixa, o de coiones, o teta de mulier.^[3] DEMel has cojones already in the Fuero de Plasencia of 1221.^[9]

Semantic evolution

In the 13th century the word was the plain name of the organ: legal codes list it among the members that can be maimed, and Alfonso X's Judizios de las estrellas (1254) speak of someone dying from pain del coion.^[3][10] Nebrija gave it the Latin equivalents coleus and testis, but by the 15th century it was a coarse word in verse such as Villasandino's.^[11][12]

Today the DLE labels it offensive and colloquial.^[4] The plural stands for courage or manhood, and many vulgar set phrases and interjections are built on it.^[13][14] English took cojones “courage” from Hemingway's Death in the Afternoon (1932); an older English cullion had come from French.^[15] The Italian coglione “fool”, through French coion, gave Spanish collón “coward”.^[2]

Timeline

• c. 1100 – the form colyón in a glossary.^[2]
• 1221 – cojones in the Fuero de Plasencia.^[9]
• c. 1234–1275 – the Fuero de Cáceres has coiones.^[3]
• 1254 – the Judizios de las estrellas have the singular coion.^[10]
• mid-13th century – the Navarrese coyllones, in the Fueros de la Novenera.^[2]
• c. 1406 – Villasandino uses the word in a coarse poem.^[12]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin coleus and testis; the derivative cojudo is recorded.^[11][2]
• 1615 – first record from the Americas, in Peru.^[16]
• 1932 – English cojones in Hemingway.^[15]

Meanings

Noun

1. (vulgar, offensive; usually in the plural) A testicle, ball.^[4][1][13]
2. (vulgar, in the plural, Spain) Courage, guts, manhood: No tuvo cojones para decírselo a la cara.^[14][13]
3. (Chile) A seedsnipe, the bird Thinocorus orbignyanus.^[17]

Interjection

1. (vulgar, as cojones) Expresses surprise, annoyance or anger: ¡Cojones, se me ha vuelto a olvidar!^[4][13]

Word family

• cojonudo
• cojudo
• acojonar
• cojonada

Related words

• collón
• Latin cōleus
• Italian coglione

Usage notes

Set phrases include de cojones (Spain) “huge, intense; terrific”, hasta los cojones “fed up” and por cojones “like it or not”; all are vulgar.^[4][13]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g h Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 2, 131
3. ^ a b c d Real Academia Española (2013–), Corpus del Diccionario histórico de la lengua española (CDH), version 3.1, https://apps.rae.es/CNDHE, p. s.v. cojón
4. ^ a b c d e 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. cojón
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 1720
7. ^ a b Coromines, Joan (1980–2001), Diccionari etimològic i complementari de la llengua catalana, 10 vols., Barcelona: Curial / La Caixa (online ed., Institut d'Estudis Catalans 2024), p. 2, 834
8. ^ de Vaan, Michiel (2008), Etymological Dictionary of Latin and the other Italic Languages, Leiden Indo-European Etymological Dictionary Series 7, Leiden; Boston: Brill
9. ^ a b Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. cojón
10. ^ a b Kasten, Lloyd A.; Nitti, John J.; Gago Jover, Francisco (2002–), Diccionario de la prosa castellana del Rey Alfonso X, New York: Hispanic Seminary of Medieval Studies (electronic edition 2024), p. s.v. cojón
11. ^ a b Lleal, Coloma (dir.), DICCA-XV: Diccionario del castellano del siglo XV en la Corona de Aragón, Barcelona: Universitat de Barcelona, Grup d'Estudis d'Història de la Llengua (GHCL), https://ghcl.ub.edu/diccaxv, p. s.v. cojón
12. ^ a b 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. 717
13. ^ a b c d e Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. cojón
14. ^ a b Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. cojón
15. ^ a b Harper, Douglas. Online Etymology Dictionary, https://www.etymonline.com
16. ^ 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. cojón
17. ^ Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. cojón