culo

Forms

culo m (plural culos)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Old Spanish culo, inherited from Latin cūlus (“backside, arse”).^[2][3][4][1] In Latin it was a popular word, found in graffiti, satire and the Priapea, and it survives in all the Romance languages.^[5][6]

The same word is Portuguese cu, Galician cu, Asturian culu, Catalan cul, French cul, Italian culo and Romanian cur.^[7][8][9]

De Vaan traces the Latin word to Proto-Italic *kūlo- (“back”) and Proto-Indo-European *kuH-lo- (“backside, rear”), with cognates in Celtic: Old Irish cúl (“back”) and Welsh cil (“corner”).^[10] The older derivation from a root *(s)kewH- (“to cover”) has been given up, because LIV no longer recognises that verbal root; de Vaan considers instead *keh₂u- (“to cleave”), the root he also sees in Latin cauda (“tail”).^[10][1] Wiktionary calls the origin uncertain, though most likely shared with Proto-Celtic *kūlos (“posterior”).^[1]

Earliest recorded meaning

The first record is in the Fuero de Avilés of 1155, among four insults the charter deals with when neighbours quarrel: „fotudo i culo”.^[2][11] Several other town charters of the 12th and 13th centuries name the same insult among the forbidden words, as a fragment of 1182 does: „Verba vetata sunt fodido en culo et puto gaffo” “the forbidden words are fodido en culo and puto gaffo”.^[12][13]

Semantic evolution

The Diccionario de Autoridades defines it as the human backside, sometimes an animal's haunches, and also names the end of a cucumber and the losing side of the knucklebone (taba) in the game; among its phrases are culo de pollo for a badly sewn, bulging stitch, and dar con el culo en las goteras for someone who squanders his money and ends up poor.^[14] The Academy added the sense “anus” in 1843 and culo de vaso “a fake gem” by 1869.^[15][16] Modern dictionaries also record the drop of liquid left at the bottom of a glass.^[4][17]

In Spain the word is colloquial, while in Latin America it is generally felt as coarse.^[18] It has many regional senses there: “cowardly” in Mexico, “luck” in Argentina and Uruguay, a woman in Central America and Peru, the female genitals in Guatemala and Cuba.^[19][1] In Asturias and León it is also the eye of a needle and a tree stump.^[2][20]

Some derivatives came from other languages: culata “butt of a gun” (1611) probably from Italian, and recular “to back away” (1607) probably from French.^[2][3]

Timeline

• 1155 – the Fuero de Avilés lists culo in an insult.^[2][11]
• 1182 – a charter fragment names fodido en culo among the forbidden words.^[12]
• 1218–c. 1250 – the Fuero de Zorita de los Canes punishes anyone who puts his culo in another's face.^[12]
• c. 1400 – a Latin–Spanish glossary renders anus as culo.^[11]
• c. 1495 – Nebrija gives Latin anus, podex and sedes.^[21][22]
• 1566 – the first record from the Americas, in Yucatán.^[23]
• 1607 – recular first recorded, probably from French.^[3]
• 1611 – culata first recorded.^[3]
• 1843 – the Academy's dictionary adds the sense “anus”.^[15]
• 1899 – the Academy gives the etymology “Del lat. culus”.^[24]

Meanings

Noun

1. (colloquial) The buttocks, backside or arse.^[4][1][25]
2. In some animals, the fleshy part around the anus.^[4][1]
3. (colloquial) The anus.^[4][1]
4. The bottom or rear end of some things: el culo del tarro.^[4][1]
5. In the game of taba, the flatter side of the knucklebone, opposite the carne.^[4][14]
6. (colloquial) A little liquid left at the bottom of a glass or bottle; a culín.^[4][17][1]
7. (Argentina, Uruguay, vulgar) Good luck.^[19]

Adjective

1. (Mexico, vulgar) cowardly.^[19][1]

Word family

• culero
• culera
• culón
• culada
• acular
• culear
• encular
• culín

Related words

• culata
• recular
• Latin culus
• French cul

Usage notes

Common phrases are culo de mal asiento, a restless person who keeps changing job or home, and culo de vaso, a worthless stone imitating a diamond.^[25]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. 2, 287
3. ^ a b c d Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. culo
4. ^ a b c d e f g h 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. culo
5. ^ Rey, Alain, ed. (1992), Dictionnaire historique de la langue française, Paris: Le Robert, p. s.v. cul
6. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. s.v. cūlus
7. ^ García de Diego, Vicente (1985), Diccionario etimológico español e hispánico, 2nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe (1st ed. 1954), p. 2028
8. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter, p. s.v. cūlus
9. ^ Academia de la Llingua Asturiana (2000), Diccionariu de la Llingua Asturiana, Uviéu: ALLA; online at https://mas.academiadelallingua.com/diccionariu, p. s.v. culu
10. ^ 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
11. ^ a b c 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. 836
12. ^ 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. culo
13. ^ Diccionario del Español Medieval electrónico (DEMel), data publication 2026 (CC BY-SA), Universität Rostock, p. s.v. culo
14. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 2, 696
15. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 216
16. ^ Real Academia Española (1869), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 11th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de Don Manuel Rivadeneyra, p. 231
17. ^ a b Real Academia Española (2001), Diccionario de la lengua española, 22nd ed., Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, p. s.v. culo
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. culo
19. ^ 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. culo
20. ^ Le Men Loyer, Janick (2002–2012), Léxico del leonés actual, 4 vols., León: Centro de Estudios e Investigación San Isidoro; electronic version, Universidad de León, p. s.v. culo
21. ^ Nebrija, Antonio de (1513), Vocabulario español-latino, Salamanca, ed. Marina Vidal Díez (2007), Biblioteca Virtual Miguel de Cervantes, p. 322
22. ^ 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. culo
23. ^ 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. culo
24. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 297
25. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. culo