pendejo

Forms

pendejo m (plural pendejos, feminine pendeja, feminine plural pendejas)^[1]

Etymology

It is inherited from Vulgar Latin *pectiniculus (“pubic hair”), a diminutive of Latin pecten (“comb; pubic hair”).^{[2][3][4][1][5]} The same Vulgar Latin word gave Portuguese pentelho, Catalan pentenill, Occitan penchenilh and French pénil.^[2][3] The Latin noun itself took the sense “pubic hair” in some late texts, and gave Spanish empeine in that sense.^[3][2]

Corominas explains the unexpected ⟨nd⟩ by comparing the old forms peinde and pendar of peine and peinar, in which the cluster /dn/ was transposed to /nd/.^[2] Wiktionary suggests the influence of pender “to hang”, and the Academy from 1884 to 1899 derived the word from that verb.^[1][6][7]

The Latin noun goes back to *pekten and Proto-Indo-European *pḱtḗn, from the root *peḱ- (“to pluck”) of pectō (“to comb”); it is cognate with Ancient Greek κτείς (kteís, “comb”).^[1][8]

Earliest recorded meaning

Corominas's first record, in the sense “pubic hair”, is the Glosario del Escorial of about 1400.^[2][3] Nebrija's Latin–Spanish dictionary of 1492 glosses both Latin pecten and pubes with el pendejo, and pubetenus with hasta el pendejo “up to the groin”.^[9]

Semantic evolution

Percyvall (1591) translates it “hair of the privities”.^[10] The Diccionario de Autoridades has the hair and, as a second sense, a nickname for a cowardly man without spirit, and Terreros adds “effeminate”.^[11][12] Corominas records the extension to “stupid, worthless fellow”.^[2] In New Granada the word is used for a fool in 1775 and 1781.^[13] Alemany (1917) gives “stupid” for Mexico, Colombia and Chile, and Santamaría (1959) calls it a gravely insulting and obscene word, improper among educated people.^[14][15]

In Argentina Garzón (1910) recorded it for a young boy with grown-up pretensions, and in the River Plate it now means a child or teenager; the Canary Islands use it for a child.^[16][4][17] In Peru it means “cunning, sly”, and it is also used for a person of disorderly life.^[4][18] In Andalusia it is a name of the mistletoe and of a kind of pumpkin.^[4][19] The Spanish of New Mexico has it for “dull, stupid”.^[20]

Timeline

• c. 1400 – the Glosario del Escorial, Corominas's first record.^[2][3]
• 1492 – Nebrija glosses Latin pecten and pubes with el pendejo.^[9]
• 1571 – in Mexico City, a glossary gives pendejo o barba inferior.^[13]
• 1591 – Percyvall glosses it in English.^[10]
• 1775 – first record of the sense “fool”, in New Granada.^[13]
• 1843 – the Academy defines the hair and the cowardly man.^[21]
• 1884 – the Academy derives it from pender.^[6]
• 1910 – Garzón records the Argentine sense “young boy”.^[16]
• 1917 – Alemany records “stupid” in Mexico, Colombia and Chile.^[14]

Meanings

Adjective

1. (colloquial) Stupid, foolish; also as a noun, a fool; common and vulgar in Latin America.^[4][22][1]
2. (colloquial) Cowardly, faint-hearted; also as a noun.^[4][22]
3. (colloquial) Leading a disorderly, dissolute life.^[4][23]
4. (Peru, colloquial) cunning, sly.^[4][1]

Noun

1. (Argentina, Uruguay, vulgar) A boy or girl, a teenager.^[4][1]
2. A pubic hair; the hair of the pubis and groin.^[4][1]
3. (Andalusia) mistletoe.^[4][19]
4. (Andalusia) A kind of pumpkin.^[4]

Word family

• pendejada
• pendejear
• pendejez

Related words

• peinar
• peine
• empeine
• Latin pecten
• Portuguese pentelho

Usage notes

Hacerse el pendejo means “to play dumb” in Spanish America.^[23][15] In León, pendejo is also a rag hanging from a dress, a shed and an idler, derived from pender.^[24]

References

1. ^ a b c d e f g h i Wiktionary, the free dictionary, https://en.wiktionary.org
2. ^ a b c d e f g Corominas, Joan; Pascual, José A. (1980–1991), Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico, 6 vols., Madrid: Gredos, p. 4, 459
3. ^ a b c d e Corominas, Joan (1973), Breve diccionario etimológico de la lengua castellana, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. peine
4. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l 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. pendejo
5. ^ Meyer-Lübke, Wilhelm (1935), Romanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 3rd ed., Heidelberg: Winter
6. ^ a b Real Academia Española (1884), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 12th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Gregorio Hernando (the first Academy edition with etymologies), p. 810
7. ^ Real Academia Española (1899), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 13th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de los Sres. Hernando y Compañía, p. 761
8. ^ Glare, P. G. W., ed. (2012), Oxford Latin Dictionary, 2nd ed., Oxford: Oxford University Press
9. ^ 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. pendejo
10. ^ a b Percyvall, Richard (1591), Bibliothecae Hispanicae pars altera: containing a dictionarie in Spanish, English and Latine, London: John Jackson for Richard Watkins, p. 187
11. ^ Real Academia Española (1726–1739), Diccionario de la lengua castellana (Diccionario de Autoridades), 6 vols., Madrid: Francisco del Hierro, p. 5
12. ^ Terreros y Pando, Esteban de (1786–1793), Diccionario castellano con las voces de ciencias y artes y sus correspondientes de las tres lenguas francesa, latina e italiana, 4 vols., Madrid: Viuda de Ibarra, p. 3, 85
13. ^ a b c 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. pendejo
14. ^ a b Alemany y Bolufer, José (1917), Diccionario de la lengua española, Barcelona: Ramón Sopena, p. 1289
15. ^ a b Santamaría, Francisco J. (1959), Diccionario de mejicanismos, México: Porrúa, p. 829
16. ^ a b Garzón, Tobías (1910), Diccionario argentino, Barcelona: Imprenta Elzeviriana de Borrás y Mestres, p. 369
17. ^ Real Academia Española (2021–), Tesoro de los diccionarios históricos de la lengua española (TDHLE): Diccionario histórico (1933–1936), its unpublished slips, Diccionario histórico (1960–1996), DHECan, DHECR, DHEVen, https://www.rae.es/tdhle, p. s.v. pendejo
18. ^ Battaner Arias, Paz (dir.) (2017), Diccionario general de la lengua española VOX, Barcelona: Larousse Editorial, p. s.v. pendejo
19. ^ a b Alcalá Venceslada, Antonio (1951), Vocabulario andaluz, Madrid: Real Academia Española, p. 469
20. ^ Cobos, Rubén (1983), A Dictionary of New Mexico and Southern Colorado Spanish, Santa Fe: Museum of New Mexico Press, p. 151
21. ^ Real Academia Española (1843), Diccionario de la lengua castellana, 9th ed., Madrid: Imprenta de D. Francisco María Fernández, p. 548
22. ^ a b Asociación de Academias de la Lengua Española (2010), Diccionario de americanismos, Lima: Santillana; online at https://www.asale.org/damer, p. s.v. pendejo
23. ^ a b Moliner, María (2007), Diccionario de uso del español, 3rd ed., Madrid: Gredos, p. s.v. pendejo
24. ^ 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. pendejo