Etymology of Pinoy Cuss Words

WORDS: KHYNE PALUMAR AND RHIANNA FLORESCA

PHOTOS FROM VIDEO 48
November 6, 2012 | 3415 views

Repeat a word enough times, and it loses its meaning. Witness: cuss words. Putang
ina. Gago. Ulol. Tarantado. Once, they might have been the most cutting,
brutal verbal assaults the world has ever heard, with an effect not totally unlike a
rapper telling someone how he made sweet, sweet love to that someone's mother the
night prior. Now, these words are nothing but a little salt and pepper sprinkled into
normal conversation.
Nonetheless, we are fond of them, if only to mock our parents who once told us never to
say bad words. So as a manner of tribute, here we are laying them all out in their full
offensive glory with their respective origin stories. Read on, mga kups!

EPAL
Noun. (eh-phl)
The colloquial transliteration of pumapapel, or to volunteer unwelcome activity/butt in
uninvitingly.
Epal has also been mistaken to refer to the same penile discharge that kupal describes, for the
simple reason that History Professor Michael Chua says: Magkalapit sila ng tunog. So the
words are associated with each other. Adding, although theyre both used to refer to an
unlikable person, epal falls on the milder end of the cursing spectrum.
BOBO

Adjective/noun. (Boh-boh)
Traces back to the Spanish word of the same pronunciation and spelling, which means silly
(boba in female form) in contrast to its more scathing Pinoy definitionidiot/dimwit.
But youre thinking, Hindi naman siya mura, eh. Filipino Linguistic Professor David San Juan
argues: Sa kultura kasi nating mga Pinoy, hanggat maari, ayaw nating makasakit ng
damdamin. We prefer euphemisms to the actual word. Kahit alam nating bobo ang isang tao,
hindi natin sasabihing, Bobo ka! to his or her face maliban kung galit tayo. Nagiging mura siya
kasi sensitive tayo sa paggamit ng salita. Related words that you may want to use to change
things up according to San Juan: tunggak, ungas, idiota.

TARANTADO
Noun. (Tran-ta-doh)
From the Spanish Attarantado, which means to frighten or incite panic, and old Italian
Attarantar which alludes to epileptics. Tarantado, is Spanish vulgar-colloquial for
blunderhead, or stupid.

GAGO/GAGA
Adjective. Noun. (gah-gah/gah-goh)
In Spanish, a person who stutters or stammers a lot. Later adapted in Tagalog to refer to someone
stupid, idiotic, and/or a screw-up, apparently because a person who fidgets with words is prone
to humiliation, and describes all these things.

INA MO, PUTANG

Noun. (pooh-tuhng ee-nah m)
A variation of anak ka ng puta except the premise of you being a possible bastard plays

secondary to the central insultyour mother being a whore, or more crassly, your mothers
vagina.
Historian Dr. Luis Dery, PhD, explains: This is probably the most bastos. Putang ina mo is not
talking about your mother being a puta, its about the female sex organputa ng ina mo. Its
regional variations: Bolig ni ina mo in Bikolano, Bilat sing ina mo in Bisaya, and in less
overheard Tagalog, Pekpek/Puke ng ina mo.

LECHE
Noun. (leht-sch)
In clean, textbook Spanish: milk. Its dirtier equivalent you couldve guessed: The phrase used to
be mal lechebad milk, or panis na gatas, says Chua. So sa colloquial, mal leche, is yung
gatas ng ari ng lalaki. Ito yung semen, o di kaya yung maduming puti sa ulo ng ari ng lalaki.
(see: Kupal)
LECHUGAS
Noun. (leht-schu-guhs)
Adjusted Tagalog-plural for the Spanish lechugaor lettuce/lettuce head. Used in conjunction
to a particularly ugly situation, and not directed to anyone in particular, i.e. Damn it!
Why a veritable vegetable landed on our cuss vocabulary, even our panel of experts can only
guess. And if we could: the head in lettuce head is a probable clue.

LINTIK
Noun. (leen-tehk)
Shortened from the original curse phrase Malintikan ka sana, which translates to Tamaan ka
sana ng kidlat, Kidlatan ka sana and interpreted as: May bad luck befall on you and/or
Mamatay ka na.

PUTA
Noun. (Pooh-tah)
A female whore.
Why putos never caught up, or why male gigolos refused to elicit anything other than giggles
on the insult front, can, according to Dery, be pegged on our unforgivably male language system.
And he says, its not just ours. "Sa Alemanya, ang salitang Kindergarten ay mula sa salitang
bata, bahay, gawain sa bahay. Thats what women are perceived to be forpara lang sa bata,
at para lang sa bahay. Very male ang language, hindi lang Tagalog. And it affects every aspect
of our language, pati ang cursing, which degrades women, directly or directly.

KUPAL
Noun. (Koo-pahl)
Literally the smegma from the glands of an uncircumcised penisTagalog for dick wad and
the colloquial leche.
Metaphorically referring to any dumbass who annoys the scorn and dislike out of you. Why
youd use it in reference to a human being, Chua says: Remember, one context of cursing is to
insult and shock. Ano pa bang nakakainsultong dumi kung hindi yung dumi sa ari?
BUWISIT
Noun. (Bwee-cit)
1. An earlier derivative of todays modern Purita Kalaw which refers to poor people. Except
buwisit isnt simply poor, Chua says buwisits level of poorness is that of walang damit at
walang pagkain alluding to an old TV show that discussed its possible etymologies.
2. Borrowed from the Hokkien word/idiom loosely translating to instances or people associated
as pests, nuisance, or annoyance. In its less direct translation, buwisit refers to bad luck.

PUETA/PUNYETA
Noun. (Pooh-nyeh-tah)
1. Misleadingly passes off as a euphemistic or diminutive variation of whore, i.e. a somewhat
puta junior. But thumb through Spanish dictionaries and youll find the word doesnt exist. Chua
explains: Wala talagang word na pueta or punyeta sa Kastila. Ang pinakamalapit na word
para dito is puoa closed fist. Kaya ang connotation ng iba kapag sinabihan sila ng punyeta
ay para silang sinusuntok.
2. Chua adds: Pero, mayroong pinagtanungan si Ambeth Ocampo [historian, author of Looking
Back, 1990] na ang salitang ito raw ay Mexican-Colloquial or Mexican-Spanish. Remember ang
historical context nito, nang masakop tayo ng mga Kastila, we were not ruled directly from and
by Spain. Spain ruled vice royalties, and we were under one of those vice royaltiesthe vice
royalty of Nueva Espaa or Mexico. At sa Mexico, mayroon silang sariling version ng Spanish.
From which comes Pueta. Galing siya sa phrase na 'Vas tu puetar.' Ang ibig sabihin ng vas
tu ay you goYou go masturbate.
PUTRIS/PUTRAGIS
Noun. (Poo-trh-gees)
1. Similarly spelled to the last letter in Latin (Putris), which means crumbling or rotten.
2. Putragis is our Filipino-Spanish approximation of the combined putris and putere which
means to stink. Now, both meaning an individual who is both mabaho and kadiri or naagnas.

PUTA, ANAK KA NG
Noun. (ah-nuk kah nahng poo-tah)
Our version of the Spanish hijo de puta and English son of a bitch. But unlike its other

versions, our Tagalog anak ka ng puta is gender neutral. Tossed around to hit two birds with
one stone. You, the possible bastard, and your mother, of many lovers.