cojones
English
Etymology
From Spanish cojones (“testicles, balls”), from Late Latin cōleonēs, from Latin cōleus (“sack, scrotum”). Doublet of cullion and culeus.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /kəˈhoʊˌneɪs/, /kəˈhoʊniːz/
Audio (US): (file)
Noun
cojones pl (plural only)
- (slang, usually vulgar) Synonym of balls (“testicles; courage, masculinity”).
- 2005, Total Overdose, spoken by Ramiro “Ram” Cruz (Simon Prescott as Cesar Morales and Daniel E. Mora), Square Enix Europe; Eidos Interactive, via Deadline Games and Square Enix:
- Stepping right into a trap... Your biggest problem is that you got big cojones but nothing in your brains.
I think Freud would have something to say about your obsession with my big cojones.
Further reading
- “cojones”, in Collins English Dictionary.
- “cojones”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
- “cojones”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
- “cojones”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.
Anagrams
Spanish
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /koˈxones/ [koˈxo.nes]
- Rhymes: -ones
- Syllabification: co‧jo‧nes
Audio: (file)
Interjection
cojones
- (vulgar, Spain, idiomatic) bloody hell!; bollocks!
Noun
cojones
Descendants
- → English: cojones
Further reading
- “cojones”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024
- “cojones” in Lexico, Oxford University Press.