# An insult? "Hijo de la flauta" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 5, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263 "2001-02-05T21:55:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [February 5, 2001, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/1 "2001-02-05T21:55:54Z")
I’ve nearly finished Raymond Chandler’s _The Long Goodbye_. About halfway through it, a Mexican houseboy in California called Marlowe “Hijo de la flauta.” Marlowe left, “wondering how an expression meaning ‘son of a flute’ had come to be an insult in Spanish.” I wonder, too. My Spanish-language limitations are firmly established. I can order a beer and a platter of bicycle tires, and I can ask directions to the little typewriters’ room, but that’s about it. I’m hoping one of you kind folks can tell me why I shouldn’t call anyone a son of a flute. By the way, I did a google search first. I read about a dozen sites before I got accidentally trapped in a series of pop-up porn sites. ---
**Author:** ![AETBOND417](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/47e85d/32.png) [@AETBOND417](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AETBOND417)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/2 "2001-02-06T00:09:02Z")
Accidentally? :rolleyes: 😉 \<—Not Hispanic, has nothing to contribute other than to say that 80% of the Spanish phrases he knows are completely different and odd when literally translated into English. ---
**Author:** ![Brynda](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e79b87/32.png) [@Brynda](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Brynda)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/3 "2001-02-06T00:29:09Z")
Uh, I don’t know, but could flute refer to the size of one’s father’s penis? Maybe it is just the way my mind works, but that would seem to be an insult. ---
**Author:** ![Fretful\_Porpentine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fretful_porpentine/32/2873_2.png) [@Fretful\_Porpentine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fretful_Porpentine)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/4 "2001-02-06T03:10:18Z")
I’d guess it’s a euphemism for “hijo de puta” – son of a whore. Like we say “son of a gun” in English. ---
**Author:** ![Morgyn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/morgyn/32/3041_2.png) [@Morgyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Morgyn)\ **Post date:** [February 6, 2001, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/5 "2001-02-06T03:15:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Fretful Porpentine \* > \*\*I’d guess it’s a euphemism for “hijo de puta” – son of a whore. Like we say “son of a gun” in English. \*\* Yes to the first bit, but the idiom is closer to “son of a bitch”. ---
**Author:** ![JeremyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JeremyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeremyW)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/6 "2015-11-27T00:09:27Z")
Just reading Chandler now. And felt the need to check. My first thought was that son of a flute would be a piccolo. And that if a flute was a dick then a piccolo would be a pencil dick. According the urban dictionary piccolo actually is South American slang for male parts so I guess the insult is either that you are calling someone a dick OR a pencil dick. ---
**Author:** ![JeremyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JeremyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeremyW)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 12:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/7 "2015-11-27T00:12:37Z")
In review, given what I just wrote above, I’m not surprised AskNott ended up with porn pop-ups. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/8 "2015-11-27T00:34:14Z")
Como se dice “son of a zombie” en espanol? ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 1:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/9 "2015-11-27T01:03:14Z")
This one time, at band camp… ---
**Author:** ![JeremyW](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3da27b/32.png) [@JeremyW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeremyW)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/10 "2015-11-27T02:21:08Z")
Candy, the “house boy” is not Mexican. He is Chilean. Therefore S American usage. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/11 "2015-11-27T18:02:31Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > I’d guess it’s a euphemism for “hijo de puta” – son of a whore. Like we say “son of a gun” in English. This is actually the correct explanation. From [here.](http://cubonegro.orgfree.com/forbarsp.html) > [@](#): > > a la flauta [fixed phrase] (lit. ‘what the flute!’) 1. [35] a curse; an euphemism for a la puta (see puta). _Hijo de la gran flauta_ is also used. ---
**Author:** ![Grrr](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/grrr/32/146_2.png) [@Grrr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Grrr)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 6:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/12 "2015-11-27T18:09:12Z")
I’ve always been fond of chicken flutes with a side of beans and rice myself. ---
**Author:** ![Frodo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/frodo/32/302_2.png) [@Frodo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Frodo)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2015, 9:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/an-insult-hijo-de-la-flauta/53263/13 "2015-11-27T21:44:07Z")
I’ve heard “La fluta madre que parió” 🙂