# How Do You Say "GAY" In Spanish? And Other Languages? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [February 20, 2013, 9:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906 "2013-02-20T21:15:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 5\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![LawMonkey](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/d6d6ee/32.png) [@LawMonkey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LawMonkey)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 2:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906/61 "2013-02-26T14:41:35Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > So’s the less-common _watermuis_ (water mouse). Water mouse! I like that. I would have a very hard time getting offended at being called a water mouse. I think we should import that to English. Forgot to mention (because somewhat obvious) that Russian also has “gomoseksual” if you want to be completely neutral. (Possibly it’s “khomoseksual” as that seems to be the more common way of dealing with foreign words starting in ‘h’ these days; I don’t have my dictionary handy.) ---
**Author:** ![Clothahump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/51bf81/32.png) [@Clothahump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Clothahump)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 3:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906/62 "2013-02-26T15:26:43Z")
Indonesian: banci (bahn’-chee) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906/63 "2013-02-26T18:06:21Z")
> [@sunstone](#): > > Here is a listing of Spanish terms, some of which are not nice and others which are not insulting as far as I am aware. The link is used to avoid possible NSFW and also insulting others. > > See the seventh entry, but be sure to read the rest. > > http ://forum.wordreference.com/showthread.php?t=906187 From that seventh entry: _loca_: flaming; may not be gay but definitely has a defective wrist. Also, a gay or bisexual man who simply can’t resist a come-on. _marica, maricón, mariquita, mariposo_: depending on who you ask there are differences in meaning or not - mariposo is definitely euphemistic, mariquita is euphemistic or specific depending on who you ask (those who use it as specific use mariquita for a bottom and maricón for a top). Mariquita also means ladybug, but those who take it as specific look at it as mary-without and maricón as mary-with (_quitar_ is separate, eliminate; _con_ is with). I have the hypothesis that mariquita is actually the oldest, but since IANALinguist it shall remain a hypothesis. _voltiado, invertido_: lit. flipped over, a direct reference to anal _manflora_, I hadn’t run into before, it mixes English and Spanish _reina_: in Spain it’s reinona - a reina is a queen, a reinona is a drag queen _mujeril_: effeminate. Also used in other contexts to refer to “something appropriate for women”, generally in a “stuff which won’t make their brains overheat” kind of way _amujerado, ahembrado, adamado_: effeminate, but AFAIK don’t have the other usage _cacorro, enerve, fileno, garzón, desviado, yegua, pato_: hadn’t heard them in this context. _Yegua_ means mare; _pato_ is duck. _muñeco_: lit. dollboy _acaponado_: someone who behaves like he’s been castrated, weakling _pisaverde_: this one often means “dandy” or “greenhorn” in XIX and early-XX century books _ninfo_: lit. male nymph _barbilindo, barbilucio_: pretty-beard. Dandy, effeminate. _cocinilla_: “a man who likes being in the kitchen”. Careful with this one, in the Basque Country calling a guy cocinillas is actually a compliment (we do like our men able to cook) _sarasa, bujarrón, fileno_: fag; not normally tossed into someone’s face as an insult but more likely to be heard in a third-person reference. _puto_: male whore. Also called _chaperos_, in Spain. Garzón and Sarasa are both valid lastnames, too. I know several people with the lastname Sarasa who, upon being introduced to someone, will glare patiently\* while the someone bites his tongue and carefully refrains from cracking one of those jokes that were old when Adam and Eve still went around naked. - yes, it’s possible to glare patiently. They get a lifetime of practice. ---
**Author:** ![solosam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@solosam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solosam)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 6:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906/64 "2013-02-26T18:11:44Z")
I was in a Korean language class for several years. One of the students asked the teacher what their word for gay was. He said there was no such thing in Korea. Uh huh. ---
**Author:** ![Greg\_Charles](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/839c29/32.png) [@Greg\_Charles](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Greg_Charles)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2013, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906/65 "2013-02-26T22:43:43Z")
In Vietnamese, it’s bê đê, borrowed from the French péde, which equates gays with pedophiles. I don’t think most of them are conscious of the word’s history though. A more modern term is đồng tình, which is a literal translation of homosexual. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-you-say-gay-in-spanish-and-other-languages/650906.md?page=3)