# Supposed Spanish swear? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 25, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642 "2012-01-25T21:10:03Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/1 "2012-01-25T21:10:03Z")
My son told me he was working at this place and the Spanish-speaking co-worker taught his supervisor a supposed swear word. Have anyone ever heard of this and what does it mean? It is probably Latin American. It sounds like (according to my son): “yo momis sway”. ---
**Author:** ![ratatoskK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ratatoskk/32/2987_2.png) [@ratatoskK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ratatoskK)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/2 "2012-01-25T21:14:38Z")
Now he says the meaning of the phrase is “your mama’s way” but in Spanish it is pronounced “yo momis sway”. I don’t think either of us knows what he is talking about. And if it means “your mama’s way” I don’t see how it can be a swear. ---
**Author:** ![Lukeinva](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lukeinva/32/17872_2.png) [@Lukeinva](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lukeinva)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/3 "2012-01-25T21:45:39Z")
Lo siento… no entiendo. ---
**Author:** ![Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/4bbf92/32.png) [@Heart\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Heart_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 9:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/4 "2012-01-25T21:45:58Z")
Well, I don’t know a hell of a lot of Spanish, but the first thing that comes to my mind is something like, “Yo mame es, wey” which would be pronounced _roughly_ like “yo momis sway”, and would mean something like “I suck it, (you) jerk”. In that case, I’d guess the coworker is trying to trick the supervisor into insulting himself. But I most likely have no idea what I’m talking about, and **Nava** or someone else will be along shortly to correct me. ---
**Author:** ![Pyper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/5f9b8f/32.png) [@Pyper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pyper)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2012, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/5 "2012-01-25T22:21:01Z")
I am going to guess that the phrase was, “No mames, wey.” Translation, “Don’t joke/fuck around, man.” ---
**Author:** ![Toucanna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3bc359/32.png) [@Toucanna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Toucanna)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/6 "2012-01-26T19:29:51Z")
No : [do] not mames : informal imperative of “mamar” = to suck wey : alternative/slang pronunciation of “[güey](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guey)” Literal meaning : Do not suck, ox. Figurative meaning: Stop fucking around, dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 26, 2012, 7:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/7 "2012-01-26T19:36:04Z")
“Mamar” can mean, among other less-comon things, “to suckle”, “to get completely drunk” or “to give a blow job” (aka _mamada_, now you know another word your grandma wouldn’t want you to know). In any case, not something one should be doing in the middle of a conversation and here you have another vote for **Pyper** ’s guess. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 1:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/8 "2012-01-27T01:40:32Z")
No need for guesses. This is it. > [@Toucanna](#): > > No : [do] not > mames : informal imperative of “mamar” = to suck > wey : alternative/slang pronunciation of “[güey](http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=guey)” > > Literal meaning : Do not suck, ox. > Figurative meaning: Stop fucking around, dumbass. ---
**Author:** ![Rigamarole](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/77aa72/32.png) [@Rigamarole](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rigamarole)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/9 "2012-01-27T02:17:28Z")
> [@Pyper](#): > > I am going to guess that the phrase was, “No mames, wey.” Translation, “Don’t joke/fuck around, man.” Most definitely this, except it’s spelled _no mames, **güey** _ (last word pronounced like “way” in English). It’s a very common (actually annoyingly common) phrase in Mexico and in the U.S. mostly among young Mexican men, as it is considered vulgar. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 8:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/10 "2012-01-27T08:49:48Z")
Nope, nope, nope. Yes, it’s “no mames, büey” (also spelled “guëy”), and yes, literally, it would mean “don’t suckle, ox”. But what it really means is “Totally, dude!” (or, in some contexts, “Wow, man!”). Not an insult. An affirmation or expression of mild surprise. (Though it is “vulgar”, in the sense of “informal speech used mainly by young people”.) ---
**Author:** ![Nava](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/da6949/32.png) [@Nava](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nava)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/11 "2012-01-27T09:14:38Z")
If you spell it with a b, no dieresis: buey. The spellings güey and wey (I’ve seen both) represent a different pronunciation. In Spanish, the only letter which gets to wear a dieresis is the u, and only in güe/güi to show it’s pronounced (it wouldn’t be in gue/gui, where it shows that the consonant is G rather than J like it would be in ge/gi/je/ji). And it means “totally, dude!” but also “go tell that to the Marines, dude!” or “fuck off, dude!” or “go on like that and you’ll wake up in the hospital, you little piece of shit!” Like so many things, its meaning changes by context and tone. ---
**Author:** ![JKellyMap](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jkellymap/32/15880_2.png) [@JKellyMap](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JKellyMap)\ **Post date:** [January 27, 2012, 9:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/supposed-spanish-swear/610642/12 "2012-01-27T09:29:47Z")
> [@Nava](#): > > If you spell it with a b, no dieresis: buey. Ah, thanks. My bad. > [@Nava](#): > > And it means “totally, dude!” but also “go tell that to the Marines, dude!” or “fuck off, dude!” or “go on like that and you’ll wake up in the hospital, you little piece of shit!” Like so many things, its meaning changes by context and tone. True. Another common meaning is “You have GOT to be kidding!”; or, if you’re telling a story, “I mean, dude, PLEASE!”; that is, “Give me a break!”. In other words, mildly exasperated surprise at something. But I thought it was important to point out to the OP that it’s rarely an insult (in the many places in Mexico I’ve heard it used, anyway). For “fuck off, dude”, there are many much stronger phrases one would me more likely to use.