# What is “Tu madre” short for? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [October 20, 2000, 11:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645 "2000-10-20T11:44:15Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Spoke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a88e57/32.png) [@Spoke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Spoke)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/21 "2000-10-22T16:52:38Z")
OK, now that we know how to say “goat,” what is Spanish for “to felch”? 😛 ---
**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:** [October 22, 2000, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/22 "2000-10-22T17:35:06Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by douglips \* > \*\* > > > [@](#): > > > > “Con paciencia y saliva, un elefante chingo una hormiga.” > > Don’t you know that ant and elephant DNA just don’t mix? \*\* I didn’t say they had kids, I just said they were very good friends. ---
**Author:** ![Cogitoergosum](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b9bd4f/32.png) [@Cogitoergosum](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cogitoergosum)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 8:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/23 "2000-10-22T20:58:32Z")
One note about chingar: In Puerto Rico, chingar means more to fuck as animals do. Therefore, it is stronger than joder or other similar words. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2000, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/24 "2000-10-22T21:08:34Z")
**Colibri** wrote: > [@](#): > > 1. Related to the last, there are lots of words that are innocuous in one country but suspect elsewhere, such as “chucha,” which means “armpit odor” in Colombia but “twat” in Panama. Growing up, I had always heard that the Spanish word for the female genitalia was `choche' (I'm guessing at the spelling). It has puzzled me for years that while I hear `puta’ in movies from time to time, I never hear `choche’. But I’ve been, you know, a bit shy about asking why this is. I thought perhaps it was just a Puerto Rican term. ---
**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 2:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/25 "2000-10-23T02:17:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Johnny Angel \* > \*\ ***Colibri** wrote: > > > [@](#): > > > > 1. Related to the last, there are lots of words that are innocuous in one country but suspect elsewhere, such as “chucha,” which means “armpit odor” in Colombia but “twat” in Panama. > > Growing up, I had always heard that the Spanish word for the female genitalia was `choche' (I'm guessing at the spelling). It has puzzled me for years that while I hear `puta’ in movies from time to time, I never hear `choche’. But I’ve been, you know, a bit shy about asking why this is. I thought perhaps it was just a Puerto Rican term. \*\* The word you are looking for is “chocha” and yes, that spelling is the Puerto Rico variant, elsewhere you get “chucha”, “chocho”, etc. Spanish has experienced a wide range of regional idiomatic shift on some of the genital/sexual cusswords. Just about the only thing that has stayed universal across 2 dozen countries is “culo”(arse). The original Castillian Spanish vulgar term for the female genitalia was “coño” (if your system doesn’t read it , that’s “cono” with a tilde [~] on top of the n), from the latin “cunnus.” It is till used that way in Spain, but around here in PR, “coño” is a generic gratuitous obscenity, generally meaning “oh, fuck!” Cubans and others, however, use it in both senses. The genitalia in question are called also crica, raja, panocha, papaya(!)(Cuba), etc. The 1992 Real Academia Española dictionary states that the Castillian vulgar term for the penis was originally “carajo” which, in the XXth cent. almost everywhere I know has drifted into being an obscene variant on “hell” (Vete al Carajo = Go to goddammnfuckinghell). Oddly, in PR the word used for that member is “bicho” which in the rest of the Spanish-speaking world, AFAIK, means roughly “varmint” or “critter.” Elsewhere it’s pinga, verga, polla, cipote, rabo, etc. “Joder” was originally the vulgar term for “to fornicate”, since replaced in Spain by “follar”(an archaic word meaning to dig or plow). In the Antilles it became a purely figurative term, akin to the AmEnglish “fuck up” or “fuck over” ( “Mi pana, estamos jodidos si gana Bush” = “Homey, if Bush wins, we’re fucked”; “No le hagas caso, lo dice solo por jodernos” = “Pay him no attention, he says that just to fuck with us”). In these parts, the term for the recreational-procreational act is referred to by the various forms of singar/chingar/chichar. As for the OP: “Tu madre” in PR is used mostly as short for “me cago en tu madre” (I shit on yo mama) or “(mal)dita sea tu madre” (A curse on yo’mama). jrd my, that was cathartic 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_Angel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/d26b3c/32.png) [@Johnny\_Angel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_Angel)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/26 "2000-10-23T02:37:07Z")
**JRDelerious** wrote: > [@](#): > > The word you are looking for is “chocha” and yes, that spelling is the Puerto Rico variant, elsewhere you get “chucha”, “chocho”, etc. It was sometimes pronounced _choch-a_, but most often I heard it truncated to _choch_. This was in Uptown, Chicago. > [@](#): > > Spanish has experienced a wide range of regional idiomatic shift on some of the genital/sexual cusswords. Just about the only thing that has stayed universal across 2 dozen countries is “culo”(arse). Someone once told my uncle that his last name `Royal' was `Culo’ in Spanish. He liked the sound of it, and started writing it on his papers. One day, when he introduced himself to some people as Gary Culo, which embarrassed the hell out of his friend Myrna. She grabbed him by the ear and pulled him around the corner, and set him straight. ---
**Author:** ![black\_rabbit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f19dbf/32.png) [@black\_rabbit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/black_rabbit)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2000, 3:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/27 "2000-10-23T03:27:14Z")
My experience with spanish insults comes primarily from my rican friends, but _chingar_ or _chinga te_ seem to be primarily mexican. _Cabron!_ is grounds for a duel to the death in PR. _Maricon!_ essentially means “faggot” in the Puerto rican jive. You hear a lot of ganster rappers rhyming the two on late night San Juan public access music video shows. More Puerto Rican: _Mama bicho!_ Suck my dick! Literally means “suck the little insect.” BTW: Shouldn’t it be _su madre_ rather than _tu madre_ in such constructions as _Me cago in la leche de tu/su madre fea_? Of course, if we’re talking about spanglish, I guess it doesn’t matter… ---
**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:** [October 23, 2000, 4:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645/28 "2000-10-23T16:01:06Z")
> [@](#): > > BTW: Shouldn’t it be _su madre_ rather than _tu madre_ in such constructions as _Me cago in la leche de tu/su madre fea_? Of course, if we’re talking about spanglish, I guess it doesn’t matter… \*\* No, “su” corresponds to “Usted” and is the polite form. If you want to show complete disrespect for a stranger, you use the “tu” (familiar) form. And that’s not Spanglish, it’s purest castellano. Thanks to JRDelerious for the very informative post. Where were you earlier on this thread when it needed you? I have little to add, except that another common euphemism for the female genitalia is “concha,” or seashell, which can give shell collectors conniptions. Another topic is the “softened” expletives often used for cuss words, which can be very confusing if you overhear them and don’t get the connection. Here in Panama one often hears “Chu-LE-ta!” (pork chop, for chucha), “A-JO” (garlic, for carajo), and “Mi-ER-coles!” (Wednesday, for mierda.) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-tu-madre-short-for/37645.md?page=1)