carallo

carallo

Galician

Street post known as o carallo vinte e nove, Santiago de Compostela

Etymology

The etymology is unknown, but the most plausible source, on the basis of both semantics and historical phonology, appears to be unattested Latin *c(h)araculum, which would have been a Latinized diminutive of Ancient Greek χάραξ (khárax, “stick”). This also provides a single, phonologically coherent source for the cognates: Portuguese caralho, Spanish carajo and Catalan carall. Attempts to attribute Italian same-meaning cazzo to the same etymon fail on phonological grounds, as the /r/ of carajo (or its absence in cazzo) remains unexplained, and no Latin phonological sequence develops as both /x/ in Spanish and /tts/ in Italian. Otherwise, perhaps related to Breton kalc'h, Welsh cala,[1] from a derivative of Proto-Celtic *kalgā.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kaˈɾaʎo̝/

Noun

carallo m (plural carallos)

1. (vulgar) penis

   Synonyms: pirola, pito, pixa

2. (vulgar) damn

Derived terms

• caralla
• carallada
• carallote
• carallo de rei
• carallou
• caralloutou
• caralludo
• de carallo
• escarallar
• manda carallo

Interjection

carallo

1. (slang, vulgar) shit!
2. (slang, vulgar) go to hell, piss off, fucking hell, fuck, damn it

References

• “caralho” in Dicionario de Dicionarios do galego medieval, SLI - ILGA 2006–2022.
• “caral” in Xavier Varela Barreiro & Xavier Gómez Guinovart: Corpus Xelmírez - Corpus lingüístico da Galicia medieval. SLI / Grupo TALG / ILG, 2006–2018.
• “carallo” in Dicionario de Dicionarios da lingua galega, SLI - ILGA 2006–2013.
• “carallo” in Tesouro informatizado da lingua galega. Santiago: ILG.
• “carallo” in Álvarez, Rosario (coord.): Tesouro do léxico patrimonial galego e portugués, Santiago de Compostela: Instituto da Lingua Galega.
• DRAG

1. Joan Coromines; José A. Pascual (1983–1991), “carajo”, in Diccionario crítico etimológico castellano e hispánico (in Spanish), Madrid: Gredos