cojones

English

Etymology

From Spanish cojones (“testicles, balls”), from Late Latin cōleonēs, from Latin cōleus (“sack, scrotum”). Doublet of cullion and culeus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kəˈhoʊˌneɪs/, /kəˈhoʊniːz/

Noun

cojones pl (plural only)

1. (slang, usually vulgar) Synonym of balls (“testicles; courage, masculinity”).
   • 2005, Total Overdose, spoken by Ramiro “Ram” Cruz (Simon Prescott as Cesar Morales and Daniel E. Mora), Square Enix Europe; Eidos Interactive, via Deadline Games and Square Enix:

     Stepping right into a trap... Your biggest problem is that you got big cojones but nothing in your brains.
     I think Freud would have something to say about your obsession with my big cojones.

Further reading

• “cojones”, in Collins English Dictionary.
• “cojones”, in Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: Merriam-Webster, 1996–present.
• “cojones”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “cojones”, in Cambridge English Dictionary, Cambridge, Cambridgeshire: Cambridge University Press, 1999–present.

Anagrams

• Conejos

Spanish

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /koˈxones/ [koˈxo.nes]
• Rhymes: -ones
• Syllabification: co‧jo‧nes

• Audio:

  (file)

Interjection

cojones

1. (vulgar, Spain, idiomatic) bloody hell!; bollocks!

Descendants

• → English: cojones

Noun

cojones

1. (vulgar, slang) testicles, plural of cojón, cojones
2. (vulgar, slang) balls, cojones (courage)

Further reading

• “cojones”, in Diccionario de la lengua española, Vigésima tercera edición, Real Academia Española, 2014
• “cojones” in Lexico, Oxford University Press.