What is Caralho? What does “Caralho” mean in Portuguese?

After Portugal’s matches in World Cup 2022 We often hear about Caralho. Social media is also flooded with comments and writing that include the word “Caralho”. So what is Caralho? Let’s find out the meaning of the word Caralho.

What is Caralho?

Caralho (IPA: [kaˈɾaʎu]) is a vulgar word in Portuguese with many different meanings and uses. If translated into English, the word “Caralho” means “Fuck”, if it is Vietnamese, then “d*.”, “d!t”, “de’o”…depending on the region.

Literally, it is a noun that refers to “penis”similar to English is “dick”but it is also used as an interjection express surpriseadmired or dismayed in both a negative and positive sense in a manner similar to “Fuck” in English.

Caralho is also used in the strengthening words para caralho, placed after adjectives and sometimes adverbs and nouns meaning “very much” (“very much” or “lots of”) and do caralho, both both are equivalent to the vulgar English words fucking and as fuck.

Caralho shares the same roots as the Spanish carajo, the Galician carallo and the Catalan caral. However, cognate words have not been identified in other Iberian languages ​​including Basque. Italian has cazzo, a word with the same meaning, but attempts to associate it with the same etymology have failed on phonological grounds because the /r/ sound of carajo (or its absence in cazzo) has not interpreted, and no Latin phonological sequence evolved into both /x/ in Spanish and /tts/ in Italian.

Records show that the word has been in use since the 10th century in Portugal, appearing in “poems of insults and ridicule” in Galician-Portuguese lyrics. After the Counter-Reformation, the word became obscene and its original meaning of erect penis became less common.

It is no coincidence that the word “Caralho” has been used a lot in recent times, but because Portugal is currently participating in the 2022 World Cup with Ronaldo player, but there are too many surprises about the matches. making Portuguese football fans unable to hold back their emotions but had to scream the words with “Caralho” on social networks and in real life. Especially, the Portuguese ceiling lost to Korea with a score of 1-2 on the evening of December 2, 2022.