Caralho is a vulgarPortuguese-languageword with a variety of meanings and uses. Literally, it is a noun referring to the penis, similar to Englishdick, but it is also used as an interjection expressing surprise, admiration, or dismay in both negative and positive senses in the same way as fuck in English. Caralho is also used in the intensifiers para caralho, placed after adjectives and sometimes adverbs and nouns to mean "very much" or "lots of", and do caralho, both of which are equivalent to the English vulgarities fucking and as fuck. Caralho is cognate with Spanish carajo, Galiciancarallo, and Catalancarall. However, cognates have not been identified in other Iberian languages including Basque. Italian has cazzo, a word with the same meaning, but attempts to link it to the same etymology fail on phonological grounds because the /r/ of carajo remains unexplained, and no Latin phonological sequence develops as both /x/ in Spanish and /tts/ in Italian. Records show that the word has been in use since the 10th century in Portugal, appearing on the "poems of insult and mockery" in the Galician-Portuguese lyric. After the Counter-Reformation, the word became obscene and its original sense meaning the erect penis became less common. Nowadays, caralho is commonly used as a dysphemism and in erotism.
Etymology
The etymology of caralho and its cognates is uncertain, but several hypotheses have been put forward. On the basis of both semantics and historical phonology, the most plausible source appears to be unattested Vulgar Latin*caraculum, which would have been a Latinized diminutive of Ancient Greek χάραξ. Another possibility is Late Latincassus or its diminutive, carassus, eventually used to describe a crow's nest on a ship. Philologist and RomanistJoan Coromines suggested that the word may have a Pre-Roman origin in the Celtic root cario. Etymologist Christian Schmitt proposed that the etymon is Ancient Greek καρυον.
History
In the 10th century, the word was commonly used to name mounts that had a phallic shape. An early evidence of its vulgarity stems from 974, when the Monastery of Sant Pere de Rodes received a donation from Gausfred, Count of Rossillon, which referred to mons Caralio, a nearby mount, as having "a dishonest and indecorous name, although well-known by everyone". In 982, King Lothair of France donated land to the same monastery: pervenit usque in sumitatem ipsius montis qui vocatur Caralio. A vulgar Galician-language poem from the mid-13th century, by Castlian trovadorPedro Burgalês, uses the word in reference to a woman named Maria Negra, who had a strong desire for the phallus: Galician-Portuguese poet Martin Soares mentions an anti-hero named Dom Caralhote who is kidnapped and locked for life by a damsel he once dishonored:
