singao

What it means

1. 1.

   Bastard, son of a bitch. The strongest everyday personal insult in Cuban Spanish and a genuine fighting word between strangers.

2. 2.

   As an intensifier after a noun, marking contempt: el trabajo singao ese — that damn job.

Examples with translations

• Ese singao me dejó esperando dos horas.

  That bastard left me waiting for two hours.

• ¡Suéltame, singao!

  Let go of me, you son of a bitch!

  Note: Street-fight register. There is no jokey use of this between people who are not already close.

Where it comes from

Past participle of singar, the Cuban verb for sexual intercourse, with the -ado ending clipped to -ao as Cuban speech does routinely. Singar itself is of disputed origin, plausibly nautical (to scull a boat with a single oar), and the sexual sense is Cuban and Dominican rather than general Spanish.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

singado