This word has several meanings, depending on the context and the historical origins of the word.
On the one hand, it is a Spanish term that is used to attribute or designate the virile member, which is why in many occasions it can be taken as vulgarity.
It can also derive from the Spanish navy where the carajo referred to a guard post that was located on the main mast of the caravels and that was the place assigned for the lookouts to fulfill their work.
SYNONYMS FOR Carajo
- ● Carajo: obtains meaning depending on the context, according to the dictionary of the Spanish Royal Academy it is used as a synonym of virility, that is to say of the penis.
- ● Del carajo: means to be very well off.
- ● Irse al carajo: you want the person to get out of your sight.
- ● Pene: direct synonym of the word carajo.
ORIGIN OF Carajo
As has been developing throughout the text, there are different meanings for this word, as it has taken root in popular speech as a slang or idiom typical of certain localities.
The Royal Spanish Academy considers its origin as uncertain, they even assumed that the term originated in Vizcaya, but it was placed in doubt since Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra or Francisco Gómez de Quevedo Villegas y Santibáñez Cevallos do not use it even once.
Its origin is quite diverse and depends on its context. The Real Academia Española together with the sailors’ slang introduced the term “carajo” in Galician would be “carallo” relating it to the similarity it has with the intimate organ of the male gender, it seems that the term has been accepted together with different meanings.
CURIOSITIES OF Carajo
It is true that the term has taken root since it was widely used by captains when they did not want to see a subordinate they sent them to hell, hence the phrase “go to hell”.