The Spanish language employs a wide range of swear words that vary between Spanish speaking nations and in regions and subcultures of each nation. Idiomatic expressions, particularly profanity, are not always directly translatable into other languages, and so most of the English translations offered in this article are very rough and most likely do not reflect the full meaning of the expression they intend to translate. Overview In Spanish, as in most languages, swear words tend to come from semantic domains considered taboo, such as human excretions, sexuality, and religion, and swearing serves several functions in discourse. Spanish insults are often of a sexual nature, taking the form of implying a lack of sexual decency if the insulted person is a woman (e.g. puta, "whore", perra "bitch") or implying a supposed lack of masculinity if the insulted person is male (e.g. maricón "faggot", puto "male prostitute"). A particularly forceful Spanish insult is any mention of someone else's mother, including also in its strongest form (e.g. ¡me cago en tu puta madre! "fuck your whore of a mother!", in which "me cago" out of context means "I shit", but in this sentence it expresses disregard). Emphatic exclamations, not aimed to insult but to express strong emotion, often include words for sexual relations (e.g. ¡joder! "fuck!", ¡chingados! "fuckers!") or to excretions or sexual organs (¡mierda! "shit!", ¡coño! "pussy!"). Sexual taboo words that describe a masculine sexuality may be used in a positive sense (e.g. cabrón "male goat", gallo "rooster", cerdo "pig"). References to sexual acts The following words are indicative of a variety of sexual acts, especially sexual intercourse and masturbation, though mostly limited to specific geographic regions. Chingar chingar—originating from the Basque verb txingartu, meaning "to burn with coal" or from Caló (Spanish Romani) word čingarár, meaning "to fight". In the work La Chingada, it was famously applied to La Malinche, the mistress of Hernán Cortés. Chingado/da The word is derived from "chingar" which means "to fuck", which came from the Romani language word for "fight" used by the Gitanos. This word has many meanings in the Spanish language, most limited to Mexico: Adjective for damage (e.g. "Este niño se subió a la bicicleta y ahora su rodilla está chingada" – "This kid rode his bike and now his knee is fucked up/fucking damaged.") Noun for a bad place to go (e.g. "¡Ya me tienes harto! ¡Vete a la chingada!" –