Spanish insults get a 21st century revamp

THERE is a whole world of Spanish insults out there that go unused – from cebollino to pagafantas.

The average Spaniard uses around 1,000 words in their everyday speech – compared to nearly 5,000 for a native English speaker.

GQ magazine has decided to widen the vocabulary of Spanish-speakers with a list of 221 spicy insults.

For example, a ‘pagafantas’ is a man who fancies a girl (always paying for her drinks, or literally ‘Fantas’) but she just sees him as a brother, someone she would never be romantically interested in.

Other put-downs to be used when necessary include alcornoque (blockhead), cebollino (a chive, or literally stupid) and zampabollos (greedyguts).

A dirty dozen, or how to start a bar fight:

Abrazafarolas – literally ‘lamppost hugger’ – someone who drinks too much

Quitahipos – hiccup stopper – if someone is really ugly

Esbaratabailes – cheap dancer – a sleaze on the dancefloor

Bebecharcos – puddle drinker – alcoholic

Barriobajero – low class

Bocabuzon – mouth like a letterbox – a gossip

Cabezaalberca – water brain – empty-headed

Cuerpoescombro – rubble body – wimp or someone weak-willed

Culopollo – a chicken’s ass – a really ugly person

Perroflauta – a dog flautist – a hippy with a dog and a penny whistle

Lameplatos – a dish licker – a proper idiot

Peinaovejas – a sheep comber – even more stupid