16 July 2013

Spanish chocho (slang) 'vulva' (updated)


Due to its phonetic features, Spanish chocho /tʃótʃo/ (slang) 'vulva'1 (with regional variants chocha, chucha) is considered to be of "expressive origin"2 by Spanish linguists. However, to me it's a loanword from Basque txotxo /tʃótʃo/ (B, G) 'penis' (child word), a variant of tutu (B) 'vulva', (L) 'spout (of a jar)', (Bazt, L), ttuttu /cucu/ (Bazt, L) 'feeding bottle'3. 

















 


This etymology refers to the labia ('lips' in Latin), and thus I'd link the above words to Germanic *tut- 'to project' (Dutch tuit ‘spout, nozzle’, Middle Dutch tute ‘nipple, pap’, Middle Low German tute ‘horn; funnel’), Kartvelian (Georgian) čˀočˀ- 'peak, tip, spout (of a jug)', East Caucasian *t(t)ʃot(t)ʃV 'tip, spout' (Chechen cˀuzam 'spout (of a tea-pot, jug)', Lezghian cˀucˀ 'spout (of a tea-pot), Kryz cˀɨcˀ 'clitoris; ring-stone'), and Tungusic *tʃitʃu- 'penis, spout (of a tea-pot)'.
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1 The homonymous chocho 'white lupin' is a loanword from Mozarabic śóś < Latin salsu- 'salted'. See F. Corriente (2003): Diccionario de arabismos y voces afines en iberorromance, p. 287. 
2 It must be remarked that expressiveness (a goal which can be achieved by mimicking children language, as in e.g. expressive palatalization, extensively used in Basque for conveying an affective or diminutive meaning) doesn't necessarily implies a phonosymbolic (i.e. onomatopoeic) origin.
3 There's also the homonymous tutu, ttuttu 'tube, pipe; horn, bugle', conflated by Bengtson.
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9 comments:

  1. AdygheChabadiJune 25, 2013 at 5:50 AM

    OOOOH! I'ma tell it on you! hahaha

    Is that a personal picture or from a personal collection or one you searched for? hahaha

    I click on your blog to answer your post(s) and I see some woman's pudendum. I was like, "Oh my Jesus!"

    Don't forget Hindi: choot "vagina, pudenda/ vulva" of Punjabi origin. The word is widespread slang in India and Pakistan.

    Also Japanese: chichi (乳) is a term for "milk" or "udder" or "breast(s)"

    Also Nahuatl (Aztec) language: Chichihualli "breasts", chichihualyacatl "nipples", chichihualyacahuitzli "tips of the nipples source of Mexican Spanish: chichi "breasts"

    Also consider Afroasiatic: *ča/ud- "(woman's) breast

    Proto-Semitic: *t_a/ud- '(woman's) breast'

    Ugaritic: t_d 'weibl. Brust, Euter; Bruststück' [Aist 332].

    With obscure variants d_d and zd [Aist 321, 97], see in *zīz- {} *ʒīʒ- (No. ). On this root see also [Gordon 501], [Del Olmo 640]

    Hebrew: šād (du. šādayim) 'Brust' [KB deutsch 1316], šōd 'Mutterbrust' [ibid. 1317]

    Judaic Aramaic: taddā [Ja 1647]; td (pl. tdyn, tddyn) [Sok 575] 'breast'

    Syrian Aramaic: tǝdā 'mamma' [Brock 816]

    Arabic: t_ady-, t_idy- 'mamelle, téton (de femme)' [BK 2 220].

    -i- in t_idy- due to -y; also t_ud- marked as "rare" in [BDB 994, apud Lane 333]

    Mehri: t_ódi 'breast, bosom' [JM 415]

    Jibbali: t_ɔ́dɛʔ 'bosom, breast, nipple and breast' [JJ 283]

    Harsusi: t_ōdi 'breast' [JH 132]

    Soqotri: tódi et al. 'sein' [LS 439] (see also [SSL LS 1477; SSL 4 98])

    Notes: Biconsonantal root with various means of triconsonantization: doubling of the second radical in ARM JUD, appending of -y as a third radical in ARB and most MSA and of -ʔ in JIB.

    [KB deutsch 1316]: HBR, ARM, UGR; [Brock 816]: SYR, ARM, HBR, ARB; [LS 439]: SOQ, MSA, HBR, JUD

    (All Militarev and Stolbova)

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Octavià AlexandreJune 26, 2013 at 12:19 PM

      Hi, Adyghe!

      In most cases, nursery words expressing similar concepts aren't related at all, and their resemblance its due to the expressive features which arise from its origin in children language.

      However, the Semitic word you quoted arose my interest, so I've made a little research. See for example, Akkadian zīzu 'breast', Hebrew zīz 'udder, nipple' and Arabic zīz-at- 'breast'. Another Semitic word is the origin of Catalan dida 'wet nurse' and probably also of Spanish teta and similar words in Western European languages.

      Delete
  2. velvetguntherJune 27, 2013 at 5:34 PM

    Dude, you should have given an NSFW warning. Try explaining to my colleagues that this is a blog on linguistics and we are not horny old men. :)
    Regarding the word for vulva, I would like to add the Dutch 'cut', English 'cunt' and Hindi/Indo-Aryan 'choot' (as already mentioned above by AC). Considering these are the only three languages I know, I couldn't help making note of how similar they sound. In Bengali, which is also an Indo-Aryan language related to Hindi, the word for vulva is 'gUnd', which is related to the sanskrit 'gUh' meaning something deep, like 'gUha', which means 'cave'.
    In addition, the Indo-Aryan slang for breasts, or nipples (I'm not too sure) is 'choo-chi', but that could be more an expressive term, as you have said.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Octavià AlexandreJune 28, 2013 at 10:57 AM

      Dude, you should have given an NSFW warning. Try explaining to my colleagues that this is a blog on linguistics and we are not horny old men. :)
      Man, if you're aroused by a photo of an anonymous chichi, then you certainly must be an old pervert :-) In fact, Spanish cocho (noun) and cochear (verb) refer to mentally senile man.

      Regarding the word for vulva, I would like to add the Dutch 'cut', English 'cunt' and Hindi/Indo-Aryan 'choot' (as already mentioned above by AC). Considering these are the only three languages I know, I couldn't help making note of how similar they sound.
      I didn't think of it before, but it could be possible for the Hindi word to be related to the Germanic ones, if the former has undergone palatalization of the initial velar.

      In Bengali, which is also an Indo-Aryan language related to Hindi, the word for vulva is 'gUnd', which is related to the sanskrit 'gUh' meaning something deep, like 'gUha', which means 'cave'.
      This sound like a folk-etymology, as the Bengali word is an exact match of the Germanic word.

      Delete
    2. Octavià AlexandreJune 28, 2013 at 12:00 PM

      Of course, this chocho is a homonymous word to 'vulva'.

      Delete
  3. AdygheChabadiJune 28, 2013 at 7:53 AM

    Also, Octavia...consider English: teat "nipple" - tit/ titty "breast"

    Tit and titty are both derived from teat.

    Middle English: tete, in part from Old English: tit; in part from Anglo-French, of Germanic origin; akin to Old English: tit "teat", Middle High German: zitze

    I must admit that German word looks suspicious...like I have seen it before, hahaha

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Octavià AlexandreJune 28, 2013 at 10:37 AM

      Adyghe, as I said in my former reply, teat has Semitic relatives. And the shift t > ts /z/ is regular in German. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_German_consonant_shift

      Delete
  4. AdygheChabadiJune 28, 2013 at 9:07 PM

    I knew that, Octavia. I was making a joke that failed. Sorry.

    ReplyDelete
  5. UnknownJuly 31, 2013 at 11:44 AM


    I was just reading some old stuff & saw your name. Just wanted to say "hi". Your blog looks really good.
    Kenneth S. Doig said...
    "Suomi" is a Gmc word that means "swampy" due to all the 100s of 1000sof lakes and water..
    September 24, 2011 at 7:16 AM
    Octavià Alexandre said...
    Off-topic: I'm afraid Maju is a troll who deletes my comments on his blog, and also he's incompetent with regard to historical linguistics, so I'd suggest we discuss this in my own blog: http://vasco-caucasian.blogspot.com
    October 5, 2011 at 3:11 AM

    ReplyDelete

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