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Look up ¡ay, caramba! in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. |
¡Ay, caramba! (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈai kaˈɾamba]) comes from the Spanish interjection ¡ay! (denoting surprise or pain) and caramba (a minced oath, a euphemism for carajo, a word with different meanings but more popular as a profanity), which is an exclamation used in disgust or surprise in Spanish. The term caramba is also used in Portuguese, where it used to be a minced oath for caralho, the Portuguese equivalent of the Spanish carajo, both of which descend from the Latin "caraculus"[citation needed]. Nowadays, caramba is an interjection of surprise and the association with 'caralho' is no more perceived.
Caramba is also a lace worn on the head and derives from la Caramba, the nickname of María Antonia Fernández (1751-1787) a Spanish singer of zarzuelas, who wore an enormous, brilliantly coloured bow in her hair.
References in Western culture
- In a poem published in 1859 ((French) Après la bataille), Victor Hugo describes a Spanish soldier shouting "Caramba!" during the Napoleonic Wars.
- The phrase is regularly used by stereotyped Mexicans in Wild West literature (for example the adventures of Tex Willer or Lucky Luke) and select Warner Brothers cartoons, such as the bull Daffy Duck encounters in the 1947 cartoon Mexican Joyride.
- The character General Alcazar in the Tintin books by Hergé regularly used "caramba" as an exclamation, as did Eduardo (of the Flash-animated television series Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends).
- The phrase is used by characters on the animated television series The Simpsons, most often by Bart Simpson, usually as an expression of shock or surprise in place of more vulgar terms. These were Bart's first words. The phrase is commonly misspelled on Simpsons merchandise. In later seasons it is mostly used as a joke at the show's own expense.
Television series
Ay Caramba! was the name of a 1998–2006 Spanish-language television series featuring funny home videos. It was broadcast on Mexico's TV Azteca network.
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