Cojones - Definition and Overview

Cojones, a vulgar Spanish word for testicles, is a term that has entered popular use as a slang term meaning to have a brave attitude. It is used in a similar to way to chutzpah. While the Spanish pronunciation is something along the lines of "co-HO-nays" [kō HŌ nās], in the mouths of some English speakers this has mutated into "ca-HOO-nas" and other unfortunate variants.

The word entered into wider, international, usage in April 2004 when Bob Woodward revealed in his book Plan of Attack – an account of the build-up to the 2003 Iraq War – that U.S. President George W. Bush had remarked to Alastair Campbell, then British Prime Minister Tony Blair's official spokesman, that "Your man has got cojones". Bush was referring to Blair's continuing support for the invasion of Iraq despite mounting opposition from his domestic political party and Britons at large. The meeting at Camp David in September 2002 at which Blair made his commitment on invasion to Bush, and Bush made his comment to Campbell, was later repeatedly referred to by Bush as "the cojones meeting".

The word was also famously used almost a decade earlier by Madeline Albright, then serving as the USA's ambassador to the United Nations, in the aftermath of the downing of a Hermanos al Rescate light aircraft by Cuban airforce MiG 29s on 24 February 1996. Following the release of a transcript of radio traffic between the fighter pilots in which one exclaimed, ¡Le partimos los cojones! ("We busted his balls!"), Albright offered the following comment: "Frankly, this is not cojones. This is cowardice." Albright later described the vulgarism as "the only Spanish word I know".

References

• Reports on Bush's description of Blair (http://politics.guardian.co.uk/iraq/story/0,12956,1194804,00.html)
• Transcript of a CNN interview with Albright that discusses the cojones quote (http://www.usembassy-israel.org.il/publish/peace/archives/2001/january/me0109c.html)