Spanish Word of the Day: Cuñado

Cuñado is the Spanish word for brother-in-law.

There's also the word cuñada, which means sister-in-law, but in this particular case we’re going to stick to cuñado as its other meaning in conversational Spanish is very telling from a societal point of view.

That's because cuñado in Spanish can also mean a know-it-all, usually a man with slightly bigoted views, displaying elements of mansplaining and a handful of bad dad jokes up his sleeve.

It's that distant uncle who you put up with over Christmas dinner despite his racist views, that friend who's prone to slapstick or slightly crass humour that he avidly shares on your WhatsApp groups, or that work colleague who wants to pretend he's an expert in every field.

There's even a word to describe this behaviour - cuñadismo - which translates as 'brother-in-lawism'.

Spain’s RAE (Royal Spanish Academy) has not yet included this other meaning of cuñado into the dictionary, but the Foundation of Urgent Spain (Fundéu) has, saying that it is also used to "refer to the tendency to express an opinion on any matter, wanting to appear smarter than others," or to define the "attitude of someone who appears to know everything, speaks without knowing but imposes their opinion, or strives to show others how well they do things."

As you may have guessed, cuñadismo is really used to describe men (usually middle-aged ones), but let's not forget that in Spanish la suegra (the mother-in-law) is also vilified in conversational Spanish.

According to journalist Javier Lascuráin, a member of Fundéu, this new meaning for cuñado has only evolved over the last 15 years in Spain and spread like wildfire because of social media.

Spanish comedian Álvaro Casares, whose videos get millions of views on Instagram and TikTok, says some classic Spanish cuñado behaviour includes "always having a funny video on his phone ready to show you", "knowing where all of Spain’s speed cameras are", "acting like has a degree in meteorology" and "claiming he can resolve any political crisis because he understands everything there is to know".

In popular culture, two good examples of cuñados are David Brent, the main character in the UK sitcom The Office, or Michael Scott in the American version, both uncomfortably overconfident men who in reality are desperate to be liked.

So there you have it, most of us have at least one cuñado in our lives, they'll make you cringe but you tolerate them as know they're harmless.

Examples:

¡Deja de contar chistes de cuñado que vas a ahuyentarlas!

Stop telling dad jokes or you’ll scare them off!

Marcos es un auténtico cuñado, se cree experto en todo.

Marcos is a real know-it-all, he thinks he’s an expert in everything.