Descubre la traición que anuncia el divorcio
B1 Spanish listening practice · Mexican Spanish · Curated for intermediate learners
What does “poner los cuernos” mean in Spanish?
“Ponerle los cuernos a alguien” means to cheat on a partner — literally to “put the horns on” them. The betrayed person is the one wearing the horns: a “cornudo” (the cuckold). The image goes back centuries in Europe, where a man whose wife was unfaithful was pictured sprouting horns as a mark of public shame. It is the default everyday way to say cheat across Spain and Latin America.
Here the betrayal lands as “¿con razón no quería irse a vivir con mi mamá para ponerme los cuernos con Pablo?” — so that’s why she wouldn’t move in, so she could cheat on me with Pablo. Useful related forms: “cuerno” alone for the affair-tinged horn, “cornudo” for the cheated-on man, and the gesture of two raised fingers, which in this context is an insult, not “rock on.”
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Source: wordfreq 3.1.1 (general) · SUBTLEX-ESP 2011 (spoken). Buckets approximate; exact ranks not stored.