Spanish · Exclamations (You Dropped Your Phone)
¡Hostia!
OSS-tyah · /ˈos.tja/
Whoa! / damn! / holy—!
2/5 Bar-safe
coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances
Literally
"Communion wafer"
Word-for-word — which is rarely what it means.
How to use it
Peak Spain, and a window into how Catholic the cursing is there: you're literally invoking the Communion host. It's shock ("¡hostia, qué susto!"), a punch ("te doy una hostia"), or speed ("iba a toda hostia" = going flat out). "De la hostia" = amazing. Meaningless as slang in Mexico. Coarse-ish, but everyone's abuela says it.
Heard in the wild
¡Hostia, no me lo puedo creer!
Whoa, I can't believe it!
Where it lands
Spain (ubiquitous); not slang in Mexico
Quick answers
- What does "¡Hostia!" mean?
- In Spanish, "¡Hostia!" means "Whoa! / damn! / holy—!". Literally it's "Communion wafer". Peak Spain, and a window into how Catholic the cursing is there: you're literally invoking the Communion host. It's shock ("¡hostia, qué susto!"), a punch ("te doy una hostia"), or speed ("iba a toda hostia" = going flat out). "De la hostia" = amazing. Meaningless as slang in Mexico. Coarse-ish, but everyone's abuela says it.
- Is "¡Hostia!" offensive?
- It's on the mild end — 2/5 (Bar-safe) on the Punch-o-Meter. coarse but friendly; fine among acquaintances.
- How do you pronounce "¡Hostia!"?
- Say it "OSS-tyah" — capitals mark the stressed syllable. In IPA: ˈos.tja.
Related in Spanish
¡No mames! noh MAH-mess No way! / You've got to be kidding me! ¡No manches! noh MAHN-chess No way! / Come on! (the polite twin of no mames) ¡Órale! OH-rah-leh Alright! / Wow! / Let's go! / Get on with it! ¿Neta? NEH-tah For real? / Seriously? — or as a statement, 'the honest truth' Hijo de la chingada EE-hoh deh lah cheen-GAH-dah Son of a bitch (the heavy Mexican version) ¡Híjole! EE-hoh-leh Yikes / oof / wow / uh-oh
The same idea, elsewhere
Via concepts like "Damn".
- French Putain ! Damn! / F***! / The all-purpose intensifier — punctuation, really
- German Scheiße! Shit! / Damn! — the all-purpose German expletive
- Greek γαμώτο Damn it! / Dammit!
- Italian Cazzo! Fuck! / Damn! / The all-purpose Italian curse.
- Japanese くそ Damn! / Crap! / Shit!
- Korean 씨발 Fuck / fucking hell — the load-bearing Korean curse.
- Polish kurwa Fuck / damn / shit — the load-bearing word of Polish, and its most common comma.
- Portuguese Porra! Damn! / Fuck! — but mostly used as pure punctuation
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