Macho

How to spell macho

5 letters · 2 syllables

How to pronounce macho

Say the part in capitals loudest.

What does macho mean?

1. adjectiveShowing aggressive or ostentatious masculinity; deliberately tough and manly.

Macho in a sentence

• His macho attitude made him refuse any offer of help with the heavy boxes.

• The advert traded on a macho image of rugged men driving trucks through the desert.

Where does macho come from?

Language of origin: Spanish

This word came into English from Spanish, where macho simply means 'male' or 'manly', and it descends from the Latin masculus, meaning 'male', the same root that gives English 'masculine'. In Spanish and Mexican usage macho carried connotations of strength, courage, and assertive manliness, and the related noun machismo described an ideology of aggressive male pride. English borrowed macho in the twentieth century, with the modern sense of ostentatiously masculine behaviour spreading widely in American English from the 1920s onward and becoming very common by the 1970s. Because it kept its Spanish spelling, the 'ch' is pronounced like the 'ch' in 'church' rather than the 'sh' or 'k' sounds learners sometimes expect. The final 'o' and the foreign look of the word are the main things to remember, since it does not follow the usual English pattern of ending such adjectives in '-y' or '-ish'.

How the word is built

• macho (Spanish for 'male', from Latin masculus 'male')