Poner los cuernos
To put the horns on someone.
to cheat on someone; **to cheat on someone**; **to be unfaithful**; **to have an affair**; **to two-time someone**; **to fool around**
Poner los cuernos (a alguien) means to cheat on a partner, have an affair or be unfaithful in a romantic relationship.
Le puso los cuernos con un compañero de trabajo.
She cheated on him with a colleague.
Nunca le perdonó que le pusiera los cuernos.
He never forgave her for having an affair.
Dicen que se están poniendo los cuernos mutuamente.
They say they're both cheating on each other.
Descubrió que su pareja le estaba poniendo los cuernos.
She discovered that her partner was being unfaithful.
The person who commits the infidelity pone los cuernos, while the deceived partner is often said to tener los cuernos or ser un cornudo (the latter is much more offensive).
- has an extramarital affair
- cheats on their boyfriend, girlfriend, husband or wife
- is romantically unfaithful
- betrays their partner emotionally or sexually
Like so much idiomatic language, it distils an everyday observation into a memorable phrase.
Several historical explanations have been proposed, including medieval customs, mythology and hunting symbolism.
What is certain is that, for centuries, horns have symbolised the betrayed spouse in many parts of Europe.
Spanish inherited this symbolism and developed the expression poner los cuernos to describe the act of infidelity itself.
The expression is so common that many Spaniards use it without thinking about its original symbolism.
It is informal but not vulgar, and it appears regularly in newspapers, television programmes and everyday conversation.
Many European languages associate horns with infidelity:
- Spanish: poner los cuernos
- Italian: mettere le corna
- French: porter les cornes (historically)
English, however, does not use this symbolism. Instead, speakers simply say to cheat on someone or to have an affair. This makes poner los cuernos one of the easiest idioms for English speakers to understand culturally, but one of the worst to translate literally.
Do not translate the expression literally.
English speakers would never say:
She put the horns on him.
Instead, use expressions such as:
- She cheated on him.
- He was unfaithful.
- She had an affair.
- He fooled around.
The emphasis is on romantic betrayal.
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