Que le den morcilla
Let them give him/her blood sausage.
to hell with him/her; **to hell with him/her**; **sod him/her**; **screw him/her**; **forget about him/her**; **good riddance**; **I couldn't care less about him/her**
Que le den morcilla is a dismissive expression meaning "to hell with him/her", "sod him/her", "forget about him/her", or "I don't care what happens to him/her".
Si no quiere venir, que le den morcilla.
If he doesn't want to come, to hell with him.
Estoy harto de sus problemas. ¡Que le den morcilla!
I'm sick of his problems. To hell with him!
No pienso ayudarle otra vez. Que le den morcilla.
I'm not helping him again. Sod him.
Después de lo que me hizo, que le den morcilla.
After what he did to me, to hell with him.
¿Que no quiere pagar? Pues que le den morcilla.
He doesn't want to pay? Fine, screw him.
It expresses rejection, annoyance, indifference or contempt towards someone.
A common construction is:
¡Que le den morcilla!
→ To hell with him! / Sod him! / Forget about him!
It can also be used with other pronouns:
¡Que les den morcilla!
→ To hell with them!
- are annoyed with someone
- want to dismiss someone
- decide they no longer care about another person's problem
- reject someone's demands or behaviour
- express contempt or indifference
The expression belongs to a family of Spanish dismissive formulas involving food or apparently harmless objects.
Morcilla is a traditional blood sausage, but in the idiom it functions as a humorous substitute for a more offensive or vulgar dismissal.
It is traditionally understood as a euphemistic and humorous way of telling someone to go away or to stop bothering you.
The expression is usually directed at a third person:
Que le den morcilla.
It can also be directed at several people:
Que les den morcilla.
Unlike a literal offer of morcilla, the expression is clearly dismissive when used with this intonation.
It can be said jokingly among friends, but it can also express genuine hostility.
Spanish has an unusually rich collection of euphemistic dismissals based on apparently harmless activities or objects:
- Que le den morcilla.
- Que se vaya a freír espárragos.
- Que le zurzan.
- Que se vaya a paseo.
They all allow the speaker to express "go away / I don't care about you" without necessarily using an explicit swear word.
Que le den morcilla is therefore a good example of Spanish humorous indirectness: the literal image is harmless, while the intended message is unmistakably dismissive.
Do not translate:
Que le den morcilla.
as:
Let them give him blood sausage.
The natural equivalent depends on the degree of hostility:
To hell with him.
Forget him.
Sod him.
Screw him.
The Spanish expression is colloquial but not among the strongest or most vulgar insults.
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