buey

From Vulgar Latin *boem, from Latin bovem, accusative singular of bōs.

buey m

1. ox, steer

From Latin bovem. Cognate with Old Galician-Portuguese boi and Old French buef.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbu͡ei/

buey m (plural bueyes)

1. ox
   • c. 1200, Almerich, Fazienda de Ultramar, f. 18v:

     Nó cobdicies coſa de to uezino. Ni cobdicies mugier de to proximo. Nẏ ſu máceba. ny ſo bueẏ. ni ſo aſno. Ni su mula. Ni nulla coſa de to vezino.

     Do not covet your neighbor's goods. Nor covet your neighbor's wife, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey, nor his mule, nor any other thing that belongs to your neighbor.

   • Idem, f. 36r.

     Job fue much rich õe e ouo .v. fijos. ⁊ .iij. fijas. ⁊ ouo .mil. ouejas. ⁊ .iij. mil. camellos. ⁊ .d. iugos de bueẏes. ⁊ .v. mil aſnas.

     Job was a very rich man. And he had five sons and three daughters. And he owned a thousand sheep and three thousand camels and five hundred yoke of oxen and five thousand donkeys.

• Ladino: buey
• Spanish: buey

• bue
• búe

Inherited from Old Spanish buey, from Vulgar Latin *boem for Latin bovem (compare Italian bue), accusative singular of bōs.

The variants güey and wey represent a neutralization of the clusters /bw/ and /gw/. Doublet of bife.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbwei/ [ˈbwei̯]

• Audio (Spain):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ei
• Syllabification: buey

buey m (plural bueyes)

1. ox, bullock, steer
2. (Mexico, colloquial slang) guy, dumb, dude (depends on context and intonation, also denotes surprise, colloquially pronounced güey)
3. (Mexico, colloquial slang) cuckold

   Synonym: cornudo

4. (Puerto Rico) packet, arm and a leg (large amount of money)

   Synonym: riñón

• “buey”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 10 December 2024