What Does 'Esmiringhoy' Mean? This Bisaya Slang Is Almost 100 Years Old

(SPOT.ph) Every now and then, a word that most people have never heard of suddenly takes over social media. This time, it's esmiringhoy—and its definition is just as fun as it sounds.

If you're still wondering what everyone's talking about, we'll save you the trouble: esmiringhoy is a Bisaya expression for having sex, much like bembang in Tagalog. At least, that's how it's used today.

While the word may be new to many of us, it's actually been around for much longer than you'd expect. We're talking nearly 100 years ago when it first appeared in Cebuano writing, and in a very different context, too. We'll get to that history in a bit.

First, why is everyone saying esmiringhoy?

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For all the laughs esmiringhoy has gotten on social media, the situation that made it go viral was a result of a rather unfortunate situation. The word caught people's attention during the October 17 episode of Raffy Tulfo in Action, when Evelyn Batuigas appeared on the program to complain about her husband, Ronald, whom she accused of infidelity and abuse.

During the interview, Evelyn explained that her husband had refused to be intimate with her, citing restrictions supposedly imposed by his doctor.

"Hindi daw siya puwedeng mag-esmiringhoy," she said, taking the co-hosts by surprise with the term. When asked what the word meant, she answered, "'Yung magbembangan ba."

According to the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino (KWF), esmiringhoy is a combination of "esmi," a slang term for spouse and "iring," the Bisaya word for cat. The explanation doesn't account for the "-hoy" part, though, so its exact origin remains unclear.

Mystery solved? Not quite. Turns out, esmiringhoy was already making people laugh nearly a century ago—just not for the reason you'd think.

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One of the oldest documented appearances of esmiringhoy can be found in the Cebuano newspaper called Bag-ong Kusog, as shared by provincial historian Nereo Cajilig Luján in a Facebook post. On May 31, 1929, the newspaper introduced a humor column called Tiaw-Tiaw Lang, whose anonymous writer described his comedic pieces as "ismiringhoy" or short, funny plays.

In later installments, Esmiringhoy also appeared as a byline, which Luján said was believed to be a pseudonym of Cebuano writer and lawyer Genaro Lapus.

Lapus' use of the name is separately documented in the Nueva Fuerza Online Archive of the University of San Carlos Cebuano Studies Center, which lists Esmiringhoy among his pseudonyms for a work published on November 22, 1929. His use of this pen name was also mentioned in a 2018 article in The Freeman.

So we know esmiringhoy has been around for almost a century now, but wait—how did the word come to be associated with sex?

A possible clue comes from Ben Garcia's English-Visayan Vocabulary (Thesaurus Style), which was published in 1996.

In another Facebook post, Luján shared a photograph of page 99, where both esmiringhoy and esmiringhay appear among the Visayan terms listed under "concubinage."

The entry includes the phrase "nag-ipon sama sa bana ug asawa apan dili niya bana ni asawa," referring to a couple living together as husband and wife without being legally married. Other terms in the entry relate to adultery, cohabitation, polygamy, and bigamy.

So was esmiringhoy originally about having a kabit rather than just having sex? Possibly. However, as Luján pointed out, the dictionary groups related expressions together without defining each one separately. So while the entry gives us a glimpse of how the word was used, it doesn't necessarily mean esmiringhoy was another word for concubinage.

Whatever its original meaning, Filipinos have been having a field day with esmiringhoy, coming up with all sorts of puns and wordplay. And of course, plenty of jokes are about their love lives—or lack thereof.