PARADOXICAL
The faith chroniclesThursday, October 22, 2026
New Funny Word Alert: Esmeringhoy
From time to time, a word or expression arises from the middle of nowhere and suddenly becomes a part of our daily lingo because (a) it silently crept up into the mainstream culture through soft power or (b) it became viral online. From recent years, there were random stuff like TOTGA, Pachamama, Peppa Pig, shinaron, Roblox, performative, Marites, etc.
This week, the term esmeringhoy was suddenly on everybody’s flabbergasted lips, or FB post to be exact--apparently belonging to the second category of cultural transmission.
The, er, pioneering post I doom-scrolled past says, “Looking 4 ka-esmeringhoy.” Not being able to make sense of it, I ignored it. Until one by one, netizens began posting about it--within a few hours of each other. That is a virulence level of covid during the first wave of the plandemic!
What’s all that hulaballoo? Turns out a female guest in a runaway popular show on YouTube used the strange word while in the middle of narrating her complaint against her husband. “Ayaw na niya ng esmeringhoy,” she says, or words to that effect, to prove her suspicion that her husband might have another woman, to put it bluntly.
In particular, during an October 16, 2026 episode of "Raffy Tulfo in Action," the guest, named Evelyn Batuigas, appeared on the show to complain about her husband's suspicious behavior. While describing her attempts to reconcile or be intimate with her husband before separating, she casually said: "Bago tayo maghiwalay, mag-esmiringhoy muna tayo para last na lang na ano" ("Before we split, let's make esmiringhoy for the last time").
Host Raffy was absent for some reason, so when a totally surprised female proxy asked what "esmiringhoy" meant while obviously trying to restrain herself from breaking into laughter, Evelyn defined it as a colloquial or slang term for sexual intercourse, equivalent to "bembang" in Tagalog.
Clips of the unbelievably public exchange reportedly spread not just on FB, but also across the chismisverse: X (Twitter), TikTok, Threads, and whatnot, turning the strange-sounding word into a massive internet meme, punchline, and reference point for dompaine-addicted netizens.
But the real elephant in the room is not just the newly heard word but this question: Why in the world, after all, would a woman want to have one last esmiringhoy with someone she was hating with a passion at the moment? The guy must be one lucky bastard despite himself for his wife to desire a last "isa pa nga" as souvenir from him, who is supposed to be just a walking relic of her sad past now? And, wait, what was she doing in that show in the first place? Shouldn't she sort out marital woes in the confines of a counseling room instead?
Nevertheless, the virality sparked discussions on the word per se because the word's actual Visayan or Cebuano roots differ from how it was used on the show: Online users adopted it as a playful, humorous code word or euphemism for sex, but regional language advocates and the Akademyang Bisaya noted that older Visayan usage actually referred to a person—specifically a kabit (mistress, paramour, or side piece)—rather than an act. Or so AI conveniently explained this part for me.
To me, a Pangasinense, esmiringhoy seems like yet another new portmanteau, a wild concatenation of esmi (colloquial or pabalbal term for misis or wife), meringue, and balinghoy (cassava in Bisaya). Strange bedfellows, I know, but that’s how Filipino mongrel culture has always been—take note of chop suey, halo-halo, jeepney, and the rest of what’s considered to be very constantly code-switching Pinoy. (I am also reminded of my late mother who often used invented words like “esmeringgoles” while talking nonsense to the latest newborn in the house.)
The thing is, even if you don't know what it means, this Frankenstein of a word comes off as funny, and to be used only in that context, when you are just nakikipag-unggoy-ungguyan or playing monkey with another.
How long this new linguistic coinage or adoption will stay in our lexicon until certain extinction is anybody’s guess. Gosh, I hate this vulgar euphemism already this early.
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