{"id":4872,"date":"2022-06-17T23:18:18","date_gmt":"2022-06-17T23:18:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/?p=4872"},"modified":"2022-06-17T23:18:18","modified_gmt":"2022-06-17T23:18:18","slug":"sancho-meaning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/english-grammar-lessons.com\/sancho-meaning\/","title":{"rendered":"Sancho \u2013 Meaning, Origin and Usage"},"content":{"rendered":"

Are you looking for a word to describe a married woman\u2019s lover? You could call them \u201cSancho<\/em><\/strong>\u201d to describe his behavior. This post unpacks the meaning and origin of this expression.<\/p>\n

Meaning<\/h2>\n

The expression \u201cSancho<\/em>\u201d means a man sleeping with a married woman or a woman in a committed relationship.<\/strong> The Sancho is an urban legend, and no one really knows where the saying comes from or when people started using it in this manner.<\/p>\n

\u201cSancho<\/em>\u201d is a common first name for kings in the first Portuguese dynasty in the 14th century. However, when used in a lighthearted context as a label for someone, it means a man that sneaks around another man's wife when he is not around.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s the same as the old expression of \u201csleeping with the pool boy<\/em>\u201d or the gardener. Since immigrants would typically hold these positions in households around California and Texas, using \u201cSanch<\/em>o\u201d as the scapegoat <\/u>for the wife\u2019s lover became commonplace in modern language.<\/p>\n

For this reason, some \u201cwoke<\/em>\u201d people suggest the term has a racist connotation and theme to it. As a result, you might get some bad feedback when using it online.<\/p>\n

Example Usage<\/h2>\n

\"Oh, that guy is her, Sancho. We always see him arrive twenty minutes after the husband leaves for work on Thursdays and Mondays.\"<\/p>\n

\"I had no intention of starting this relationship to become someone's Sancho. What do you take me for? I'm leaving you, and there's nothing you can do to stop me.\"<\/p>\n

\"I'm tired of being the Sancho in this relationship. Either you tell your husband you're leaving him for me, or I'll confront him about it tomorrow.\"<\/p>\n

\"Emile is my Sancho. He is delightful, and I love playing with him while my husband is away overseas. There's no harm in it, just simple sex.\"<\/p>\n

\"I think this woman is married. That makes me her Sancho, and I don't know how comfortable I am with that.\"<\/p>\n

\"What do you think? Should I keep on being this woman's Sancho, or should I let her go? Sneaking around behind her husband's back is starting to get to me.\"<\/p>\n

\"I'm fine with being this woman's Sancho. I don't have any issues with it. It's you that has the problem.\"<\/p>\n

\u201cHow can you can that guy \u201cSancho\u201d if he doesn\u2019t have any Latin-American heritage? Isn\u2019t that racist? And why call him Sancho if that\u2019s not his name?\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

Origin<\/h2>\n

Language experts are unsure when or how the term \u201cSancho\u201d appeared in English to refer to a married woman\u2019s lover. Some believe it comes from the 1960s when people in wealthy neighborhoods would hire Latin men to handle the garden and housework.<\/p>\n

It became an urban legend that bored housewives would sleep with \u201cSancho,\u201d the pool boy, to get back at their husbands for not paying them enough attention. The term entered media through movies, TV shows, and music, spreading across the United States during the 1980s and 1990s.<\/p>\n

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