Golazo, azo, azo

My student Greg Zittel was watching soccer games on TV during a World Cup, and every time a team scored a goal, the announcer shouted golazo, golazo, azo, azo. He wanted to know what azo, azo means.

-azo, -aza are attached at the end of some nouns to make them bigger or greater, and sometimes to indicate a hit using an object

Here are some examples that indicate greater, bigger, awesome, etc.

Golazo, great score, awesome score (in soccer)
Solazo, strong sunshine, strong sunrays
Friazo, extremely cold (like in hace un friazo, it’s extremely cold)
Carrazo, used in Mexico to indicate a great car, an awesome car
Amigazo, amigaza, great friend
Cuerpazo, great body, awesome body
Golpazo, a big blow
Librazo, a big book, a great book, an awesome book
Tipazo, tipaza, (LatAm) a great person, a cool person

The following nouns are hits, blows. Sometimes the sound produced by the hit is also represented by these words. (These group are always -azo, masculine.)

Batazo, a hit with a baseball bat, or its sound.
Balazo, a (bullet) shot and its sound.
Cañonazo. A cannon shot and its sound.
Portazo, when you slam the door and its sound.
Cinturonazo, to whip someone with a belt
Zapatazo, a hit with a shoe
Latigazo, a blow with a whip
Manazo, manotazo a slap (using the hand). Also a hit on the hand.
Rodillazo, a hit using the knee
Codazo, a hit using the elbow
Cabezazo, a hit using the head, like in soccer.
Trancazo. A hit, a big blow; it could also be a music hit or something very successful.
Cucharazo, to hit with a spoon, perhaps the sound that makes a spoon when hitting, tapping on the table. An awesome or big spoon would be feminine, like the noun cuchara, cucharaza.)

Some others would be telefonazo, a phone call (or a hit with a phone!), darse un regaderazo, in Mexico, is to take a quick shower (we very rarely use the verb ducharse. Regadera is the showerhead).

You have to think quickly and decide if it’s something great, awesome, big, or a hit. If you hear someone say codazo, an awesome elbow doesn’t make sense. So it has to be a hit with the elbow.

These suffixes don’t work for all words or objects. You would never hear piezazo or piesazo for a hit with the foot, you’d say patada or puntapié, a kick. You would never hear playaza for a great, big, or awesome beach, or ciudadaza for an awesome city.

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