templar

What it means

1. 1.

   To have sex. The everyday Cuban verb for it: coarse but not the coarsest, roughly where 'to shag' sits in British English.

2. 2.

   Templeta, the derived noun. Estar templando, to be sleeping with someone on an ongoing basis.

Literally: To temper, to tune a string.

Examples with translations

• Esos dos llevan meses templando y creen que nadie lo sabe.

  Those two have been sleeping together for months and think nobody knows.

• No hables así delante de mi madre.

  Don't talk like that in front of my mother.

  Note: Worth knowing because the standard Spanish senses of templar — to tune an instrument, to temper steel — are entirely innocent, and Cubans hear the other one first.

Where it comes from

A Cuban specialisation of standard templar, 'to tighten or tune'. The metaphor of tensioning is transparent enough. The sense is Cuban and does not travel: a Spaniard or a Mexican saying voy a templar la guitarra means exactly what he says, and will not understand why a Cuban is laughing.