Stay in Buenos Aires Blog

Dedo [m] lit. finger; hacer dedo hitch-hike; a dedo (appointed) by the will of someone in power, without consulting with anyone else or following criteria for selection (as if merely pointing at the person with the index finger) — as is routine for the designation of non-elected political officials; A la mitad de la Corte Suprema la puso Menem a dedo ‘Half of the Supreme Court was appointed by (former President Carlos) Menem…’. Journalists popularized the cult alternative digitar, lit. ‘to key in with a finger’ for the same meaning.

Despelote [m] a mess, an occasion of great confusion, an organizational disaster. Etymology: from the privative preffix des- (English des-, de-, dis-) and pelot- ‘ball’ (fig. ‘testicle’). The ending -e is curiously found often in words of occasion with a negative connotation (see embole and despiole).

Embole [m, usu. sing] (a place, lapse of time, or activity involving) boredom.

Engranar [vi] to become angry; lit. the action of a gauge (engranaje) setting others into motion. The corresponding noun is engrane. The etymology, though, must be related to grana ‘red, crimson’ (whence granada, the fruit, and Granada, the Spanish city).

Engrupir [vt] [becoming old-fashioned] to deceive, usually by using nice words; to get someone to buy into a not-so-good idea.

Escrachar [vt] to ruin the cover of, to uncover in public, to show (someone) as having an illegal or evil behaviour. This word has been lately applied to demonstrations (escraches) of some human rights groups in front of the houses of officials of the last military government. These demonstrations are intended to increase the public awareness towards the impunity of the crimes of these officials and denounce their places of residence. People next door of these criminals and collaborationists sometimes don’t know of their past. Etymology: probably imitative/onomatopoeic.

Escracho [m] a thing or person that is ugly, in disarray, dirty, etc.; someone or something that should not be presented in public. Distantly related, semantically, with escrachar and escrache.

Facha [f] the looks of someone, esp. good looks (synonym: pinta). This word is found in European Spanish but mostly in the plural, and it has a negative connotation; in Argentina it can be either positive or negative, with a tendency towards the former (but it all depends on the tone of the speaker). Note that in Peninsular Spanish facha is slang for ‘fascist’ or ‘right-winger’; this meaning is completely unknown in Argentina, though some people say fachista instead of fascista.

Falopa [f] 1 drug (of any kind); 2 drug dealing, esp. in a small scale. Derivatives: falopearse [ps-ref v] ‘to consume drugs, to administer drugs to oneself’; falopero/a [m, f] ‘drug addict’.

Fashion [adj, invariable] (clothes, customs, ornaments, etc.) in fashion, en vogue; [mildly derog] (of a person) too worried about fashion and looks, careta. Pronounced [’fASOn] (approximate English simulated pronunciation FAH-shawn, with pure, unreduced vowels).

Faso [m] cigarette.

Feca [m] [uneducated, old-fashioned] a cup of coffee. Syllable inversion of café ‘coffee’.

Fiambre [m] [colloquial, a bit rude] (lit. meat served cold, usually plus cheese) the dead body of a person, a corpse, a stiff (with an obvious reference to coldness and consistence).

Fija [f] a sure thing, a prediction which will come true (from the point of view of the speaker). See posta. Used a lot in horse races.

Finiquitar [v] in its usual sense, [t] to finish off a matter, to close an issue (properly) (Ya finiquité el asunto de la cuenta del banco ‘I already finished off the issue of the bank account’). Figurative extensions: [t] to kill, to take care of (someone), to put an end to (something); [i] to die, to end, to be through.

Forrado/a [adj] lit. coated, encased, wrapped (from forrar); rich, wealthy, full of money and possessions (from the hyperbolical idea of someone that is wrapped in money).

Forrear [vt] to treat someone badly in a consistent way; to despise with rude words or manners, esp. in public; basurear.

Forro 1 [m] lit. protective cover, esp. as in a book; a condom; 2 forro/a [m, f, adj] (most probably from meaning 1) a bad person, esp. one who has evilly deceived a friend or another loved one, or disappointed them with evil actions, or betrayed their trust.

Fui, fuiste, fue, fuimos, fuiste, fueron [conjugated forms of the irregular verb ir ‘to go’ or maybe ser ‘to be’] to be done, to be through, to be finished. Examples: Eso ya fue ‘That’s finished already’ (a sentimental affair, a feeling between two parties); Fuiste lit. ‘You went / You’re gone’, meaning ‘You’re dead’ (fig.); Ya fuimos ‘We’re through’ (a couple breaking up). Also used as transitive meaning ‘to fire, to dismiss’: Me fueron lit. *’They went me’ (’They fired me’). According to John Cowan, Cicero once announced the execution of certain persons to the Senate by saying “Fuerunt”, the stem fu- corresponding to the Latin verb esse ‘to be’ (not ire ‘to go’). In Spanish this stem came to be used to conjugate both verbs in the tense known as pretérito indefinido (i. e. fui means both ‘I went’ and ‘I was’).

Fuerte [adj] lit. ’strong’; (of a person) in good shape, with a nice attractive body, physically well-formed (not necessarily ‘muscular’). Used with estar, not ser. Example: ¡Qué fuerte que está tu prima! ‘Your cousin’s so hot!’.

Fulero/a [adj] [from English ‘foul’, pronounced ‘full’?] of bad or substandard quality; looking as if tampered with; (sometimes applied to people) ugly; suspiciously looking.

Gallego/a [m, f, adj] Spanish (thing, person; sometimes also the European (Castilian) variety of the Spanish language); a Spaniard. Lit. from Galicia (region of Spain). Not especially appreciated by non-Galician Spaniards.

Gamba [f] 1 [Italian] a leg (usually a human leg); 2 an amount of one hundred items (esp. one hundred pesos, or whatever currency unit is in use) — see also luca, palo; 3 [uncountable] an act of supporting someone (hacer la gamba, synonym hacer el aguante), esp. when a friend is in trouble, or needs a companion (e. g. to go and talk to a couple of girls, even if only one of them is interesting for the accompanied person); 4 [adj] supportive, helpful; said of a person who acts as in meaning 3.

Garrón [m] 1 [becoming rare in this sense] an unwelcome or untimely request; the act of asking for a favour, including lending money; 2 (related to the first meaning) a bother, a burden, a problem imposed on one that one must solve; an inescapable obligation that appears in the worst moment (such as a client that arrives at the shop you work at when you’re about to close and go home).

Garronear [v] (related to garrón, meaning 1) to ask for something, esp. insistently; to ask for money (used mostly of people who do this all the time: garroneros).

Gauchada [f] a favour, a small errand taken charge of by a supporting person. Etymologically it means ’something that a gaucho does’; we can guess that gauchos were typically considered attentive and helpful.

Gil/a [m, f] stupid person, fool; innocent, naive. (Same meaning as gilipollas in Spain.) Derivatives: augmentative gilún/giluna [m, f]; gilada [f] a foolish action, a stupid thing, a silly mistake; a ridiculous thing to say, a comment made out of stupidity.

Gozar [vt] lit. ‘to enjoy’, in this sense with an inanimate object; with a personal direct object it means to make fun of and gloat on someone else’s minor misfortune (esp. results of sports matches, contests, card games, etc.) by pointing it out to the affected person. For example: Le gané a mi hermano al truco y lo estuve gozando toda la tarde ‘I beat my brother at truco and made fun of him all afternoon’.

Grasa [adj, gender invariable] (lit. ‘grease’): kitsch, ridiculous, tasteless (a person, esp. in the lower classes); rude, uneducated. Also an older word, groncho/a.

Guacho/a [m, f, adj] lit. a small animal left without parents (only used in the countryside in this sense); a bad (but not evil) person, a son of a bitch (can be used as a friendly insult); any person one shows some attitude (good or bad) towards.

Guita [f] money.

Guitarrear [vi] lit. ‘play around on the guitar’, fig. used as ‘to say lots of things just to do something’, stringing pretty meaningless sentences one after another. See sanata. Derivatives: guitarreada [f] an instance of such behaviour.

Hacer [vi] lots of meanings. Fixed phrases: hacer mierda ‘turn (someone) (into) shit’, hacer pelota ‘… a ball’, hacer moco ‘… bugger’, hacer flecos ‘… fringes’, and many, many more, all of them meaning ‘destroy, tear apart, screw up, ruin, bring down’.

Hugo [m] proper name, in the fixed phrase: llamar a Hugo ‘call Hugo’, meaning ‘vomit’ (onomatopoeic; the name is pronounced [uGo], with a guttural fricative). This phrase is quite uneducated. It’s not widely known in the mainstream, and is mainly used for drunken people.

Jabón [m] lit. ’soap’; [old-fashioned] fear, terror, the state of being afraid; cagazo.

Joda [f] 1 joke, kidding, non-serious things said or done (esp. in the fixed phrase en joda ‘not seriously, kidding’); 2 party, organized fun; a house party, a going out (also in the fixed phrase irse de joda ‘go get fun’.

Joder [vi] 1 to make a joke to someone; tease; slightly annoy, bother; 2 hang out and have fun; 3 to screw up (sbdy./sthg.), to ruin the chances of (on purpose); 4 [rude] (only in translations of American movies made for or by Central Americans) to fuck.

Jovato/a [m, f, adj]: old, elder, especially with reference to a younger person, and very especially referring to the older one in a couple of people of very different ages. Often used of people trying to look younger by their manner of dressing or speaking. My guess at its etymology: -ato is augmentative and/or despective, and the root jov- seems to come from a syllable inversion of viejo ‘old’ > jovie. Probably also an association with joven ‘young’.

Joya [interj] [becoming rare] wonderful, right, OK. Te paso a buscar a las 10. — ¡Joya! ‘I’ll come and fetch you at ten. — OK, wonderful!’.

Laburar [v] [Italian lavorare] to work, to have a job.

Laburo [v] [Italian lavoro] job, work.

Lastrar [v] [becoming rare] to eat (lit. ‘to load ballast’); lastre [m] food (lit. ‘ballast’).

Leche [f] lit. milk; [taboo] 1 semen (and fig. male horniness caused by abstinence); 2 [colloquial] attitude or predisposition, and also luck, fortune. When used alone, this usually has a negative connotation, but it is usually accompanied by the qualifiers ‘good’ or ‘bad’ (buena leche, mala leche). Serves adjectively too. For example: Qué mala leche es este profesor ‘What a bad attitude this professor has’.

Lola [f] [1990ish, becoming rare] a woman’s breast; hacerse las lolas to get a breast implant.

Lompa [m] [rare] (singular in Spanish) trousers. Syllable inversion and shortening of pantalón, of the same meaning.

Luca [f] an amount of one thousand items (esp. one thousand pesos, or whatever currency unit is in vigour); una luca verde ‘one thousand dollars’ (lit. ‘a green luca’). See also gamba, palo.