Stay in Buenos Aires Blog

Macana [f] 1 a bad thing to happen, an inconvenience, a pity (quite standard and accepted by now); 2 a bad thing that has been done, a screwup, a mistake (esp. in the phrase mandarse una macana).

Macanudo/a [adj, interj] (nothing to do with macana) very good (esp. a deal, an arrangement), nice and friendly, open (a person).

Mango [m] 1 fig. a unit of currency, esp. in the phrase No tener un mango ‘Not have a (single) mango’. Etymology uncertain, probably related to the fruit of the same name (though not widely known in Argentina at present). 2 [fixed phrase] al mango (of a machine, a domestic appliance, a car, a recorder) at the maximum possible setting (at full speed, at full volume, etc.); saturated, at the most, al palo.

Ma’ qué [interj?] [not polite] surely a rapid speech-form of mas, ¿qué…? ‘but, what…?’. Difficult to explain except with an example: –Fuimos al shopping y… –¡Ma’ qué shopping, si es un supermercado grande! ‘–We went to the mall and… –What mall? It’s a big supermarket!’. Note: if you can explain this better, tell me! This phrase is plain Italian, though its usage is somewhat different.

Metejón [m] a passion for an object, person or issue; a strong yearning. From meterse ‘to get oneself into [a place]’ = ‘to fall hopelessly in love’. Used as tener un metejón con ‘to have a yearning with = for’.

Meter [vt] [fixed phrase] meter la pata ‘to get one’s leg in’, to do something stupid, to make a mistake, to manage a situation badly. Can be completed with hasta el fondo ‘down to the bottom’ for emphasis.

Micro [m] in Buenos Aires, a bus; in Rosario, a short distance, urban bus, and only if mentioned in the media (the usual word is colectivo or, less commonly, ómnibus).

Milico/a [m, f][slightly derogatory] a member of the millitary. From the beginning of militar ‘millitary person’ and the seemingly despising suffix -(i)c-.

Mina [f] [Lunfardo] a girl, a woman. Mainstream, standard colloquial way of referring to a female from her teens on. Not rude, but not accepted in formal speech either. Cf Castilian Spanish tía.

Minga [interj] [rather uneducated] of course not! … Y si me pide otro favor más, ¡minga! ‘… And if he/she asks for any other favor, (I’ll tell him/her) of course not!’.

Mishadura [f] [Lunfardo, probably from miseria ‘bad economic situation’ and dura ‘hard’] bad economic situation, esp. when generalized to the whole country; economic crisis, recession, lack of opportunities for employment and trade.

Morfar [v] to eat. From the same root: morfi [n] food, something to eat, a meal.

Mufa 1 [f] bad luck, esp. in games and gambling; 2 [m, f, uncountable, no article] a person who brings bad luck, a jinx. (Argentine ex-president Carlos Menem was said to be mufa; whenever he shook hands with an Argentine tennis player or went to see a football match of a favourite team, they lost.)

Ñaupa [Quechua ñawpa, ‘before’? ‘ago’?] used only in the fixed phrase el tiempo de ñaupa: long ago, in a long-gone (maybe legendary) past, esp. in humoristic exaggeration.

Orto [m] [taboo] 1 lit. ass, butt, butthole; 2 good luck, esp. in games. Same as culo in both senses, though this is more of a taboo word.

Palo [m] 1 an amount of one million items (esp. one million pesos, or whatever currency unit is in vigour); see also gamba, luca. 2 lit. (a blow given with) a stick; a critique, esp. when strong and/or in public; related to 3 a barely concealed suggestion, an insidious hint, esp. when talking of sentimental business; an act (of seduction) at a particular person so that s/he cannot fail to catch it (this is called tirar un palo ‘to throw a stick [blow]’); 4 in card games, a suite; fig. a group of similar people, only in the phrase ser del mismo palo (que) [usually derogatory] ‘to be of the same kind (as)’.

Pancho [m] a hot dog, Argentine style. Often sold in street stands (carritos), with varying degrees of hygiene. Young people flock to these stands to buy panchos or superpanchos after dancing at discos.

Pantallazo [m] a general explanation, a brief display of a subject. The root pantalla means ’screen’.

Pata [f] 1 lit. (animal) leg; [colloquial, not rude] a person’s leg; a pata on foot; en patas barefoot; por debajo de las patas (’under one’s legs’) fig. swiftly, without one having the chance to notice (esp. in the context of spending money); 2 support, help, esp. from a friend. The typical context involves waiting (and covering for) someone else (hacer pata, cf gamba, aguante); 3 [phrase] meter pata (usually imperative) (in a car) drive faster (get one’s foot into the accelerator), fig. hurry up, speed things up. Not to be confused with meter la pata (see meter).

Patota [f] a group of violent people, esp. any group of young mobbers (patoteros) who bother people in the street, threatens them and/or rob them, or a group of fans of a football team before or after a match, etc. In general, a derogatory expression for any group of people that tries to achieve things by violent methods and using the force of number, but without any visible structure. There’s also the media-coined fused compound patrioterismo, from patriotismo ‘patriotism’ and patoterismo, meaning violent nationalism, populistic right-wing tendencies, etc.

Patovica [m] a person who guards the access to discos, clubs, etc., and/or are in charge of taking drunkards and discriminated minorities out; often associated with gym-trained, medication-enhanced muscular types.

Pendejo/a 1 [m, f, adj] [rude, but not insulting] child, kid, boy/girl; [usually appreciative] (someone who looks like) a young person; [derogatory] childish, improper for an adult person, esp. used of something made out of whim and arbitrariness (pendejada [n]); 2 [m] [generally only used among boys, very rude] a pubic hair. (Note well, the first meaning is not an insulting term of address as in Mexican Spanish.)

Petiso/a [adj] [colloquial, usually non-derogatory] short, of small stature. Used also as a noun and an addressing term.

Pibe/a [m, f] kid, child, boy/girl, youngster. (Sounds a bit rude for girls.)

Pifiar [v] to fail, to have a bad shot, to throw something and miss the target. (This word is not really only Argentine slang; it’s well known in the mainstream, and I know that at least RPGers in Spain use it for the same thing as we do — e. g. what you get in MERP when you throw a low number in the dice and your weapon does something weird…, that is, a pifia [f]). In general, a failure or mistake of any kind.

Pila [f] lit. a battery; energy, disposition for work, awareness of things to do; usually in the phrase ponerse las pilas ‘to put some batteries on’: to assume responsibility and start to work; to take charge of one’s situation; to get up, think carefully and do what is expected. Lately also found as ponerse media pila ‘to put on half a battery’ (ironical).

Pinturita [f] lit. ‘little picture’; una pinturita [fixed phrase] perfect, sharp, ’squeaky clean’; in very fine condition.

Piquetero/a [m, f] [colloquial at first, now mainstream] a person (generally unemployed or sub-employed) that participates in piquetes to protest his/her condition. A piquete is a gathering of such people, usually blocking some important way and demonstrating, noisily and sometimes violently. Piquete is a mainstream Spanish word; piquetero was coined (by the media?) when the economic crisis reached new depths during Carlos Menem’s second period (1995-1999). At this time unemployment became a symptom of social breakdown, and piqueteros started blocking, not entrances to factories or government buildings, but national highways, sometimes attacking passing drivers. During the last four years or so, the piqueteros have become a social movement and (for some) acquired darker features, such as the appearance of charismatic leaders with inflammatory speech and extreme ideological biases. There are so many unemployed people in Argentina that the unemployed have become unionized! Piquetero was a neologism at first (used in quotes); now the media have incorporated the word as part of their common vocabulary.

Pirulo [m] [colloquial] a year (used only as a unit for people’s age).

Podrido/a [adj] lit. rotten; podrido de tired of; podrido en full of, up to one’s ears in (something good, usually money).

Ponja [m/f, adj] Japanese (thing, person, language). From syllable inversion of Japón ‘Japan’.

Porro [m] a marihuana joint.

Porrón [m] a bottle of beer, and its contents. Originally a special kind of container for liquids, now applied to beer only, though the bottles are not really different.

Posta 1 [f] a piece of news, esp. gossip; hearsay or a prediction that the speaker assures to be true and from a trustable source; 2 [interj] (esp. repeated) this is sure, I’m sure. Example: Te tiro una posta: esta yegua hoy gana ‘I’ll drop you a hint/I assure you: this mare will win today’ (at the races, obviously). See fija. –¿En serio? –¡Posta posta! ‘–Really? –Damn sure!’.

Quichicientos [numeral] (ficticious number) large number, a lot, a gazillion.

Quilombo [m] [rudish]: (from an African language?, kimbundu ‘bungalow’) 1 [old-fashioned, rare] brothel, whorehouse; 2 (a) mess, scandal, terrible noise, disorder. A messed-up place or a complicated situation is said to be enquilombado/a.

Rajar [vi] and more usually rajarse [ps-ref] to leave, esp. hastily; to flee, to escape esp. when a complicated problem is approaching; [derog] to leave abandoning someone, to escape like a rat.

Rata [f] lit. ‘rat’. Same meaning as chupina [becoming rare], skipping school.

Raspando [adv] lit. scratching (a surface); barely, by one hair’s breadth, just enough.

Rebotar [v] lit. to bounce, to bounce off; 1 [t] to reject, to return, to give back for review (for example, Me rebotaron el pedido de crédito ‘They rejected my credit application’); [i] to bounce, to be rejected, to be returned (El cheque rebotó ‘The check was bounced’); 2 [i] to be rejected by somebody one has sexually advanced on.

Reverendo [adj] used as an emphatic mark esp. in insults, as in reverendo hijo de…, more or less ‘you big fat son of a…’. Probably because it sounds like a title, it lends importance to the rest of the phrase.

Romper [vi] lit. ‘to break’ (which is supposed to be transitive); used as intransitive, it means ‘to annoy, to bother’, as an euphemism to the complete expressions romper las pelotas or romper las bolas ‘to break (someone’s) balls’ (= testicles). Used by women, too!

Ruso/a [m, f, adj] Jewish; a Jew; someone with a common Jewish surname or presumed Jewish descent; lit. Russian (most Jewish immigrants came from Russia?)

Sanata [f] long speech, long text, boring lecture about things that are made to look important and deserving a lot of words. Similar to bolazo. Used by students about dense texts they have to read, and the things they write in exams when they don’t know what to write but need to fill some space. Derivatives: sanatear [vi], sanatero/a [m, f] performer of sanata. Cf guitarrear.

Sarparse [ps-ref vi] probably syllable inversion of pasarse; (an action) to go beyond the limits, go too far, say or do improper or too much things for the occasion. For example ¿Sabés que tu hermana está re-buena? — ¡No te sarpés! ‘Your sister’s really hot, you know! — Don’t go too far!’.

Sobrar [vt] in standard usage, intransitive, ‘to be left over, to be more than enough, to be innecesary’; in slang, used with a personal direct object: to make fun of someone while pointing out the superiority of the speaker in some matter; to speak contemptuously or mockingly to someone as if they were of lesser value. One who does this is a sobrador.

Sota [f] the ten card in a Spanish deck; used figuratively in the phrase caérsele una sota (a uno) ‘to drop a ten-spot’, meaning ‘to lie grossly about one’s age’.

Sota [m] [fixed phrase] hacerse el sota ‘to hide oneself, to make oneself unnoticed, to pretend one’s got nothing to do with things’.

Tano/a [m, f, adj] Italian (thing, person; not the language).

Timba [f] the institution and concept of betting on the lottery or gambling in general. Derived verb timbear [vi] to bet, esp. often or regularly.

Tocado [adj] lit. ‘touched’ in the sense of ’slightly crazy’; a bit drunk.

Tomárselas [ps-ref v + -las ‘them (fem.)’]: lit. (oneself) to take them; to go away, to leave; to run away, to flee. Probably from tomar(se) las de Villadiego (I don’t know the origin of this, but it probably means ‘to take the ones (roads?) to Villadiego’). For example: Me las tomo ‘I’m leaving’, Tomátelas de acá ‘Get out of here’ (not kidding), Se las tomaron hace rato ‘They went away long ago’.

Toque [n] [fixed phrase] al toque ‘instantly, in just a moment, immediately, almost simultaneously’. Generally used of past events: Llegó y al toque la vio ‘He came and right at that moment he saw her’. Also un toque (just) a moment, (just) a bit; for example, Bancáme un toque ‘Wait a sec’.

Tordo/a [m, f] doctor (from syllable inversion of dotor, the uneducated pronunciation of doctor ‘(medical) doctor’. The feminine torda is analogical.

Truchada [f] something that is or has been made trucho; a fake, a bad-quality forge.

Trucho/a [m, f, adj] fake, phony, made up, false, artificial, ersatz, forged; (of software, CDs, DVDs, etc.) pirated; (of people) a scammer, a quack.

Tubazo [m] lit. a hit with a tube or pipe; a phone call (from one of the senses of tubo ‘phone speaker’; the action is pegar un tubazo.

Tubo [m] lit. ‘tube, pipe’, and also the body of a telephone speaker; 1 a bottle of wine; 2 (generally pl.) a muscular arm, an arm with well-developed biceps and triceps; 3 como por un tubo [fixed phrase] ‘as if through a pipe’, fig. massively and swiftly, in great amounts and uncontrolled, for example: Este mes se me fue la plata como por un tubo ‘This month my money went away as if through a pipe’.

Turco/a [m, f, adj] Arabian (thing, person); lit. Turkish. Often applied as an addressing form and nickname to people with an Arabian surname or presumed descent (notably, for a while, former president Carlos Saúl Menem).

Turro/a [m, f] [rude] (general expletive) a bad, evil, obnoxious, or deceiving person. Originally meaning, and probably originated in, perra ‘bitch’ (first applied to women, then also to men). The suffix -rro, -rra seems to be derogatory in many words (like curro).

Vaquita [f] lit. little cow; the action and result of collecting money (hacer una vaquita) among friends, workmates, etc., esp. in small amounts, to buy something that the group or one of its members needs. The non-diminutive basic form vaca is also used.

Yapa [f] a free addition;
de yapa for free, together with another item (also used figuratively).

Author: Pablo David Flores