Argentina Slang

7/31/2019 Argentina Slang

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atorrante - a scumbag, a useless person, a bum. My favoriteusage of this word is in the song Otra Noche en La Viruta byOtros Aires.

baboso/a - lusty, horny. For example, a man who leerslustily at a sexy woman is "baboso".

brbaro - great, awesome, fantastic

Example: Que brbaro!That's awesome!

boludo - stupid, idiot. also used somewhat affectionatelyamong friends and buddies

chau - bye

che - hey, yo. dude, man. often used to get someone'sattention

cola - rear end, butt. similar to "culo" but less vulgar

grande - old


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Example: Es muy grande.He's really old.

guita - money

mina - girl, woman, babe. informal but not usuallyderogatory

palo verde - one million American dollars

un sarmiento - a 50 peso bill. The bill features an illustrationof Domingo Faustino Sarmiento.

ao verde [m] [fixed phrase] lit. '(the) green year' animaginary time where extraordinary things happen; usuallyin the phrase Argentina ao verde. (This would need pagesof explanation. In short, suppose the country is ruled byhonest politicians and all public services work fine; that'sArgentina ao verde.)

apoliyar [v]: to sleep. (Proper spelling, I think, should beapolillar, from polilla 'moth'; the verb apolillarse [ps-ref]

means '(of clothes) to become old-looking and unwearablebecause of being eaten by moths' and by extension 'tobecome decrepit', and it may have something to do, but is notdirectly related in meaning.)


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arriba [n, adv] above, the place above; fig. the higherspheres of power; [fixed phrase] de arriba free of charge,esp. granted by someone one doesn't know or expect, or

through sheer luck (lit. 'from above').atorrante/a [adj, m, f]: (being) a scum, a good-for-nothing,someone who leads a useless life (generally meaning notworking, not studying, just going to parties and having fun).When used of women: easy, whorish, a whore (in figurativeor literal sense), esp. one who is 'known' by every menwherever she goes. When said of children or young boys, the

word can even be appreciative and friendly (un atorrante as'a cute little imp' or 'a sharp boy' la Bart Simpson in a goodday).

autobombo [ m, uncountable] self-advertising. Etymology:from auto- 'self-' and bombo, a kind of big drum used a lot inpublic demonstrations, strikes, etc., presumably to call forattention.

baboso/a [m, f, adj] a skirt-chaser (also the same senseapplied to women), lusty, crazy about (the opposite) sex. Lit.'drooly'.

bacn [m, adj] a person who lives or enjoys living acomfortable life and being served, without having to worry.Etymology unknown, maybe something to do with bacanal'wild party', from Baco (the Roman god of wine).

bagarto [m] 1 alt. form of bagayo; 2 [rare] a burden, aproblem left on one's hands, used e. g. of hospital patientswho are dumped in E. R. in a very bad condition.


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bagayo [m] an ugly person (esp. used by men referring towomen, no matter the grammatical gender, but alsoincreasingly used by women towards men). Alt. form:

bagarto. [John Cowan tells me that there's an AmericanEnglish slang equivalent, dog. Thanks, John!]

bancar [v] 1 to support, to be supportive of, to help (lit. 'tosupport financially', from banco 'bank'); also, by extension,to wait for, to to be there for; 2 bancarse [ps-ref] to stand, totolerate, to put up with. Examples: Mis viejos me bancaronlos estudios 'My parents supported my studies'; Te banqu

cuando necesitabas un amigo 'I helped you when you neededa friend'; Bancme un ratito ac 'Wait for me here just awhile'; Se banc un montn de insultos 'He stood up to a lotof insults'; Ya no te banco ms 'I don't (won't) support youanymore' or 'I can't stand you anymore'.

barbaridad [f] 1 [negative sense] outrageous thing; esp. inthe phrase qu barbaridad! [interj]; 2 [appreciative] verygood thing, well-done work, spectacular result; can be usedas an adjective (qued una barbaridad).

brbaro/a [adj, interj] [appreciative] great, very good,spectacularly good; [no connotation] great, important,serious (as in a mess or disaster). (This word has undergonean important semantic change; as a result, the act of abrbaro 'barbarian' is now called barbrico 'barbaric' insteadof the 'correct' form brbaro, to avoid confusion -- theshortest form doesn't sound appropriately solemn.)

basurear [vt] treat someone badly, esp. in a consistentfashion; forrear. Formed on basura 'garbage'.


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birra [f] [Italian, same origin as English beer] beer, a bottleof beer.

bolazo [m] exaggeration, obvious lie, bullshit (notinterjectional); impossible or incredible activity pictured asreal or possible (esp. in a movie or TV show). Etymologyunknown; seems to be bol- 'ball' + the suffix -azo used forviolent movements or blows. Example: "Misin Imposible"fue un bolazo ('Mission: Impossible was a...')

bolonqui [m] syllable inversion of quilombo.

boludez [f] 1 a stupid thing, a foolish or rash action; 2 asimple matter that anyone can solve, a thing that is easy tofigure out. Example: El examen fue una boludez 'The testwas a piece of cake'.

boludo/a [adj] [rude] 1 (of a person) stupid, annoyinglysilly; clumsy; also used as an addressing term among friends;2 (of a thing) simple, almost insultingly easy to solve. Cantake the intensive prefix re-.

bombo [m] 1 lit. drum, bongo (see autobombo); 2 theswollen belly of a pregnant woman, showing her state; thefact of a woman being pregnant, esp. when unwanted orunexpected, whence dejar con el bombo 'to impregnate awoman unwillingly, to leave a woman that has unwillingly

become pregnant'.bondi [m] [colloquial] bus (public urban transportation). Ithough this was probably from some sort of convolutedsyllable inversion, assimilation and shortening of mnibus(the proper word for 'bus'), but a reader pointed out to me


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that trams in Rio de Janeiro are known as bondis. This wordapparently comes from English bonds, which is how Rio'stram service got built and paid (being one of the first in Latin

America) by a British company.brutal [adj, interj]: lit. brutal, terrible; [appreciative]awesome, terrific. Used almost exclusively by SusanaGimnez (yuck!).

buenudo/a [m, f, adj] naive, easy to take advantage of,stupid, easy to deceive or convince. Etymology: a crossbetween bueno 'good, nice' and boludo.

buraco [m] [from Portuguese buraco and/ or Italian buracco]hole, orifice, esp. a large hole dug in the ground; a hole ormark made by a bullet or projectile; a perforating wound.

cbala [f] [from Hebrew qabbalah 'tradition', the study andinterpretation of the religious Jewish texts using hermetictechniques, and the mystic philosophy supporting them] atoken of luck, a ritual action that must be performed or athing that must be carried or worn to bring good luck to aperson or group. Especially used of some gestures in footballmatches (where, for example, some players might crossthemselves on entering the field), but also referring to thingslike wearing red 'to avoid the evil eye from envy' when goingto a special party, or even calling a particular person on thephone before a test. The cbala is a thing to be repeated eachtime; this traditional repetition is what makes it a cbala andnot a single meaningless gesture.

cacho [m] a bit, a small amount (esp. of time); a smallportion of solid matter (esp. food). Usually in the singular,


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un cacho. Also [fixed phrase] cacho de (used for big greatthings or people in different contexts), for example: Lindocacho de auto tens! 'Some nice car you have!', Es un cacho

de doctor 'He's a hell of a doctor'.cagar [v] [rude]: 1 [i] lit. to shit; 2 [t] to disappoint, fail tocomply on, do something against the interests of (people),ruin, destroy or damage (a machine) as in Nos cagaste lafiesta 'You ruined (us) the party'; 3 [i] to die (esp.figuratively), to stop functioning, to be ruined, as in Cag laimpresora 'The printer's dead' (see finiquitar); 4 cagarse [ps-

ref] lit. to shit on oneself; to be a coward; to chicken out; 5[fixed phrase] cagar a palos to beat severely; to talk verybadly of; to treat someone with physical violence (more orless like 'to take the shit out of'); 6 [fixed phrase] cagar apedos to chastise, to punish verbally, to give a dressing-down (Mi viejo me cag a pedos porque llegu a las 8 de lamaana 'My old man gave me hell because I got back homeat 8 a.m.'); 7 [fixed phrase] irse a cagar to go to hell, to fuck off (usually imperative, using the suppletive verb andar).

calzado/a [adj] lit. having footwear on; armed, carrying aweapon, esp. a gun.

capo/a [m, f, adj] [Italian, lit. 'head'] 1 (esp. with the definitearticles) boss, chief, leader; [derogatory] the leader of anorganization seen as a dark high figure (capomafia 'mobleader'); 2 (being) a good person, a person one likes, esp. forbeing supportive and charming (cf 'tops').


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cana 1 [f] (generally in singular definite form, la cana) thepolice force, as a whole; a group of policemen. See also yuta.2 [m, f] a policeman or policewoman.

careta [m, f, adj] [derog] lit. 'mask, face covering'; asnobbish person, esp. upper-classy, affected or pedantic,going always to expensive fashionable places, alwaysdressing fashionable clothes; a person who lives by fashionand image. Also found as the augmentative caretn or thediminutive (despective) caretita.

carrito [m] lit. a diminutive of carro (in this meaning,'moving kiosk'); a certain kind of restaurant, esp. one withopen spaces and rather informal; a moving post with aportable gas supply and cooker, where fast foods are sold(the equivalent of hot dogs and hamburguers).

chabn [m] a guy, a man (esp. a silly one -- the word carriessome indefinite derogatory sense).

chanchuyo [m] [old-fashioned but still in use] an act of corruption, an illicit agreement; dirty business; politicalmaneuvers done in the dark. Etymology: probably areference to chancho 'pig' and the idea of chanchada 'pig-like, dirty, filthy thing'.

changa [f] an informal job, for a limited (sometimes

undefined) period of time, without any legally bindingcontract; a temporal job, for example, small-scale houserepairs not needing an architect.


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chanta [m, f] [derogatory]: a deceiver, a cheater, a swindler,someone known to perform dishonest practices. Derivativeschantn/a [m, f], and chantada [f] the act of such a person.

chau [interj] 'bye!', 'goodbye!'. This word is a rendering of Italian ciao, ultimately from [io sono il] tuo sciavo '[I am]your slave', an old goodbye greeting (cf. English 'At yourservice'). A native speaker and fellow conlanger, LucaMangiat, tells me that in some dialects medial -v- consistenlydisappears, which accounts even more for this etymology.This word has spread over the world with its original sound

/tSao/, chao, but this is extremely rare and rather snobbish-sounding in Argentina.

che [interj] [vocative] 'hey!', 'hey, you!'. Etymologyunknown. This word appears in Mapudungu (a languagespoken by the Mapuche, natives from Southern Argentinaand Chile) meaning 'people', and in Guaran (natives of theParan River basin) where it means 'I'.

chupamedias [m, f, adj [derogatory] lit. 'sock-sucker', boot-licker. Tends to lose the final -s.

chupar [v] to drink (said of alcoholic drinks, esp. when toomuch). Lit. to suck (only this sense is always transitive).Derivative chupero/a [m, f] 'alcoholic person'.

chupina [f] the act of missing a school day without theknowledge of one's parents; going out as if heading forschool and take a turn somewhere in the way, or getting toschool and then deciding not to enter. In the fixed expressionHacerse la chupina. See also rata.


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ciruja [m] informal recycler; a person who picks up selectedpieces of garbage in the streets, takes them with him and re-sells them, including glass bottles, metal, and paper.

Sometimes this bounty is loaded on precarious two-wheeledhorse-powered carriages. These can be seen going down thelargest and most luxurious avenues in all big cities inArgentina. The activity is called cirujeo; the verb is cirujear.Nothing to do with ciruga 'surgery'..

combustible [m] lit. fuel; alcohol, an intake of an alcoholicdrink, thought of having a reanimating or cheering-up effect.

concheto/a [m, f, adj] [derogatory] an older form of careta.

copado/a [m, f, adj] [appreciative, becoming old-fashioned]cool, a good thing, a nice thing or person (see macanudo).Especially applied to people, places and occasions likeparties.

corralito [m] [new word (first attested November 2001)] lit.'little corral, small pen, little enclosed space', the set of financial restrictions implemented by minister DomingoCavallo of the De la Ra administration to prevent growingamounts of money to be withdrawn from bank accounts, bydecreeing that people will have to get their salaries by check only, imposing weekly and monthly limits on the amount of money in banks allowed for withdrawal (initially 250 pesos aweek, 1000 pesos a month), and completely freezing sometypes of bank accounts, thus leaving people's savings trappedfor an indefinite time. These measures were intended to keepthe bank system from collapsing and avoid foreign currency(dollars) to leave the country, but were soon breached, and


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they deepened an already monstrous recession. (Thegovernment fell a month later.) -- Lessened restrictionsimplemented later received the name corraln ('big pen').

crepar [vi] to die, to pass away.

cuero [m] leather, animal skin; [fixed phrase] sacar el cuerolit. 'to remove the skin (from sbdy)', to speak (esp. badly) of someone who is not present, to gossip about someone.

culo [m] [taboo] 1 [not slang] bottom, low end (of a bottle);ass, butt (of a person); culos de botella ('bottle bottoms'): apair of glasses with very thick lenses; 2 good luck, esp. ingames (see orto).

curro [m] a scam, a fraud, a deception; a dirty business, anillegal arrangement. The corresponding verb is currar [vt].Note that this word means 'work, job' (no negativeconnotations) in Spain.

El chamuyar de la calle (the street language)

Below I've gathered some slang therms. Many words aretango slang (which I love but I use some words) and soeothers are Mendoza slangAmurar: to adandonAbatatarse: to get scaredBetn: a colour personBobo: hearth/ watchBardo: a big mess/ a fussLa Cana/ la yuta/ los cobani/ los azules: the policeGayola: jailEncanutado: to be taken to prison


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Pibe: a boyPiba: a girlPurrete: a young kid

Percanta: a prostituteMina: decades ago this word was used to refer to a prostitutebut now it's refered to girls.Vago: it means "lazy" but it can also refer to a friend or to aboy "sos un buen vago" "you're a good guy", " sos un vago""you're lazy".Trolo, maricon, bufarra, tragasable: it is refered to gays but itis not polite at all.Manso: it means "what a..." eg. "que manso auto" (what acar!)Gringo: well, you knowFaso: a joint of marihuana (except in Cordoba, there it meansa cigarrete)Merca: any kind of drugPala, Milonga (when it is not used in a tango context):

Cocaine

Para m la palabra ' sabiola' significa 'cabeza' porque en stase encuentran archivados nuestros conocimientos.'Sabiola' tiene que ver con 'sabio/saber/sapiencia'.

Argentine Spanish is peppered with words and phrases fromLunfardo, a vast slang vocabulary developed on the streets of Buenos Aires around the turn of the 20 th century. Criminalsand other shady characters looking to keep their activitiesunder wraps developed Lunfardo by borrowing and twistingwords from the melting pot of languages that surrounded
http://forum.wordreference.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=7920261


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them, allowing them to communicate with each other even inthe presence of the police or prison guards. While initiallyused by the more unsavory element of Argentine society,

Lunfardo was later popularized through the tango, literary artforms, and upwardly mobile immigrants and has become apart of everyday, informal speech regardless of social class.Today, the use of Lunfardo is most prevalent in Argentina(particularly in and around Buenos Aires) and Uruguay,though some elements have been adopted by neighboringcountries such as Chile and Paraguay.

Lunfardo was largely a product of the great wave of European immigration to Argentina that took place from thelate 1800s through the mid-1900s. The huge influx of immigrants hailing from Spain, Italy and France, many of whom spoke non-standard regional dialects or languages,greatly influenced the development of Lunfardo. Certainwords also arrived via the gaucho s of Argentinas interior aswell as native groups like the Guaran, Quechua andMapuche.

One of the features of Lunfardo is the use of vesre , a form of wordplay that involves reversing the order of syllables in aword. The term " vesre" is derived from the Spanish word"revs " (in reverse/backwards). Examples of vesre includecaf feca (coffee), pantalones lompa (a truncated form

of the word for pants) and hotel telo (a pay-by-the-hourlove motel).

In addition to vesre , Lunfardo also employs words based onmetaphors such as tumbero , a slang term for "convict" thatoriginates from the Spanish word " tumba " meaning grave.


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Another example is the word " campana " (Spanish for"bell"), which describes the lookout man ready to sound thealarm should the police suddenly arrive on the scene.

For those of you looking to add a splash of color to yourSpanish, the following websites have compiled an extensivelist of Lunfardo words and phrases: Argentine Spanish SlangDictionary , Wally's Dictionary of Argentine Colloquialismand Culture and Diccionario de Lunfardo .

This post was originally written for Transpanish , atranslation blog focusing on the Spanish language and

Hispanic culture.
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Argentina Slang

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