List 5—Slang and other interesting words

Please forgive me if I get any of this wrong, because with slang it always takes awhile to learn the exact subtleties of meaning that the words have. But, I still felt it would be fun to share some of these for the bilingual out there that would like to hear the different slang here in Buenos Aires. Some of this isn't slang, just words that are different here than in Mexican Spanish. (También perdoname que mi castellano no es perfecto....)

lunfardo— Okay, I realized that this list should really start off with this word, which is the word that refers spefically to Buenos Aires slang that developed orginally from the linguistic influences of the various immigrant communities (Italian, German, Turkish, Polish...). This porteño slang—a porteño is a resident of Buenos Aires—further developed along with the Tango, both of them being born and raised in the poor immigrant neighborhood of La Boca, particularly in the houses of prostitution. The fact that male immigrants greatly outnumbered females was a factor in the popularity of prostitution and development of the tango. There's even an online dictionary of lunfardo.

¡epa! o ¡upa!— Oops!

dale—This is one of those multi-purpose sayings. It gets used sort of like "great" or "sure, let's do it" or just a general affirmative when referring to some sort of action to be taken. The literal translation is "give it to him (or her)," so I have no idea how it came to be used as it is. Por ejemplo: "Vamos al cine entonces?" "Dale."

mira vos—Another one that sounds funny to me because the literal translation is "look at you!" It is used when someone says something interesting or unusual. I can't figure out any sort of equivalent in English. The closest I can think of is saying "really?" or "wow" to some sort of interesting information. An example of using "mira vos" could be, say I told Susana about a new little trick in Photoshop (okay, geeky example...) she would say, "mira vos" to me.

barbarro—"Great," "cool," okay"...

cara de puchero—If I remember this one right, a puchero is a sort of a stew, but "cara de puchero" is sort of a pouty face.

cara de culo—Literally "ass face." I think that this is used when someone is really unhappy or pissed off and is showing it clearly on their face.

pochoclo—Popcorn. En Mexico se llama "palomitas," no? Aqui dicen choclo en vez de helote.

hincha—Sports fan, generally (or always?) a soccer fan. "Hinchado" means swollen. See the next one...

hinchapelotas—Um, literally this translates to something like "swollen balls"... If I get the usage right, it basically means someone who is really uptight. I think that in the US we would say a person is "anal," but not in the sense that they are neat and orderly. Or, we might ask of someone who was being an "hinchapelotas": "what's he got up his ass?"

boludo—Continuing the words based on "balls" (pelotas o bolas), this is a multi-purpose word, but with all uses being negative, I think. It can be used as an expletive, kind of like "shit!" or "damn!". It can be used to say something is stupid, "¡Que boludo!" Or it can be used as a noun to refer to someone who is stupid or a jerk, "¡Sos un boludo!"

pelotudo—Yes, more balls, this comes from "pelotas." As far as I can tell this is only used to refer to people and basically means the same as "boludo" (jerk, asshole, etc.) but seems to me to be stronger and more offensive because "boludo" is used all the time, where I hear this less frequently. Or maybe it's just because I heard it from the kid in my Korean class who seems to need anger management.

rompiendo las bolas—I think this means pretty much what it means in English: "busting my balls," or giving someone a hard time.

en pelotas—Yet another. This means naked.

no me da bola—You (he, she, they...) are not even listening to me.

dar piñas o tirar piñas ("Me dio piñas.")—Significa golpear. Basically, to punch someone, generally when fighting. One thing to know is that here they don't use "piña" for pinapple. Pinapple is "anana."

mangos—Usan como "pesos." More or less would translate in the U.S. to "bucks." Like, "It cost fifty bucks." Aqui puede decir, "Cuesta cincuenta mangos." En este caso la fruta no tiene diferente nombre aquí, se llaman mangos.

aji—Chiles. No es solo que no se llama "chile" aqui, es que no comen aqui. Si ellos comen algo un poco picante aqui, mueren. Y Yo, muero por la falta de comida picante. Pero me salva la comida coreana que como con Susana.

una palta—Aguacate. Avocado.

un quilombo—Actually, I'm not really sure on this one. I think it means like a big mess, like a bunch of chaos. I don't know if this is different from Mexican Spanish either, but it's a new word for me.

un lio—I think that this is also sort of a mess, but I hear it used more often to describe a hassle or a bother.

cheto—Snobby. Stuck up. Pienso que en Mexico esto seria "fresa." Bueno, debo decir entonces que aquí "fresa," la fruta, se llama "frutilla."

un pibe—A teenager. I think that this is only used to refer to boys, but I could be wrong.

un tipo—A guy. I think that this one is used for males from teenage to middle aged.

che—Bueno, para Uds. que quieren saber del famoso "che" de Argentina... Es difícil explicar, aunque ya entiendo bastante bien como está usado y como usarlo. Puede usar con hombres y mujeres igual. For me, in English there are some terms that we use in similar ways, but they are different for different groups. For example, surfer types and other white guys might use "dude," while others (generally men) might use "man," as in, "Hey man, what are you doing today?" But, all those have different connotations attached to them, whereas "che" is a lot more universal in Argentina, and it's not tied to a generation or even to youth, you can hear young and old use it. Otra cosa intersante es que puedes usarlo junto con el nombre de la persona, como, "¿Che-Mike, vas al cine con nosotros?" Aunque es muy comun, es tambien informal y solo usarias con una persona con quien tutearias (you would only use it with someone that you would use "tú" with, that is someone who you are on an informal basis with).

un tacho— A taxi. A taxi driver is a tachero.

un bondi— A city bus. (Long distance buses are generally called "micros".)

tener fiaca— To feel lazy.

que piola—I'm not sure exactly what this means. Susana used it the other day when she saw a young guy riding his bike down a busy avenue while talking on his cell phone. When I asked her to explain she just said it was something like, "Qué vida."

estar achanchado— Look, I'm in Los Angeles now and still learning Buenos Aires slang! I'm not sure what word in English would capture this, but I'll just say how I learned it. My wife and I had just eaten a big dinner and she was sprawled out on the couch. I asked her how she was feeling and she said "achanchada." So, something like lazy, content, y que no tiene ganas de mover ni un dedo.