Spanish Slang

Colombian and Caribbean slang for 'cool,' 'awesome,' or 'great.'

Mexican 'dude' or 'bro' — also a verbal filler like 'man.'

Mexican slang for a kid, youngster, or young guy.

Mexican all-purpose 'alright,' 'wow,' 'come on,' or 'let's go.'

Money, cash, dough, the most common Lunfardo word for the folding stuff.

Slang for 'work' or a 'job' — the daily grind.

Caribbean and South American slang for 'buddy,' 'homie,' or close friend.

That heavy, can't-be-bothered laziness, from the Genoese fiacca.

Tango itself, spun through vesre: tan-go flipped into go-tan.

Fake, counterfeit or bogus, the porteno word for anything dodgy and not the real deal.

Mexican warning to 'watch out!' or 'be careful!'

Smooth talk, sweet nothings or flat-out BS, depending on who's doing the talking.

Lunfardo for a woman or girlfriend, one of the most tango-soaked words in the porteno argot.

The truth, the real deal — or 'for real?' as a question.

Colombian slang for something awesome — 'qué chimba!' means 'how cool!'

A total mess, a chaotic uproar, from an African word for a runaway-slave settlement.

Colombian slang for 'buddy,' 'bro,' or 'mate.'

'Boss' — but in slang it often means your dad or a term of respect.

A well-off, well-dressed man about town, the tango's classic flush gentleman.

Mexican 'okay,' 'sounds good,' or 'deal.'

Coffee, by way of vesre: cafe spun backwards into feca.

The police, or jail itself, a cornerstone of the tango underworld's vocabulary.

A petty criminal, crook or lowlife, a fixture of the tango underworld.

Clothing, your threads or good gear, with roots in a Quechua word.

A pickpocket, or the act of picking pockets, from the old porteno underworld.

Mature content — open to view.

A small neighborhood corner store — a New York City institution selling everything from snacks to sandwiches, often with a cat.

Mature content — open to view.

Hungover — literally 'raw' but means feeling the morning-after pain.

Mexican slang for 'cool' or 'great' — 'qué padre!' means 'how cool!'

The all-purpose 'hey' or 'mate' that's practically Argentina's national catchphrase.

A bachelor flat or little love-nest, immortalized in classic tango lyrics.

To eat, to chow down, with roots in French/Italian thieves' slang for the mouth.

Mexican slang for doing someone a favor or having their back.

Tacky, low-class, or trashy — the Mexican opposite of 'fresa.'

Lunfardo for 'to work', lifted straight from Italian immigrants' lavorare.

The wife or missus, mujer flipped around by vesre into jermu.

Mexican way to say 'no way' or 'you're kidding' — pure disbelief.

Fool or idiot, but also the affectionate 'dude' that glues Argentine conversation together.

Slang for a cold beer.

A kid, lad or young guy, one of the warmest words in the porteno vocabulary.

Cool, nice, awesome — the Caribbean and South American word for 'cool.'

A preppy, stuck-up, posh kid — Mexico's version of 'bougie' or 'basic.'

Mature content — open to view.

Mexican Spanish for "no way!" or "you're kidding" — an exclamation of disbelief.

A con artist, bluffer or all-talk fraud, a beloved insult in porteno life.

Money in general — borrowing the Spanish word as a casual flex term.

The Mexican office-worker stereotype — the corporate nine-to-five drone.

Mexican slang for 'cool,' 'awesome,' or 'sweet.'