noun General Slang

Pilcha

/ˈpiltʃa/ · noun · informal

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

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Definitions

1

In plural, an outfit or set of clothes generally.

“Junta tus pilchas que nos vamos. (Grab your clothes, we're leaving.)”
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2

Clothing, garments, especially one's good clothes or finery. The source is the Quechua-derived 'pilcha' (rag/garment), which entered Rioplatense Spanish via gaucho usage before Lunfardo adopted it.

“Se puso la mejor pilcha para salir. (He put on his best clothes to go out.)”
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3

Originally, in gaucho speech, the gear and trappings of a rider, including saddle blankets.

“The gaucho's pilchas were laid out by the fire.”
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Pilcha In A Sentence

Que buena pilcha que tenes! (What nice gear you've got on!)
He spent his last guita on flashy pilchas for the milonga.
Lavo todas las pilchas el domingo. (She washed all the clothes on Sunday.)

Origin & Usage

A word that passed from Quechua/gaucho speech into Lunfardo by the early 1900s and is recorded by the Academia Portena del Lunfardo; the Quechua origin (a term for rag or garment) is widely accepted.

Variants pilchajeempilcharse
Tags #lunfardo#spanish#argentine#tango#argot#clothing

People Also Ask

What does pilcha mean?

It means clothing or one's good clothes, your 'threads'.

Where did pilcha come from?

From a Quechua word for rag or garment, via gaucho speech into Lunfardo.

What is empilcharse?

It's the verb meaning to dress up nicely, to get decked out.

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