The most popular Spanish slang words
The 10 most used words in Spanish slang
In Spain words used in slang can either become outdated and old fashioned as fads come and go or they can be made official by having to the honour of being included in the official Spanish Language dictionary compiled by the Real Academia. There are several ways of finding out what’s happening to language in a society that is becoming more and more dependant on the mobile telephone, the internet and substitutes.
SpinVox is a software that allows conversations to be translated into text messages. The practical application of this programme is simple, anybody who finds themselves without a signal or have their phones turned off could have their voicemail converted into text messages. However, there are pitfalls, slang used can bring up commonly known words or those banished from the dictionary.
So SpinVox uses a system that learns new words and incorporates them into its internal dictionary, in the space of two years around 50 million messages in 4 languages have been converted into text messages, blogs or posts in distinct social settings. Yesterday Spanish media published one of the rankings released by the company: the 10 most used words in Spanish slang.
1. Fistro: This word is used to describe someone in a derogatory way and was introduced by a Spanish comedian some years ago.
2. Piltrafilla: A popular television advertisement for tuna catapulted this word into popular language and ever since then it has been used to refer to an unkempt or disorganised person. It is also used to express that tiredness has had an excessive effect on someone.
3. Mal quedas: This is used for people who do not live up to their promises and do not deliver what they have promised.
4. Canijo: This word comes from canícula which means small dog in Latin American. It is used to refer to people that are weak, not very tall or small in stature.
5. Quillo: This word comes from a common Andalucian exression ‘chiquillo’ and is used to address friends (quilla if the friend is a girl)
6. Picha: This is another popular Andalucian expressions which means mate or comrade.
7. Kinki: This word has been admitted by the Real Academia, the correct way of spelling it is quinqui. It refers to those people that belong to social groups that are marginalized for their way of life.
8. Friqui: This refers to an extravagant person, or a strange person and for others it just means somebody who is different from the rest because of their peculiar habits.
9. Petardo: This refers to someone who often puts their foot in it and says the wrong thing at the wrong moment and therefore a person who is unpopular (it literally means firecracker).
10. Pasmarote: Someone who acts like they are on a different planet or a person who is too wrapped up in themselves.
In Spain words used in slang can either become outdated and old fashioned as fads come and go or they can be made official by having to the honour of being included in the official Spanish Language dictionary compiled by the Real Academia. There are several ways of finding out what’s happening to language in a society that is becoming more and more dependant on the mobile telephone, the internet and substitutes.
SpinVox is a software that allows conversations to be translated into text messages. The practical application of this programme is simple, anybody who finds themselves without a signal or have their phones turned off could have their voicemail converted into text messages. However, there are pitfalls, slang used can bring up commonly known words or those banished from the dictionary.
So SpinVox uses a system that learns new words and incorporates them into its internal dictionary, in the space of two years around 50 million messages in 4 languages have been converted into text messages, blogs or posts in distinct social settings. Yesterday Spanish media published one of the rankings released by the company: the 10 most used words in Spanish slang.
1. Fistro: This word is used to describe someone in a derogatory way and was introduced by a Spanish comedian some years ago.
2. Piltrafilla: A popular television advertisement for tuna catapulted this word into popular language and ever since then it has been used to refer to an unkempt or disorganised person. It is also used to express that tiredness has had an excessive effect on someone.
3. Mal quedas: This is used for people who do not live up to their promises and do not deliver what they have promised.
4. Canijo: This word comes from canícula which means small dog in Latin American. It is used to refer to people that are weak, not very tall or small in stature.
5. Quillo: This word comes from a common Andalucian exression ‘chiquillo’ and is used to address friends (quilla if the friend is a girl)
6. Picha: This is another popular Andalucian expressions which means mate or comrade.
7. Kinki: This word has been admitted by the Real Academia, the correct way of spelling it is quinqui. It refers to those people that belong to social groups that are marginalized for their way of life.
8. Friqui: This refers to an extravagant person, or a strange person and for others it just means somebody who is different from the rest because of their peculiar habits.
9. Petardo: This refers to someone who often puts their foot in it and says the wrong thing at the wrong moment and therefore a person who is unpopular (it literally means firecracker).
10. Pasmarote: Someone who acts like they are on a different planet or a person who is too wrapped up in themselves.
1 Comments:
This is actually very interesting! Though it seems to differ in various parts of Spain which one is used the most.
It seems to be that slang is becoming more and more popular in every language and more often the words become accepted as official language.
Some slang in for example English or Spanish have become known throughout the world and are used very often in the language spoken in other countries as where it originated.
This is why languages change constantly and can you imagine how your language sounds like within a hundred years?
Post a Comment
<< Home