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Guiñar

» by David June 21st, 2010 at 8:05 pm » Comments (0)

Guiñar is the verb to wink. The noun wink is guiño or guiñada.



Pumelo / Toronja

» by David June 9th, 2010 at 9:26 am » Comments (0)

Pumelo is the word for grapefruit that I have heard in Argentina. In Mexico we used the word toronja. According to Wikipedia a pomelo is a particular type of grapefruit from Southeast Asia. However, pumelo is used to mean any type of grapefruit here. The word pumelo can refer to the fruit or the tree.



Pibe

» by David June 3rd, 2010 at 7:21 pm » Comments (0)

A new friend of mine asked me how old I was (he is 86). When I told him that I was 40 he replied with “¡Eres un pibe todavía!” Or, “You are still just a kid.” Pibe seems to be quite Argentine in its use according to a forum thread. It can mean a child [...]



Chango

» by David May 29th, 2010 at 7:53 pm » Comments (0)

In Mexico we used the word chango to mean a monkey. I think that the use of chango in this way is a Mexican thing. They also use the word mono, which is what the rest of the world uses for monkey. I was quite surprised when we first moved to Argentina to see a cage [...]



Bronca

» by David May 23rd, 2010 at 5:39 pm » Comments (0)

I have heard bronca used to mean various things from a slight annoyance to a knock-down-drag-out fight. I would guess that it depends on context if the meaning is a small argument between friends or a scolding that ends up in a quarrel.



Escasez

» by David May 14th, 2010 at 11:22 am » Comments (0)

We are having a shortage of certain food products in Argentina right now. The price of sugar has gone up considerably and stores are limiting how many bags of sugar (and now other products) a person can buy. This is called an escasez. The paper today says because of a shortage, escasez, there will soon [...]



Gremio

» by David May 12th, 2010 at 9:35 pm » Comments (0)

Today in Argentina all the gas stations shut down and would not sell gas for 4 hours. This was a nationwide ban on the sale of gas in the country. According to the newspaper the gremio of the gas producers is who put the ban on the sale of gas. Gremio is a union. Gremio [...]



Pochoclo / Palomitas

» by David May 6th, 2010 at 8:07 pm » Comments (0)

Pochoclo is the word used for popcorn in Argentina. It seems to be uniquely used here. In the rest of Latin America (as far as I know) the word for popcorn is palomitas.



Chancho

» by David May 3rd, 2010 at 9:34 pm » Comments (0)

A chancho is a pig. This seems to be a uniquely Latin American word. Another common word for pig is cerdo.



Furgón

» by David May 1st, 2010 at 7:11 pm » Comments (0)

I saw the word furgón in relation to a train boxcar, but it can also be used to mean semi-truck trailer. An armored car is a furgón blindado.



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