letter: A to C / from D toL / from M to Z

año verde [m] [fixed phrase] lit. '(the) green year' an imaginary time where extraordinary things happen; usually in the phrase Argentina año verde. (This would need pages of explanation. In short, suppose the country is ruled by honest politicians and all public services work fine; that's Argentina año verde.)

apoliyar [v]: to sleep. (Proper spelling, I think, should be apolillar, from polilla 'moth'; the verb apolillarse [ps-ref] means '(of clothes) to become old-looking and unwearable because of being eaten by moths' and by extension 'to become decrepit', and it may have something to do, but is not directly related in meaning.)

arriba [n, adv] above, the place above; fig. the higher spheres of power; [fixed phrase] de arriba free of charge, esp. granted by someone one doesn't know or expect, or through sheer luck (lit. 'from above').

atorrante/a [adj, m, f]: (being) a scum, a good-for-nothing, someone who leads a useless life (generally meaning not working, not studying, just going to parties and having fun). When used of women: easy, whorish, a whore (in figurative or literal sense), esp. one who is 'known' by every men wherever she goes. When said of children or young boys, the word can even be appreciative and friendly (un atorrante as 'a cute little imp' or 'a sharp boy' à la Bart Simpson in a good day).

autobombo [m, uncountable] self-advertising. Etymology: from auto- 'self-' and bombo, a kind of big drum used a lot in public demonstrations, strikes, etc., presumably to call for attention.

baboso/a [m, f, adj] a skirt-chaser (also the same sense applied to women), lusty, crazy about (the opposite) sex. Lit. 'drooly'.

bacán [m, adj] a person who lives or enjoys living a comfortable life and being served, without having to worry. Etymology unknown, maybe something to do with bacanal 'wild party', from Baco (the Roman god of wine).

bagarto [m] 1 alt. form of bagayo; 2 [rare] a burden, a problem left on one's hands, used e. g. of hospital patients who are dumped in E. R. in a very bad condition.

bagayo [m] an ugly person (esp. used by men referring to women, no matter the grammatical gender, but also increasingly used by women towards men). Alt. form: bagarto. [John Cowan tells me that there's an American English slang equivalent, dog. Thanks, John!]

bancar [v] 1 to support, to be supportive of, to help (lit. 'to support financially', from banco 'bank'); also, by extension, to wait for, to to be there for; 2 bancarse [ps-ref] to stand, to tolerate, to put up with. Examples: Mis viejos me bancaron los estudios 'My parents supported my studies'; Te banqué cuando necesitabas un amigo 'I helped you when you needed a friend'; Bancáme un ratito acá 'Wait for me here just a while'; Se bancó un montón de insultos 'He stood up to a lot of insults'; Ya no te banco más 'I don't (won't) support you anymore' or 'I can't stand you anymore'.

barbaridad [f] 1 [negative sense] outrageous thing; esp. in the phrase ¡qué barbaridad! [interj]; 2 [appreciative] very good thing, well-done work, spectacular result; can be used as an adjective (quedó una barbaridad).

bárbaro/a [adj, interj] [appreciative] great, very good, spectacularly good; [no connotation] great, important, serious (as in a mess or disaster). (This word has undergone an important semantic change; as a result, the act of a bárbaro 'barbarian' is now called barbárico 'barbaric' instead of the 'correct' form bárbaro, to avoid confusion -- the shortest form doesn't sound appropriately solemn.)

basurear [vt] treat someone badly, esp. in a consistent fashion; forrear. Formed on basura 'garbage'.

birra [f] [Italian, same origin as English beer] beer, a bottle of beer.

bolazo [m] exaggeration, obvious lie, bullshit (not interjectional); impossible or incredible activity pictured as real or possible (esp. in a movie or TV show). Etymology unknown; seems to be bol- 'ball' + the suffix -azo used for violent movements or blows. Example: "Misión Imposible" fue un bolazo ('Mission: Impossible was a...')

bolonqui [m] syllable inversion of quilombo.

boludez [f] 1 a stupid thing, a foolish or rash action; 2 a simple matter that anyone can solve, a thing that is easy to figure out. Example: El examen fue una boludez 'The test was a piece of cake'.

boludo/a [adj] [rude] 1 (of a person) stupid, annoyingly silly; clumsy; also used as an addressing term among friends; 2 (of a thing) simple, almost insultingly easy to solve. Can take the intensive prefix re-.

bombo [m] 1 lit. drum, bongo (see autobombo); 2 the swollen belly of a pregnant woman, showing her state; the fact of a woman being pregnant, esp. when unwanted or unexpected, whence dejar con el bombo 'to impregnate a woman unwillingly, to leave a woman that has unwillingly become pregnant'.

bondi [m] [colloquial] bus (public urban transportation). I though this was probably from some sort of convoluted syllable inversion, assimilation and shortening of ómnibus (the proper word for 'bus'), but a reader pointed out to me that trams in Rio de Janeiro are known as bondis. This word apparently comes from English bonds, which is how Rio's tram service got built and paid (being one of the first in Latin America) by a British company.

brutal [adj, interj]: lit. brutal, terrible; [appreciative] awesome, terrific. Used almost exclusively by Susana Giménez (yuck!).

buenudo/a [m, f, adj] naive, easy to take advantage of, stupid, easy to deceive or convince. Etymology: a cross between bueno 'good, nice' and boludo.

buraco [m] [from Portuguese buraco and/ or Italian buracco] hole, orifice, esp. a large hole dug in the ground; a hole or mark made by a bullet or projectile; a perforating wound.

cábala [f] [from Hebrew qabbalah 'tradition', the study and interpretation of the religious Jewish texts using hermetic techniques, and the mystic philosophy supporting them] a token of luck, a ritual action that must be performed or a thing that must be carried or worn to bring good luck to a person or group. Especially used of some gestures in football matches (where, for example, some players might cross themselves on entering the field), but also referring to things like wearing red 'to avoid the evil eye from envy' when going to a special party, or even calling a particular person on the phone before a test. The cábala is a thing to be repeated each time; this traditional repetition is what makes it a cábala and not a single meaningless gesture.

cacho [m] a bit, a small amount (esp. of time); a small portion of solid matter (esp. food). Usually in the singular, un cacho. Also [fixed phrase] cacho de (used for big great things or people in different contexts), for example: ¡Lindo cacho de auto tenés! 'Some nice car you have!', Es un cacho de doctor 'He's a hell of a doctor'.

cagar [v] [rude]: 1 [i] lit. to shit; 2 [t] to disappoint, fail to comply on, do something against the interests of (people), ruin, destroy or damage (a machine) as in Nos cagaste la fiesta 'You ruined (us) the party'; 3 [i] to die (esp. figuratively), to stop functioning, to be ruined, as in Cagó la impresora 'The printer's dead' (see finiquitar); 4 cagarse [ps-ref] lit. to shit on oneself; to be a coward; to chicken out; 5 [fixed phrase] cagar a palos to beat severely; to talk very badly of; to treat someone with physical violence (more or less like 'to take the shit out of'); 6 [fixed phrase] cagar a pedos to chastise, to punish verbally, to give a dressing-down (Mi viejo me cagó a pedos porque llegué a las 8 de la mañana 'My old man gave me hell because I got back home at 8 a.m.'); 7 [fixed phrase] irse a cagar to go to hell, to fuck off (usually imperative, using the suppletive verb andar).

calzado/a [adj] lit. having footwear on; armed, carrying a weapon, esp. a gun.

capo/a [m, f, adj] [Italian, lit. 'head'] 1 (esp. with the definite articles) boss, chief, leader; [derogatory] the leader of an organization seen as a dark high figure (capomafia 'mob leader'); 2 (being) a good person, a person one likes, esp. for being supportive and charming (cf 'tops').

cana 1 [f] (generally in singular definite form, la cana) the police force, as a whole; a group of policemen. See also yuta. 2 [m, f] a policeman or policewoman.

careta [m, f, adj] [derog] lit. 'mask, face covering'; a snobbish person, esp. upper-classy, affected or pedantic, going always to expensive fashionable places, always dressing fashionable clothes; a person who lives by fashion and image. Also found as the augmentative caretón or the diminutive (despective) caretita.

carrito [m] lit. a diminutive of carro (in this meaning, 'moving kiosk'); a certain kind of restaurant, esp. one with open spaces and rather informal; a moving post with a portable gas supply and cooker, where fast foods are sold (the equivalent of hot dogs and hamburguers).

chabón [m] a guy, a man (esp. a silly one -- the word carries some indefinite derogatory sense).

chanchuyo [m] [old-fashioned but still in use] an act of corruption, an illicit agreement; dirty business; political maneuvers done in the dark. Etymology: probably a reference to chancho 'pig' and the idea of chanchada 'pig-like, dirty, filthy thing'.

changa [f] an informal job, for a limited (sometimes undefined) period of time, without any legally binding contract; a temporal job, for example, small-scale house repairs not needing an architect.

chanta [m, f] [derogatory]: a deceiver, a cheater, a swindler, someone known to perform dishonest practices. Derivatives chantún/a [m, f], and chantada [f] the act of such a person.

chau [interj] 'bye!', 'goodbye!'. This word is a rendering of Italian ciao, ultimately from [io sono il] tuo sciavo '[I am] your slave', an old goodbye greeting (cf. English 'At your service'). A native speaker and fellow conlanger, Luca Mangiat, tells me that in some dialects medial -v- consistenly disappears, which accounts even more for this etymology. This word has spread over the world with its original sound /tSao/, chao, but this is extremely rare and rather snobbish-sounding in Argentina.

che [interj] [vocative] 'hey!', 'hey, you!'. Etymology unknown. This word appears in Mapudungu (a language spoken by the Mapuche, natives from Southern Argentina and Chile) meaning 'people', and in Guaraní (natives of the Paraná River basin) where it means 'I'.

chupamedias [m, f, adj [derogatory] lit. 'sock-sucker', boot-licker. Tends to lose the final -s.

chupar [v] to drink (said of alcoholic drinks, esp. when too much). Lit. to suck (only this sense is always transitive). Derivative chupero/a [m, f] 'alcoholic person'.

chupina [f] the act of missing a school day without the knowledge of one's parents; going out as if heading for school and take a turn somewhere in the way, or getting to school and then deciding not to enter. In the fixed expression Hacerse la chupina. See also rata.

ciruja [m] informal recycler; a person who picks up selected pieces of garbage in the streets, takes them with him and re-sells them, including glass bottles, metal, and paper. Sometimes this bounty is loaded on precarious two-wheeled horse-powered carriages. These can be seen going down the largest and most luxurious avenues in all big cities in Argentina. The activity is called cirujeo; the verb is cirujear. Nothing to do with cirugía 'surgery'..

combustible [m] lit. fuel; alcohol, an intake of an alcoholic drink, thought of having a reanimating or cheering-up effect.

concheto/a [m, f, adj] [derogatory] an older form of careta.

copado/a [m, f, adj] [appreciative, becoming old-fashioned] cool, a good thing, a nice thing or person (see macanudo). Especially applied to people, places and occasions like parties.

corralito [m] [new word (first attested November 2001)] lit. 'little corral, small pen, little enclosed space', the set of financial restrictions implemented by minister Domingo Cavallo of the De la Rúa administration to prevent growing amounts of money to be withdrawn from bank accounts, by decreeing that people will have to get their salaries by check only, imposing weekly and monthly limits on the amount of money in banks allowed for withdrawal (initially 250 pesos a week, 1000 pesos a month), and completely freezing some types of bank accounts, thus leaving people's savings trapped for an indefinite time. These measures were intended to keep the bank system from collapsing and avoid foreign currency (dollars) to leave the country, but were soon breached, and they deepened an already monstrous recession. (The government fell a month later.) -- Lessened restrictions implemented later received the name corralón ('big pen').

crepar [vi] to die, to pass away.

cuero [m] leather, animal skin; [fixed phrase] sacar el cuero lit. 'to remove the skin (from sbdy)', to speak (esp. badly) of someone who is not present, to gossip about someone.

culo [m] [taboo] 1 [not slang] bottom, low end (of a bottle); ass, butt (of a person); culos de botella ('bottle bottoms'): a pair of glasses with very thick lenses; 2 good luck, esp. in games (see orto).

curro [m] a scam, a fraud, a deception; a dirty business, an illegal arrangement. The corresponding verb is currar [vt]. Note that this word means 'work, job' (no negative connotations) in Spain.