palabras cheveres

over the last month or so when i have free time i´ve been coming up with a list of words or phrases in spanish and kichwa that i thought were funny, cool, or ironic. yes, i am weird.

super-(insert any adjective here): ecuadorians, especially the cool ones, love to put super in front of anything to make it sound cooler.

cosmo-vision: i´m not positive about this word, but i think it means world view. its not that chevere, i just think it sounds cool. i would personally rather use cosmo-vision in english than ´world view´ any day.

cacao: its the fruit from which chocolate comes from. they take out the seeds and dry them, and do some other things im not exactly sure what, to make choco. but anyways, i thought cacao is a cool word cuz its almost spelled like cocoa. coincidence??

perezoso: as an adjective it literally translates to lazy. but it also means ´sloth´ here, which is a good fit for those lazy creatures.

volar: it can either mean to fly or to explode. hopefully not at the same time.

ya mismo: this phrase is more of the ´mismo´rant i had a couple blogs ago. i 4got to include this one is which is also common and possibly the most confusing. i think it means right now, but it never, ever means right now, at least not here. it usually means more like in 10-30 minutes.

judas: it means traitor. i´ve never actually heard anyone say this word, i just found it in my dictionary one day and thought it was amusing.

guacala: i´m not sure to spell this word, but u say it ¨wa-ca-lah¨. it means gross, and it sounds kinda gross, no? it could be a kichwa word?

achachay: this is a kichwa word that means cold, or that u feel cold. my family in olmedo said it all the time cuz it usually was cold there. i heard someone say it here in tena the other day when we were riding on the back of a truck in the rain. but she was saying achchchchchay, and i started laughing. its their way of saying brrrrrrrrr. they also say araray, which means it´s hot.

ama wakachichu: this phrase it purely kichwa. it also sounds funny. it means ¨dont cry¨. it reminds me of waka waka waka every time i hear it.

entonces: it means ´then´ or ´so´, but people here also use it as a filler between words, much like saying ¨umm¨ in english. the kichwa also have this in their language, they say ¨shinakpi¨.

chuta: it means shoot. i often say this word in conversations because i dont know what other bad words are proper to say at the time.

tranquilo: it means nice, quiet, cool, calm, good. so it can mean a lot and people use it a lot here. people ask me if i like tena, and i say ¨si, es tranquilo¨ and they understand what i mean.

chevere: pronounced ¨che-ve-ray¨, i learned about the popularity of this word in south america b4 i came here. it means cool, but i didnt really believe it was that popular here cuz it doesnt sound cool. but it is. i prefer to say ¨bacan¨ which also means cool, but i think they say that more in chile.

sacamuelas: i´ve also never heard this word b4, but found it in the dictionary. it means a cheap dentist.

que bestia: this phrase translates to ¨how bad¨ or ¨how sucky/gross¨. i think. everytime i hear it and try to translate it, it seems weird. theres not really a good english translation, but i guess its the message that counts.

chao: it means bye. im not sure how they decided to take it from the french, but its here. and i dont think ive ever heard ´adios´ here.

shamangaraunguichichu?: this is a kichwa word that means ¨are you guys going to come?¨ i learned this in my weekly kichwa class. ´shaman´ stems from the verb shamana (to come), ´garaun´ expresses the future tense, ´guichi´ refers to you guys, and ´chu´ is used at the end of yes/no questions. niiice.

mandarina: its the nickname of a guy who is whipped. i dont know why this word, which translates to ´tangerine´, but i thought it was amusing.