¡Ask a Mexican! Glossary ("Mexican" will be on Colbert on Monday)

[question everything]

¡Ask a Mexican! Glossary

The Mexican explains it all
By GUSTAVO ARELLANO
Wednesday, June 7, 2006 - 1:00 am

Dear Gabachos,

Bienvenidos to ¡Ask a Mexican!, the world’s foremost authority on America’s favorite beaners! The Mexican can answer any and every question on his race, from why Mexicans stick the Virgin of Guadalupe everywhere to our obsession with dwarves and transvestites. In the course of his answers, The Mexican will use certain terms and phrases for better-rounded answers. Here are the most-used:

¡: An upside-down exclamation point. Put in front of an exclamatory sentence.

¿: An upside-down question mark. Put in front of a question.

˜: A tilde. Put over the letter n from time to time to produce a sound that sounds like “nyuck.” The only such occurrence of such a sound in the world.

Aztlán: The mythical birthplace of the Aztecs. Chicanos use this term to describe the Southwest United States. Chicanos are idiots.

(snip)

Chingar: To fuck. Its various tenses are used for a delightful array of insults like chingadera (“fucked-up situation”), chingazos (“punches thrown”) and chinga tu madre, cabrón (“Go fuck your mother, asshole”)

Chino: Literally “Chinese,” but the catch-all phrase Mexicans use for Asians regardless of nationality.

Chúntaro: A Mexican redneck. Term used mostly by Mexicans against each other.

(snip)

Gabacho: A gringo. But Mexicans don’t call gringos gringos. Only gringos call gringos gringos. Mexicans call gringos “gabachos.”

Gringo: Mexican slang for a white American. What gringos call gringos.

(snip)

http://www.ocweekly.com/web/web/ask-a-mexican-glossary/25290/

[Gman]

1. A chingadera is a thing-a-ma-jig

kinda thing. I think you're referring to a chinganderia.

[Richard D]

2. more on chingar

http://www.duskyspad.com/2004/03/12/380

[High Plains]

4. No, that would be where you buy chingaderas

[Gman]

6. A friend from Mexico told me he has a book

that has over 30,000 variations and uses for chingar. Keeps telling me he's gonna bring it to me.

[High Plains]

5. No, that would be where you buy chingaderas

[Kenergy]

3. Is there a dictionary that would help me

convert Ingles to Espanol?

[Gman]

7. One more thing... I guess there's some regionalism involved here

but some of this guy's translations aren't what they mean elsewhere, particularly in Texas. Here's what I've always understood some of these to mean (and by always I mean since I was about 6 or 7 years old):

baboso: A clown, someone who embarrases theirself.

cabron: Literally an old goat but in usage is a mean son-of-a-bitch.

Chino: Yes, someone of Asian descent, but also a nickname for a Mexican that has oriental eye features from their Indian descent.

Pendejo: (pronounced pen-DE-ho) Someone stupid. What you call someone when they do something stupid.

Pinche: A tightwad. Someone very stingy.