de una
deh OO-nahphrase, adverbInformal
A Colombian Spanish slang term. Browse all Colombian slang.
What it means
Absolutely; I'm in; let's do it. The standard enthusiastic yes to an invitation, and one of the most frequent two-word exchanges in Colombian Spanish.
Straight away, without hesitating: 'me dijo que no de una' — he said no immediately.
Literally: In one — short for de una vez.
Examples with translations
¿Vamos por unas polas? — ¡De una!
Shall we get some beers? — Definitely!
Llegó y de una se puso a cocinar.
He arrived and started cooking right away.
Where it comes from
Clipped from de una vez, 'once and for all, in one go'. The clipping is what makes it slang; the full phrase is ordinary Spanish everywhere.
Other forms
- Spellings and variants:
- de una vez
- Similar terms:
- listo, de once