pelado

What it means

1. 1.

   A kid, a young person. Covers roughly ages five to twenty-five depending on how old the speaker is.

2. 2.

   In the mouth of parents, simply 'my children': mis pelaos.

3. 3.

   A young man or woman one is involved with — 'el pelado con el que sale' is the guy she's seeing.

Literally: Peeled, bald.

Examples with translations

• Los pelaos están en el parque.

  The kids are at the park.

• Ese pelao apenas tiene diecisiete.

  That lad is only seventeen.

• ¿Y la pelada esa quién es?

  And who's that girl?

  Note: Slightly dismissive in this frame — the 'esa' does the work, not the noun.

Where it comes from

From pelar, 'to peel'. Newborns are hairless, so pelado meant an infant and then generalised upwards. Note the false friend: in Mexico pelado means a coarse, ill-mannered person, and in Spain it means broke.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

pelao, pelada, pelaíto

Similar terms:

chino, sardino, man