botella

What it means

1. 1.

   A lift, a ride. Pedir botella is to hitchhike — a normal, organised part of Cuban transport rather than an adventure, with state officials at some junctions obliged to stop vehicles for waiting passengers.

2. 2.

   Dar botella is to give someone a lift. Botellero, someone who hitches habitually.

Literally: Bottle.

Examples with translations

• Estuve una hora pidiendo botella en la carretera.

  I spent an hour trying to get a lift on the highway.

• ¿Me das botella hasta Vedado?

  Can you drop me at Vedado?

Where it comes from

The link to the bottle is not established. In older Cuban usage botella also meant a sinecure — a state job that paid without requiring work — and the two senses share the idea of getting something for nothing, which may or may not be the connection.

First attested: the 'sinecure' sense is 19th century