diablo

What it means

1. 1.

   Damn; wow. The all-purpose Dominican reaction to a price, a piece of news, a goal or a good-looking passer-by. Far milder than its literal sense and usable in front of most people.

2. 2.

   Stretched out — 'diaaablo' — it becomes admiration rather than shock, and this is how it is most often heard in dembow.

Literally: devil

Examples with translations

• ¡Diablo, qué caro!

  Damn, that's expensive!

• Diablo, loco, ¿y eso?

  Whoa, man — what's all this?

Where it comes from

The devil as a minced oath is old and pan-Hispanic; what is Dominican is the frequency and the intonation. Speakers who avoid coño on principle use diablo instead, which has kept it socially unmarked.

Other forms

Spellings and variants:

diache