Dominican Republic
13 Dominican slang terms for people, each with its meaning, how it is pronounced and an example of it in use.
Labels for social types: the show-off, the country cousin, the city sophisticate, the freeloader. These words tell you what a culture notices about its own members.
adjective, noun · Colloquial · CHOH-poh
Tacky, cheap, low-rent — of clothes, phones, parties or people. The insult is squarely about class, and Dominicans use it about each other with a frankness that surprises outsiders.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · koh-KOH-loh
Originally, a black English-speaking migrant from the Lesser Antilles — the sugar-mill workers who settled around San Pedro de Macorís from the late nineteenth century, and their descendants, whose guloya dance troupes are now UNESCO-listed heritage.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · doh-mee-nee-can-YORK
A Dominican who lives in New York, or who has come back from it — and, as often, the manner that goes with it: the accent full of English, the clothes, the spending on a two-week visit.
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adjective, noun · Informal · gee-YAH-oh — hard g
Stuck-up; putting on airs. Someone guillao believes they have risen above the people they grew up with, and everyone can see them doing it.
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noun · Informal · HEH-voh
A boyfriend or girlfriend — jevo for him, jeva for her. Lighter than novio: a jevo is who you are seeing, a novio is who you are committed to, and calling someone the wrong one starts arguments.
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noun, interjection · Informal · LOH-koh
Man, dude — a vocative tacked onto almost any sentence between male friends. It carries no suggestion that the person addressed is insane.
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noun · Informal · mah-NEEN
Bro, mate. A term of address between men who are friends or want to sound friendly. Warmer than loco and with none of its edge.
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noun · Informal · mah-tah-TAHN
The top man; the one nobody in the room outranks at whatever is being done. Applied to a musician, a mechanic or a neighbourhood boss with equal ease.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · pah-ree-GWAH-yoh
A sap; the man who stands at the edge of the party holding the drinks while other people dance with the girl he came with. The exact negative of a tíguere, and defined against it.
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noun · Colloquial · SAN-kee PAN-kee
A young Dominican man who works the resort towns romancing foreign women, with a visa, remittances or a standing allowance as the eventual goal. Bávaro, Sosúa and Boca Chica are the classic territory.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · TEE-geh-reh
The central character type of Dominican street life: quick-witted, unbothered by rules, good at getting by on nerve and improvisation. Admiring or damning depending entirely on who says it.
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noun, adjective · Colloquial · vah-gah-BOON-doh
A scoundrel — someone dishonest, unfaithful or without scruples. It says nothing whatever about being homeless, which is the sense a Spanish or Mexican reader will reach for first.
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noun, adjective · Informal · vyeh-HEH-voh
A middle-aged man who dresses, talks and dates as though he were twenty — and specifically one who pursues much younger women. Mocking, never a compliment.
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Dominican Republic